It would appear as though Pep Clotet isn’t taking anything for granted this weekend.
Speaking in his press conference yesterday, Clotet spoke about how Derby have been struggling at home, but still pose a tough threat:
“They’ve got a lot of quality in their squad. It’s been a tough place for us to go in the last few years. This season at home although they have not won yet, I’ve seen a lot of the games they’ve played. West Brom are a strong team and they didn’t manage to win. Neither did Swansea and Cardiff. Although it’s a very tough place to go, we go there with a lot of motivation. Despite not winning against Preston we are still a very solid team and a team that is growing week by week and we want to put that on the pitch.”
I spoke yesterday about how this is probably the perfect time to play Derby, given the off the field problems they’ve been having with two of their players as well as the season-ending injury to captain Richard Keogh, and it seems like Clotet is paying them a little too much respect.
He talks about the team continuously growing week on week, well a game like this is the perfect opportunity to show just how well we have grown under his stewardship.
I’ve spoken before about the expectations that both fans and I have for this season, and whilst I’m not expecting us to pull up any trees this season and make a run for a promotion or playoff spot just yet, that doesn’t mean that we should be content with just sauntering along. If we have the chance to put in a good performance and beat a team convincingly then we need to be able to take it.
What about you? Do you think that Derby are going to be a tough team to play against despite their off the field issues? Or do you think that this past week is going to be a big distraction to them and should help us get a result?
