Head Coach McClaren eyes time on the training ground.

Derby County Head Coach Steve McClaren says he’s looking forward to making the most of the two-week international break and getting down to work with his players on the training ground.

McClaren took charge of the Rams last week and oversaw the 3-1 win over Leeds United at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday, in what was their last game for two weeks owing to the second two-week international break of the season.

Derby return to action at promotion-chasing Watford next Saturday (19th October), but before the trip to Vicarage Road McClaren is relishing the prospect of spending time on the training pitches at the Derby County Training Centre in order to learn the strengths and weaknesses of his squad.

He said: “There’s a good, solid platform in place here already and we are looking forward to working with the players, certainly in the next two weeks.


“It’s a chance to assess and build really especially of the back of last week, which was pretty hectic.


“We didn’t have too much time on the training ground so this week is a perfect opportunity for us.


“We saw some weaknesses against Ipswich and Leeds that we can assess and work on with the players, but there are also some positives that we want to improve on too.


“As we’ve said before this isn’t a short-term thing and we’ll be doing things gradually.


“It’ll be a good 6-8 weeks before I have a clearer picture of where we’re going and what we need to be successful.”


McClaren labelled his side as ‘hard to play against’ on Saturday and it’s an attribute he wants to see on a more regular basis.

He is striving to bring more consistency into Derby’s game in the weeks and months ahead.

“We were hard to play against at the weekend and that organisation and discipline is something we want to build on and become, consistently, hard to beat and then the football will take care of itself,” he said.

“There are good players in the dressing room but perhaps they’ve been a bit inconsistent and it’s down to us to find out why and stop that from happening.


“If we can find a consistency in terms of level of performance then the results will follow.”