Paul Warne has enjoyed what is set to be the rare luxury of a full week of training with Derby County’s players over the last few days.
Derby have a busy month of action coming up with Sky Bet League One, Papa Johns Trophy, Carabao Cup and Emirates FA Cup matches all on the agenda and Warne’s side won’t have another free midweek until mid-November as a result.
That means the key focus of training in the short-term will be based around match preparation and recovery, as opposed to having a significant period of time to get down to tactical work with the squad.
Head Coach Warne caught up with RamsTV on Thursday afternoon to preview Saturday’s trip to Accrington Stanley in League One (3pm kick-off) and to reflect on last weekend’s 2-1 home loss against Port Vale, as well as providing the latest injury news from the Derby camp.
On the experience of his first home game last Saturday against Port Vale…
Well, I think my family loved it. They especially loved the first 10 minutes, when the crowd were jumping up and down after we scored early on. My mum probably thought: ‘I hope the foundations have been done properly - I don't want the whole ground collapsing!’ Going back to the initial question, yes, they really enjoyed it and my family got really spoilt. Our owner and his wife went over and met them and that was really nice. They’ve felt like they've been here a long time already, which is lovely.
What he learnt about his team last weekend…
That's a tough question. There are certain departments that we need to be better in. And maybe I let the lads down a little bit in that I think the message that they received off me was: ‘I like to play forward, run forward. If there isn't a pass on to go forward, then you can go sideways or backwards. But predominantly, we're trying to break lines all the time.’ That’s how I said it to them and that's how I thought it came across. But watching the team as the game went on, it looked like we wanted to just play forward no matter what. So that's my fault, the message hasn't come through the way I wanted it to. We must address that, and we still must be better on a few things that I'm not going elaborate on. Generally, there were a lot of positives from the game. I was really pleased with some parts and if a decision here or there goes your way, you come away winning. If that happens, life's pretty good. The defeat can teach and remind the lads that this league can be cruel. You can be the better team in the game for large parts, but you can still lose. I know that happens at every level, but in this league even more so.
On the players taking messages on board…
Well, I hope they are. There are certain parts of it, I can see that. It was my fault a little bit in the middle of the pitch last week. I have given Jason Knight a lot more freedom to get up the pitch, with the understanding that one drops, but neither Knighty or Conor Hourihane really dropped. So that's my fault. I've given Knighty freedom, but I'm just saying that in certain parts on the pitch - you have freedom in some areas and certain other parts you don't. The lads want to learn and they want to win. I said to them today that if they want to get in the top six, they must get 82 points. And, at the moment, they’re way off getting 82 points. Hopefully they're listening. We're trying to put it things across in a way that they understand it. We've all got to try and correct that areas we went wrong in last week and that won't come without plenty of hard work from us all.
Being without James Collins for three league matches…
It's a big blow. James Collins is a player that I've tried to sign on a couple of occasions previously and he was the one I earmarked on day one here by saying that he would really enjoy playing for us as we will create loads of chances. It’s true too, as he has scored three and two matches - which is great. When you’re in that run of form as a striker, it's an amazing feeling. You feel invincible. He is still a bit downbeat even now to be missing the upcoming matches but, unfortunately, that's how football is and if you raise your arm, there's always a consequence.
On Korey Smith and David McGoldrick returning to training…
Korey and David have trained with us all week, which is good news. Liam Thompson played for the Under-21s on Monday against Forest and was the best player out there, so he's got his legs back for the weekend. The lads all look fresh. It helps with the sunshine out and Moor Farm is a beautiful place to train. The lads are privileged and hopefully they can keep themselves fit and healthy for the weekend.
On the balance of playing and training in a busy month of action…
It's a good question; a very good question. Under previous regimes the lads may have trained longer but to a less intensity, whereas we try and be short but intense, as well as pushing boundaries. There's always the risk of injury, obviously, but if the lads are playing the way I want them to play, you can only get to that through training. You can't really put a lot into the lads when you are recovering and then preparing again for the next match. It's not ideal but joining the team in a good position in mid-season has its positives and negatives and that's probably a negative really that you don't get the time on the grass. That's why all managers and coaches always get giddy when they come back for the first day of pre-season. You get that six weeks to work with the lads on the grass, coach them into a way of playing that everyone understands and at the moment I don't think they fully understand it yet. I think they do in a way, but it's a lot of muscle memory. You know if you are used to playing in a certain sort of way and you get a lot of the time that you will make good decisions, but then instant decisions go to muscle memory. They're the things we're trying to help the lads with. It is difficult with the amount of games but hopefully we can tweak the way we train and just be more tactical at times.
On the messages to the players this weekend…
The win at Cambridge two weeks ago has taken away the away points stuff that was being talked about. There's always another trip away to focus on. said to the players this morning that it's just a game of football, a piece of grass and white lines. They don’t need to worry about where it is and how many the stadium holds. We'll have a game plan to try and stop Accrington’s strengths - and they've got a lot. They're really good footballing side this year. We'll have a game plan to try and cause them problems. We always say to the lads that sometimes the opposition’s strengths also become their weaknesses if you can manipulate them, so that'll be the that'll be a key message. The message is always the same, home or away, to go out and try and win the game. We're not trying to shut up shop and get one on the break or anything like that. We will go for the game from the first minute and that's the way we want to play.
