Derby County are set to travel to Blackburn Rovers for the opening match of their Championship campaign.
Derby County had a challenging pre-season, suffering defeats to Chesterfield, Stockport, and Barnsley, though they ended their warm-up games with a 2-1 victory over Real Valladolid. Unfortunately, the pre-season was marred by several injury concerns.
Jake Rooney’s injury during the Marbella trip has significantly depleted their defensive options. Additionally, wingers Corey Blackett-Taylor and Joe Ward will be unavailable for the season opener against Blackburn Rovers. These recent injury issues highlight the ongoing need for Paul Warne to bolster his squad with additional depth, a challenge he faced last season as well.
In Paul Warne’s pre-match press conference ahead of Derby County’s trip to Ewood Park for their season opener against Blackburn Rovers, journalist Dominic Dietrich reported that Joe Ward will miss the game due to a persistent sore knee. While there was no additional update on Corey Blackett-Taylor’s fitness, Warne confirmed that midfielder Ebou Adams and right-back Ryan Nyambe have not trained for a couple of days. Their availability for the match remains uncertain.
But luckily for Derby, though, Dietrich claims they ‘should be ready for Friday’ and that is music to the ears of Rams supporters.
With not the strongest squad to choose from, despite adding six new signings, Warne can ill-afford to go into the first game with multiple injury casualties.
How Derby can get off to a winning start vs Blackburn
In pre-season, Derby have set up in their usual 3-4-1-2 formation with their wing-backs pushing high up the pitch and the front two stretching defences.
The Rams will look to soak up the pressure from Blackburn, who play a possession-based style and play on the counter-attack.
With Adams and Ozoh sitting in front of the back three, that duo can give the creative Kenzo Goudmijn the license to pull the strings.
Warne will hope the 22-year-old can fashion opportunities for his teammates, or send the ball in behind for the pacey Kayden Jackson and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing to latch on to.
Derby’s game plan will be to catch Rovers on the break by turning over possession quickly and committing bodies forward.
Further, the Rams boss will encourage his wing-backs to bomb forward and supply ammunition into the box.
Warne will know that Derby can’t match the hosts for keeping long spells of possession but they are fantastic at hitting teams on the break, and that could be where they find joy at Ewood Park.