, Clement’s four challenges

Clement’s four challenges

The onset of the Paul Clement’s era has been labelled ‘The Next Chapter’ by the same PR minds that brought us ‘The Return of the Mac’. In order to ensure that their place in the history books is not laced with tragedy, this Derby County squad must rewrite the horror story of the final three months of last season and realise the Premier League fairytale that continues to shine out of reach.

Here are four challenges that Paul Clement must confront:-

  1. Fix a broken morale

Derby’s collective morale is in desperate need of soothing. Although both of the last two seasons have ended in horrible fashion, this season’s collapse seems to have taken more of a toll on the team. It was protracted and painful, seeping through the months of March and April and, while not imparting a more acute wound than the play-off final, it made a deeper cut to the spirit.

The speculation about the effect of the speculation (go figure) linking Steve McClaren with the Newcastle job, which he evidently “always wanted”, will not have helped to solidify the relationships and communication that the club have prided themselves on improving in the last twenty months.

In reflecting back on the play-off final in interviews, the Derby players’ tone was of disappointment, tempered by low expectation and sweetened by hope. This season, Will Hughes looked downright depressed in his post-season assessment and Johnny Russell spoke of “complete failure”.

Clement’s task is to harness the many strengths of the side he inherits, while massaging the noxious side-effects of last season’s implosion and ensuring that they do not fester.

  1. Getting the workload right

Last season, Derby returned to pre-season training just five weeks after that fateful day at Wembley. They played nine friendly matches, with the first coming less than a week after their return to Moor Farm Training Centre. As a consequences, mentally and physically they were hungover from the previous campaign.

This was evident in early games. They really struggled for consistency; spluttering past Rotherham on opening day, lethargic in a goalless draw at Sheffield Wednesday and sloppy at Charlton. Despite hitting their straps in the middle part of the season, aided by loan signings, their well-documented travails in March and April will surely have been exacerbated by the backlog of fatigue, which could easily have caused injuries as well.

Paul Clement has already taken the step of moving pre-season back a week, to the 28th June, and only six warm-up games are scheduled. This augurs well, and will give the Rams sufficient time to fully recuperate and hit the ground running in August.

  1. Sort out the defence

A lack of defensive consistency proved to be Derby’s Achilles heel time and time again last term. Although injuries seriously thwarted their attacking cohort, their defenders were fit for the vast majority of the campaign, aside from Jake Buxton, who was missed more than they thought in the run-in when character was needed.

So it was sheer underperformance that was the kernel of Derby’s struggle to keep the back door shut. Raul Albentosa, despite McClaren’s pleas for time, does not look like anything like the coveted import that we were told of. Cyrus Christie had a very poor season, and did not bring even a modicum of the defensive stability that Andre Wisdom had the season before. Although he has established himself in the Scotland team, Craig Forsyth went through long periods of poor form and didn’t deliver the same, overlapping ingenuity that we became accustomed to. Ryan Shotton was inconsistent and Stephen Warnock didn’t look like the solution to any problem.

Defending well is about a unit, though, and not individuals. As formations chopped and changed, the side’s discipline without the ball crumbled. The inability, or at times inpropensity, to field a settled back four was corrosive to stability.

Clement must make a decision on Richard Keogh a priority, one way or the other. The captain received a lot of criticism last season, some justified and some misguided in its vitriol. Above all, he must commit to four defenders and stick with them. Get them minutes together in pre-season. It is from here he can build.

  1. Keep Steele out of McClaren’s grasp

With McClaren cossetted in Mike Ashley’s boardroom and looking to snatch Thomas Ince from Derby’s grasp, perhaps an equally valuable asset that the Rams must look to keep is goalkeeping coach Eric Steele.

As assistant manager Paul Simpson revs up his car and heads for the A1, Steele is looking more likely to stay put in the East Midlands and join Clement’s push for promotion.

Derby will be better for it. Despite an end-of-season malaise that affected everyone, Lee Grant showed steady improvement and seemed to benefit from Steele’s tutelage. Kelle Roos is a Steele project and, after McClaren declared the Dutch stopper as “the future”, is clearly highly rated at the club. With Scott Carson on board, the goalkeeping department has rarely looked healthier.

Steele also brings holistic football experience to the backroom staff and a knowledge of the current playing squad that Clement would do well to tap into. Although Steele is a Geordie and is an ex-Magpie, he must let McClaren’s inevitable phone call ring out.

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