Frank Lampard feels Saturday’s final pre-season game against Wolverhampton Wanderers will prove to be the perfect ‘benchmark’ to see where his Derby County players are at ahead of the 2018/19 season.
The Rams take on Nuno Espirito Santo’s side at Pride Park Stadium (kick-off: 3pm) in what will be their fifth pre-season outing.
Derby have won three of their four games so far and speaking at the open training session on Thursday afternoon, the Derby boss says his team are in a good place.
Speaking at that event, held at Pride Park, Lampard told RamsTV: “Fair play to the fans. They deserve credit for coming out watching us out in the heat, but it was enjoyable.
“It was a light day. There wasn’t any tactics involved and we didn’t do anything too complicated, but we have worked very hard this pre-season and a lot gets done that doesn’t get seen behind closed doors.
“Nevertheless, it’s great, particularly for our young fans, that they get to see the players do their work.
“We’re in a pretty good place and we’re at that point now where the hard work will always remain, but we have to start thinking about the games – starting with Wolves on Saturday. That’s another big game for us.”
Derby will be rounding off their pre-season schedule against a side that won the Sky Bet Championship title at a canter.
Wolves were the runaway second tier winners after claiming 99 points from their 46 games, in which they earned rave reviews for their playing style.
With that in mind, Lampard is intrigued to see how his players step up to the challenge Santo’s side pose on Saturday and has challenged his squad to match them ‘man-for-man’ and prove they can compete against a side that did so well last term.
“They are a benchmark for all of us,” he added.
“They were brilliant last year with the way they played. They were great with the ball, very difficult to play against because of their work without the ball.
“It’s the perfect game for us to see where we are at because they were the outstanding team last year. We’re striving for that this year, so it is up to us, man-to-man, to prove that we can match them.”
Naturally, one question we did pose to Lampard was whether the club’s newest recruit, Jack Marriott, will be involved for the first time.
The 23-year-old trained on his own during the open training session and the Rams’ boss says there is no need to rush the forward. Instead, a pragmatic approach will be taken to get him up to full speed with the rest of his team-mates.
“Jack’s had a tough week,” Lampard added.
“This has been ongoing; there has been a lot of talks, so he has not been able to train at full pelt. It was probably best that Jack did his own work.
“We’re at a high level here, we’re training at a high level, and Jack will get there quickly. It is important, though, that we do not rush him.
“We have a long season ahead of us and he is going to be a massive part of that, but we have to make sure we integrate him properly and get him to the right level. Only that way will we see the best of him.”
