Derby County earned themselves an important win over Charlton Athletic last night in the Sky Bet Championship to round out what has been an up and down 2019 at Pride Park.
The Rams were play-off finalists during the first half of the campaign but lost out to Aston Villa and in the summer they, of course, lost several key men.
Cocu has come in for Lampard, too, but results haven’t been where he’d want them to be and there is an acceptance that he is going to need a bit of time to try and build things up at the club.
Even so, results like last night showed that they have some good players coming through for the future with one of them, in particular, taking the limelight.
Max Bird ran the show for the Rams against Charlton – despite the home side having ten men for much of the game – and was a nuisance throughout.
He’s earned plenty of praise on Twitter for his showing, too, so let’s take a look at that now:
Max Bird best player for us tonight , class act. #dcfc
— Jacob (@jacobdcfc_) December 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/JackBeighton/status/1211817291538665474
So enjoyable last night . Some top performances, but Max Bird was tremendous. Demanding the ball, driving with it, composed and a decent ball to Knight for his winner. Midfield which includes Bird, Knight and Sibley in the next 18 months genuinely exciting #DCFC
— SuperDerbySuperRams (@RamsDerby) December 31, 2019
https://twitter.com/marktheram7/status/1211765061070532608
This was Max Bird's coming of age tonight. He was thrown in the deep end away at Villa last season and recently was used out of desperation. But tonight, he showed he has the capability to be a first team Derby County regular. Brilliant stuff #dcfcfans #dcfc
— Tom Thorogood (@TomThorogood17) December 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/seb_dcfc/status/1211773028658483205
Max Bird acquitted himself very well tonight #dcfc #dcfcfans
— Rich Holmes (@RichNHolmes) December 30, 2019
