Performances are slowly but surely starting to improve again for Derby this season, but sitting in 22nd place after nine games is not good enough for a club with such quality on their books.<\/p>\n
There are, of course, positives to be taken from this unbeaten run, especially the fact that Graeme Shinnie and Jason Knight have formed a strong partnership in the middle of the park. Knight\u2019s tenacity combined with Shinnie\u2019s aggressive presence on the pitch provides a fantastic pairing for Cocu to utilise, almost begging the question \u2018where does Rooney fit in?\u2019. A question no one saw coming at the start of the season.<\/p>\n
QPR haven\u2019t exactly hit the ground running either. The R\u2019s sit just four places above Derby in 18th place and recorded their second win of the season in their last fixture against Cardiff, a 3-2 win proved their goal scoring capabilities following a run of four games without a goal.<\/p>\n
Mark Warburton\u2019s side will be hoping to put an end to their poor record at Pride Park this evening. They haven\u2019t won there since 2009, surely sparking a bit of incentive for the QPR squad to really take their A-game to Derby at their home ground.<\/p>\n
The R\u2019s could reach 11th place tonight, steering them further away from the relegation zone that Derby are yet to escape. It\u2019s truly anyone\u2019s game in the East Midlands tonight.<\/p>\n
Team News<\/strong><\/p>\n Cocu will be over the moon to have Kamil Jozwiak back and available for the first team, after the Polish international picked up an injury against Cardiff last week and missed the Bournemouth clash as a result.<\/p>\n Jordon Ibe is still unavailable as he works his way back to full match fitness with the U23\u2019s. It\u2019s also too soon for George Evans who\u2019ll feature once more for the U23\u2019s before being thrown back into the fold.<\/p>\n Krystian Bielik is also in line to make his return. The midfielder, who can also play in defence, was on the bench against Bournemouth after a lengthy absence, but is yet to feature for the first team since becoming injured.<\/p>\n As for QPR, Warburton will be pleased to have Rob Dickie back at his disposal following his suspension picked up against Barnsley.<\/p>\n There are no fresh injury concerns for Rangers, likely ensuring a lack of changes to the starting eleven that beat Cardiff.<\/p>\n Cocu on the Rams\u2019 recent performances.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing the lads need to do now for their performances is getting a victory. They deserve better results. I think after the first three games, they have straightened their backs and put on some really decent performances.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been more creative and got more shots on goal, but we need to make sure we get three points. With back-to-back home games, we need to make sure we get the wins that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n Warburton on the threat Derby pose.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThey are a very talented squad. They played Lawrence, Waghorn and Rooney previously, they\u2019ve got a good midfield, they\u2019ve got pace on the flanks, experienced defensively and a good goalkeeper.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey are a very strong squad and I have got no doubts that they are in a false position. This is another very tough test.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know they are a very strong squad and their manager will have them well organised. I have enormous respect for Phillip. We know what we face but we are a good team ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Derby take on QPR at Pride Park in a bottom of the table scrap this evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":237845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1097,3295],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237843"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237848,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237843\/revisions\/237848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}