The season is still young but Cocu’s Rams need to start charging

Back-to-back league defeats either side of a Carabao Cup exit has seen Derby County start the 2020/21 season sluggishly. 

The Rams followed their opening day 2-0 loss against Reading with a 2-1 defeat at Luton Town after exiting the Carabao Cup to fellow-Championship side Preston.

Philip Cocu’s side are mentioned in the play-off discussion before the start of every season and that hasn’t changed this campaign. The addition of heavyweight name Wayne Rooney last term gave Derby a much-needed boost which saw them finish the campaign in tenth place, six points outside of a play-off spot that didn’t look unachievable at certain points in the season.

But a page has been turned. The canvas is blank. Cocu and his team will look to paint a masterpiece. The target will always be to push for a top-six finish, but Derby really need to start building some momentum after losing their opening two league games.

They host Blackburn Rovers on Saturday who have shown good habits going forward, scoring seven goals in their opening two league games. They were close to earning a point against Bournemouth after coming from behind twice and followed that performance with a 5-0 thrashing of newly-promoted Wycombe at Ewood Park last time out.

On paper, it’s a game that Derby will certainly see as winnable, however it certainly won’t be an easy affair for the Rams.

Over the past weeks the Championship club have announced the signings of wingers Kamil Jozwiak and Jordon Ibe, with the latter returning to the club where he spent the 2014/15 season on loan. 

Ibe is looking to get his career back on track after being released by Bournemouth. The 24-year-old reportedly demonstrated attitude issues on the south-coast and will be looking to find some of the form that encouraged Bournemouth to fork out £15m on the former Liverpool player back in 2016.

Jozwiak is also a promising addition. The 22-year-old winger joined from Lech Poznan for a fee believed to be in the region of €3-5m and was on the radar of some Premier League outfits. It was a tricky test against Luton Town for his debut last week, but hopefully Cocu and his team can get the young playmaker up and running. 

It’ll click for Derby eventually; it always seems like it will. However, a win on Saturday will surely provide a well-needed boost of confidence in the East Midlands ahead of what will be a very busy season.

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