3/1 To Win
Phillip Cocu has made it clear Derby County will need to display plenty of patience in their performance when the take on Middlesbrough in their latest Sky Bet Championship fixture this afternoon (3pm kick-off).
The Rams will take on Jonathan Woodgate’s Boro outfit in their first match of November and their latest on home turf prior to the third international break of the campaign.
Today’s opponents surprisingly find themselves in the Championship’s bottom three after 14 games.
However, they have only conceded 17 times and Cocu says Woodgate’s side are well organised and have the ability to hurt teams going forward.
He says his side will need to ensure they aren’t too enthusiastic in their attacking play and expects a difficult encounter as they chase a fourth home win on the spin.
The Derby boss is far from underestimating this afternoon’s opponents and says there are no easy fixtures in the Championship.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Cocu said: “I expect a difficult game for us.
“They intend to defend really narrow and so we have to be very aware.
“We are a team that likes to have the ball and dominate, so we have to remember we don’t need to be too enthusiastic to go forward with everybody because Middlesbrough can and will hurt you.
“They haven’t conceded a lot of goals so that shows that they are well organised in defence.
“Football is about winning and that’s what we will be trying to do on Saturday. A win would be positive for everyone.”
He added: “It will be a hard game for us but with our fans behind us they can play a decisive part.
“We have the ambition to be higher in the table and we need to get the results to make it happen in what is a tight division, but it won’t be easy because all the games are very close.
“We need to be more consistent in our performances and not be so high and low. We will keep working.”
Derby picked up nine points from a possible 15 in their five matches between the August and October international breaks.
They also scored nine goals during that time, but have since only scored once in their three matches since returning to action in mid-October.
Cocu says it’s important his side return to being productive in the final third to avoid putting additional pressure from a defensive point of view.
He said: “I hope we can get back into our scoring average which we had a few games ago.
“The production was much higher, and it means there’s less pressure on the defence.
“We have worked on this in our training over the last couple of days, focussing on the creative part of the team to be in better positions in the final third.
“If we can do that, we then need to be more effective once we get into those positions.”
