Sounds familiar.
Not the excuses of McClaren himself in fairness, he does a relatively good job of not acting like Football's Charlie Sheen in his interviews. One good attribute for McClaren is that players have legitimately improved while playing for him, and he's a good coach.
Derby fan at work said similar. The issue they face is they don't have a replacement for Chris Martin or anyone close to it and have a very small squad - they're down 7 players.
Reckons they've been playing a left winger up top in place of Martin since he was injured. Chap actually reckons they've been class this season but obviously its just petered out. Rates McClaren highly too.