Kevin Phillips: "We Have Got Something Good Going Here"

Things could not have gone much better for Kevin Phillips since joining Paul Clement’s coaching staff in September from Leicester City.

Things could not have gone much better for Kevin Phillips since joining Paul Clement’s coaching staff in September from Leicester City.

The former England forward has stood alongside the Rams’ Head Coach in the dugout for nine games thus far, in which he has overseen six wins and two draws.

Though he has only been part of the coaching set up for just over a month, this is a club that Phillips knows all about having seen it first-hand.

“I’m loving it,” Phillips said on his time at the club so far. “I have got more responsibility and although I had a wonderful time at Leicester and I thank them very much for the opportunity they gave me in coaching, I felt the chance to come here was the next step in my own personal career.

“I have been involved with the club for the last three years. My lad is part of the Academy set up here so I have seen how it has grown, I have seen the potential, I have seen the ambition and it’s something that I am delighted to be part of.

“We have got off to the best possible start and it’s just about keeping that going.”

So what has he brought differently to the club’s wealth of experience that stems right to the top of the modern game?

After experiencing nine years and five promotions from the second tier, Phillips brings a vast amount of knowledge about the Sky Bet Championship to the table to complement Clement and John Peacock alongside him.

He added: “We are here to assist the Head Coach first and foremost. We couldn’t have two more knowledgeable people in control, firstly in John Peacock, who I think has got every possible qualification and teaches them all as well!

“Then there is Paul as well, who has served such a great apprenticeship with where he has been in his career.

“What I can bring is someone with a knowledge of the Championship. Having played in it for nine years and got five promotions, I would like to think that I come well qualified.

“It’s about the rest of the coaches tapping into my knowledge of this league and the players tapping into my knowledge and me passing that back to them on the training pitch.”

On the Head Coach himself, Phillips believes he is right up there with the best of the Head Coaches and Managers that he has worked with in his career, adding: “In the short time that I have worked with him, considering that I worked with 22 managers during my career, I have already seen that he is very knowledgeable, very clever, very structured and knows what he wants.

“You can see that in the performances of the players. They all know what their roles are on and off the pitch and we have got something really good going here.

“We all know, however, that we can’t get too carried away and that’s one of my main roles here. It’s working really well at the moment.”

From those he works alongside on a day-to-day basis, the talk turns to the on field matters once again.

After recently embarking on a 10 game unbeaten run, making them the form side in the Championship and holding a place in the division’s coveted top six, Derby are very well placed going into the international break.

After praising the combined effort of everyone at the club, Phillips insists that nobody is getting carried away with themselves after going close to achieving promotion to the Barclays Premier League in each of the last two seasons.

“It’s been a collective effort from everyone,” Phillips said on Derby’s recent run of form. “I’m here to help the squad, but the run we are on was something that was coming before I even joined.

“The team have been on a wonderful run, we have got rid of that hoodoo of not being able to win at home and have now won our last four, so things are going really well.

“The side is scoring a lot of goals as well and that’s down to everyone. The players have got to take most of the credit, though, because they go out there and perform, but the organisation from the Head Coach, John, Pascal and myself is now in place on the training field.

“The biggest thing for us is trying to make sure that we keep the players fresh and fit as we enter the final stages of the season.

“I feel like we have played half a season, we have still got 29 games to play, so there is a long, long way to go.

“We are sitting very healthily in the league at the moment, but we’re not getting carried away.”

A ruthless and clinical striker throughout his career, Phillips has had an obvious effect on the forward players he is working with at the Training Centre in partnership with the University of Derby.

Amongst them is Chris Martin, someone who Phillips believes can still get even better than he currently is.

Phillips added: “Chris has got something very special, he’s got an all-round game and he has proven that over the last few years.

“He has got eight goals so far this season and I still believe that he will only get better. We will work on that on the training pitch, day in, day out, and he knows that.

“What he is willing to do is listen and learn. It’s not just Chris, though, we have got Darren (Bent) as well who has got a great goals to game ratio at the highest level.

“The competition between those two has been really interesting. Chris, season after season, has scored goals and if we can keep him fit then he is a talisman for this club.”