Pre-Match Thoughts: Warne Ready To Get Down To Business

Paul Warne is looking forward to getting down to business when he takes charge of his first game as Derby County’s Head Coach on Saturday.

Warne, who took charge of the Rams last week after leaving Championship side Rotherham United to take over on a contract until the summer of 2026, has overseen a positive week of training with his players at Moor Farm Training Ground.

His first match in the Derby dugout will come at Cambridge United as the side return to Sky Bet League One action following a two-week break owing to international commitments.

Warne sat down with RamsTV on Thursday afternoon to assess how his side are shaping up for the weekend and the areas where he feels Derby can be better as they look to record their first away win and goal so far this season…

On the last few days…

It has been excellent. Wednesday was an ‘away from work’ day and that was brilliant. Today has been great too. We had a team meeting and also met the lads that have come back from international duty for half an hour or so for a good chat. The players have trained well and they’re taking the messaging on board. We are all looking forward to Saturday’s game.

On what he needs to do with the players…

Not loads, if I am honest. The players are in a good place and Liam Rosenior did a great job in putting together this squad and starting the season. There isn’t loads wrong here and I’ve spoken to some of the senior professionals about what they think too. I think I’ll know more come 5pm on Saturday as training is totally different to matches. The intensity has been good in training. I do feel we need to be more athletic; the best teams in the world press well and don’t give the opposition time. We have to be better at that and also braver in attacking areas. We have a very talented set of players and the season really starts for us on Saturday and it’s down to us to get a grip of it.

In terms of mentality in the group…

The players are more than fit enough. Every manager has a different style and whoever follows me in this job will have a different way of working too across the board. The way I like to play is from the first minute until the very end: ‘gas out’. I want us to do everything as well as we possibly can and if, across the pitch, we have a better day than the opposition then we will win more often than not. The lads can do it and having the option to make five substitutions means some of the lads can ‘gas out’. I know the lads want to play every minute of every game, but we must remember it is about the team and not individuals. We can make changes during the 90 minutes and that’s great. The lads appreciate what we are trying to do and how we are going about trying to win matches. We know we need to address the elephant in the room, which is winning games on our travels. Sometimes you can do that by not having the ball all the time but by being strong on set plays or chasing a back-pass by the opposition that gets kicked to you. There are loads of different ways to score goals and the more boxes we can tick to do that, the better.

On looking forward to his first game in charge…

I am really looking forward to it, weirdly. Anyone who knew me before coming here will know I have been terrified in the build-up to the matches! I think we’ve done as much as we can in the time we’ve had, so I am going into this game feeling good. I know Mark Bonner well, he’s someone I like and am pally with, so I am looking forward to seeing him on Saturday. I am also looking forward to seeing the lads play. They’re such a good group here. There’s no one who hasn’t understood what we’ve wanted from them and or not bought into what we want to do. I believe the way we play will see us create chances, so it is exciting for the strikers and they’ve been excellent in training.