Cocu: "It Was A Good Lesson For Us"

Despite the result, manager Phillip Cocu was pleased with what he saw from his young Derby County side during the 2-0 friendly defeat against Girona at Pride Park Stadium.

A goal in either half secured victory for the Spanish side on the night, however, there were many positives to take from the game for the Rams.

A number of youngsters impressed for Derby as well as the experienced professionals who were introduced during the closing stages of the friendly encounter.

In the sweltering conditions the players applied themselves well, according to the manager.

“Girona are more used to these kinds of temperatures but I don’t like to use excuses,” Cocu told RamsTV. “It is a great pitch, home crowd, against a team with quality.

“You can say they got relegated in Spain last season but they still have a good quality team. They are very comfortable on the ball so it was interesting to see how we could press on the opponents, especially in the first half when they didn’t play with five at the back.

“It changes something in the preparation, you have to recognise it on the pitch to work together because they know what we want to do when they play with four. We prepare them for five, so when it’s different I want to see a reaction.

“We had to explain in the water break and they tried to execute it better after the period. We took more initiative and we was a little bit unlucky in front of goal tonight.

“The young lads worked hard, kept their heads up and we tried to find ourselves back into the game. When you lose, you are never happy but I’m happy with the 75 minutes the youngsters played in front of the home crowd and also, the team who came off the bench.

“It’s not easy 2-0 down and you have to play 15 minutes, but they did a great job. They couldn’t get out of their own box. I’m never happy with a loss but it was a good lesson for us. It was a good experience for the young boys and now we have to prepare for the game on Sunday at Rangers.”

Since his first interview, Cocu has regularly referenced his desire to help improve the youth of the football club.

He has given opportunities to a number of youngsters in training and also during pre-season fixtures and he has been impressed with their contributions.

“They showed their specific qualities and they are both doing well,” he said. “Louie Sibley came in later in the pre-season so he is doing well. It’s normal to have ups and downs with Morgan Whittaker, Joe Bateman and Max Bird.

“They still need more situations to come in, to recognise on the tactical part of the game, how to behave, how to judge the situation, and this is the best way for them to do it. They did a good job today and I’m happy with them.”

There were a couple of players who did not feature for the Rams and the manager gave an update on their situations.

“Mason Bennett didn’t have an injury but he had tightness on his muscles,” commented the manager. “He is such an explosive player so I didn’t want to take any chances with him and for Kelle Roos, he will be at the game on Sunday.

“It was good to see the other two goalkeepers today. Scott Carson is still not in the training sessions and yesterday he just started on the pitch training, but he will take a little bit of time.”

Duane Holmes, Andre Wisdom, Jack Marriott and George Thorne remain out of action with injuries while Craig Forsyth is still stepping up his workload after recovering from a long-term knee injury.