Derby County are a team blessed with an array of exciting talent and attacking players. They can name a line-up with ex-England striker Darren Bent lining up alongside Scottish International Chris Martin, exciting attackers such as Tom Ince and Johnny Russell also being part of the fray. Now the Mail Online reports that they are turning their scopr towards reading’s in-form frontman Nick Blackman.
Blackman, the Bury-born 26-year-old started his career at Macclesfield before moving to Blackburn Rovers in January 2009 for an undisclosed fee. Football-wise he learned his early trade on loan at Blackpool and Oldham before spending the 2010/11 season on loan in the Scottish Premiership, initially with Motherwell and then with Aberdeen. This season was his most profitable to date, Blackman scoring 12 goals whilst on loan to Motherwell (10 goals) and Aberdeen (2 goals).
However, it is his form this season so far that has piqued Derby’s interest somewhat with Blackman scoring his 10 goals (including two spot kicks) at the rate of goal per 197 minutes of game time. This has led the Mail Online to state that “Derby County are showing interest” in the striker who will no doubt continue to score at a good rate should he decide to run his contract down at Reading, the Mail also saying that Blackman “has yet to agree new terms.”
This season for Reading, Blackman has played all the way across the frontline as well as in all the attacking midfield positions. As well as the headline figure of 10 goals, Blackman is also an accurate shooter of the ball (49% accuracy), possesses a good conversion rate of goals/on-target shots (30%) and is a decent volume passer of the ball (27 passes per game at 78.8% accuracy).
With Blackman not actually agreeing terms on a new contract with Reading, this might be incentive enough to test the Berkshire club’s resolve come January.
Statistics quoted derived from Transfermarkt and WhoScored
