One To Watch: Thomas Ince

For Tuesday nights game, I predicted that Matt Mills would be the ‘One To Watch’ having seen his towering presence in the oppositions penalty box on numerous occasions this season. I don’t like to brag, but I was right. He came up trumps and looked good all game, both defensively and in the Birmingham City half.

This week, I have selected a more obvious player; Thomas Ince. Derby drew 1-1 on Tuesday night, the exact same score as Birmingham City despite this having no relevance what so ever. Derby are a very strong team as we all know, but it is their attacking pace that I think is their biggest threat. Yes, they have good defenders such as Keogh and Shackleton, but they’re menacing going forward.

Thomas Ince, I think will be their biggest threat by a country mile. Ground is a great player and very reliable but it has to be said, he won’t beat quite a lot of players in a foot race. Especially not the lightening quick Ince.

He has scored 8 goals this season already including a remarkable hat-trick against Bristol City. This is only one behind their top striker, Chris Martin. As a winger, this is a brilliant goal scoring record and he certainly has the ability to cut in on his left side. I’d like to see our defensive midfielder try and cut out this cutting inside if possible as that is definitely a major threat.

The thing that Ince does, is he inspires his team mates. A few weeks ago, I watched a game where he came on as a substitute after what has to be described as a lacklustre first half. He changed the game. Because he was creating runs and out pacing many defenders, his team mates thrived on that intensity and started working hard for each other; getting into the box and really increasing the energy as well as the tempo.

For many people, Ince is a winger who wears bright boots, goes down too easily and never has a hair out of place. These may all be factually correct. But what he gives to this Derby team is much more than that. His presence draws defenders out to him, his runs creates space and more importantly for them, he has a great shot on him.

If we are to win this game, we firstly, need to not concede silly fouls whether that be against Ince or Martin. We need to block their overlaps because their full backs love to bomb forward and this is often dangerous as they put in great crosses, especially Christie. Finally, we need to prevent Ince running at our defence. Cheeky fouls to break up his rhythm are fine because the minute he runs at our centre backs in particular, we will have a problem.