Derby County Academy Director Darren Wassall issued a challenge to his side to show more consistency following their 3-2 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.
The Rams were 3-0 down going into the last 15 minutes of the game at the Academy Stadium, but two late strikes from Josh Shonibare and Max Bird saw the team almost salvage a point.
Despite this however, Wassall believes his side should be starting games a lot better if they are to reproduce performances similar to the showing in the 1-0 win over Everton last Monday.
Speaking to dcfc.co.uk, he said: “We just said to the players that we didn’t start the game well enough.
“We challenged them to try and reproduce the performance that they gave us on Monday against Everton where the performance levels were absolutely superb from start to finish from every single player.
“Unfortunately, not for the first time this season, we’ve found ourselves two-nil down in the first 15 minutes of the game, and against quality opposition.
“As we always know, you leave yourselves with a difficult task. So, we’ve said to the players that the inconsistency – particularly in the first-half – has to stop.”
The first-half showing saw the Rams struggling to create much going forward, but a much-improved display after the break saw them get back into the contest.
With this in mind, Wassall highlighted the positives of the late fightback which saw his team close to levelling the game late on.
He said: “At three-nil down, the game can either go two ways. They could score more, or we could put up a little bit of a fight.
“I thought in the second-half we had a lot more of the ball in Man City’s half than in the first and probably deserved to score a goal. Unfortunately, at two-nil down, we went three-nil down and you fear the worst in terms of the scoreline.
“The last 15 minutes, we get a goal back and we find out what they’re about. We got a second goal and, as is quite natural in football, a team that’s been three-nil up and relatively in control start to panic.
“We could easily have drawn the game. It was just one of those days where we had a couple more chances towards the end where we could have made it 3-3.”
Friday evening sees the Rams kick-off their Premier League International Cup campaign by hosting Paris Saint-Germain at Pride Park.
Looking ahead to that match, Wassall believes that he and assistant Pat Lyons have set out markers for what they want to see from their team in upcoming games.
“We want more of a consistent performance.
“They set the standards and set the stall out against Everton on Monday night, and that’s where we’ve challenged them.
“We want consistency and that type of performance. Good players can produce good performances week in, week out.
“We’ve got some very good players, but we just want them to be more consistent; particularly at the start of games in making themselves harder to beat in the first 20 minutes.”
Words: Marc Walker
