3/1 To Win
Derby County's Head Coach challenges side to finish the week how they started it
- Derby County unbeaten at home since 1-0 defeat to Millwall in March
- The Lions are yet to win since returning from the September international break
- Head Coach says discipline is factor behind recent run of clean sheets
Steve McClaren has warned his side that Millwall will prove to be a ‘dangerous’ proposition despite their recent struggles.
The Lions were the last team to beat the Rams on home soil – a 1-0 win back in March – but after a good start to the season, Ian Holloway’s side have failed to record a victory since returning from the September international break.
Derby, however, have endured a significantly contrasting run of form and are unbeaten in their last nine outings after beating Bournemouth 2-0 in midweek.
Despite the differing recent form, McClaren has told his side to be on their guard when they come up against Millwall on Saturday and challenged his played to finish the week how they started it.
Speaking to Rams Player, Derby’s Head Coach said: “Everybody comes to try and stop us and that’s the first thing we try and do with the opponent so we will be doing the same thing.
“It’s a dangerous game, a tricky game, but the players should have no worries; they should just go out and perform as they have been doing, how they started the week, continued it and hopefully end it.
“It’s up to us, it’s up to our attitude and our focus as always. We have prepared right and we will know what the game plan is and stick to it.
“We know that Millwall and Ian Holloway will have a trick up their sleeve to get a result us again.”
As well as displaying early signs of returning to last season’s best, Derby have also recorded three straight clean sheets after only keeping one in the league before the visit of Reading in the Capital One Cup.
After acknowledging that his side have been punished for being ‘loose without the ball’ in the early stages of the campaign, McClaren revealed that his side have moved to add discipline to their free-flowing football.
He added: “It’s not necessarily been clean sheets, we just needed to add a little more discipline to our game.
“We were too loose, very good with the ball, but very loose without the ball, which made the game a little out of control at times.
“They first thing we do talk about is organisation and discipline. We need to know our shape, play to the shape and recover back to shape.
“That takes hard work, concentration, discipline and a will to do it. We have always worked on that, and at time, in the manner and the style that we play, you can forget that.
“In the times we have, we’ve got punished. That can be for five minutes, like against Cardiff, and we were 2-0 down.
“We have tried to put a stop to that and the players have reacted very well. It’s not a case of clean sheets, it’s a case of team discipline and improving on that.”
