Three things that Derby County need to improve if they are to earn League One promotion
After three games, the Rams sit on two wins and a defeat, however, they’ve not yet shown promotion calibre football. Here are the areas that we think Paul Warne’s side needs to work on.
Paul Warne’s side haven’t been able to impress fans so far this season even though they’ve recorded two league wins. There are certainly areas to work on if they are to challenge for promotion.
Mistakes in defence
One of the stories of Derby’s season so far have been a number of poor defensive mistakes which have cost the Rams.
In thier opening fixture against Wigan Athletic, Derby made two mistakes which led to both of Wigan’s goals helping the Latics to a 2-1 victory.
Furthermore, in their opening League Cup match against Blackpool, there were a further two mistakes which caused the Rams to concede two more.
If they are to succeed in their quest for promotion, they’ll need to stop gifting thier opponents with goalacoring opportunities.
Pace in counter attacks
Paul Warne has been very vocal about his desire to add more pace to his side and its clear to see why.
So far, when Derby have won the ball back, they’ve struggled to capitalise during their counter attacks.
Up front, the Rams’ options include James Collins and Conor Washington who are by no means known for their pace. They do have a pacer winger in Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, but he doesn’t easily fit into Paul Warne’s 3-5-2 system.
Warne has been playing Mendez-Laing up front which hasn’t been working as he isn’t a striker.
In their 1-0 victory over Fleetwood Town at the weekend, the Derby boss started with a 4-3-3 formation with Mendez-Laing on the wing and it seemed to be working much better with the 31-year-old Guatamalan showing his speed and creating a few chances.
Either Warne will need to switch back to the 4-3-3 formation or sign more attackers with pace, otherwise, counter attacks will simply be non-existent for his Derby side.
Goalscoring
The talk of the summer has simply been striker striker striker, but the Rams are still yet to sign a proper goalscorer.
In their last game against Fleetwood, Derby had 13 shots, only three were on target and even worse, against Wigan in their opener, they had 20 shots with only four on target.
It’s very clear that this is a team in need of goalscoring help if they are to challenge for promotion, but that still doesn’t seem to be coming.
Paul Warne has made it clear that Derby have tried to sign a number of strikers and have not managed to get deals across the line, however, we’re getting towards the end of the transfer window and the Rams will have to bring someone in soon if they are to start scoring more.