Ex-Derby County player and coach Eric Steele joined Chris Coles on the latest edition of BBC Radio Derby’s Sportscene Podcast where they discussed all of the latest Derby County news and spent some time talking about 19-year-old Rams youth striker Jack Stretton during the show.
Stretton is yet to make his first-team debut for the Rams but has been in good form for Derby County’s U23 side in the Premier League 2 division this season, with the teenager having scored eight goals in eight PL2 games this term.
With the Rams currently sitting at the bottom of the Championship, having scored the fewest number of goals of any team in England’s second tier at this stage of the season, Steele was asked about the possibility of Stretton getting a first-team opportunity during this podcast, and indicated that he thinks there is a chance that the Scotland U19 international will make that step up, saying:
“If we can’t get more than one goal [in one game], you’ve got to look through the club and say, ‘who have you got?’ and ultimately, why not put him on the bench [and] throw him on? Because the one thing that you get with an academy player coming up, is that you know what you’re going to get – you’ll get that 100% and he’ll give you a lift in terms of coming into that 18/19-man squad and if he’s scoring goals, fine.
“We might be having to really drag more of the academy players up. My big thing is we’ve still got strikers in there that should be, and if he’s scoring the goals as he is, why not put him in the squad? I’m sure he’s being looked at really seriously and it will be very interesting to see if he is included. If he keeps scoring goals, you can’t ignore that, can you?”
Should Stretton get a first-team opportunity?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Steele had to say about Stretton’s chances of getting a first-team opportunity…
As Steele alluded to, the Rams have failed to score more than one goal in any single Championship game this term. Their defensive record has also been poor, as Phillip Cocu’s side have conceded 16 goals in their first 11 Championship games of the season, which gives them the third-worst defensive record in England’s second tier. However, they have conceded more than one goal in just one of their last eight league games, so with that in mind, perhaps you could argue that their struggle going forward has been their main problem of late.
It will be interesting to see if the club does look to Stretton as a solution to their goalscoring problems. While he is yet to feature at senior level for Derby, he is in-form – and as the club are not in-form, maybe Steele is right in saying he would give the Rams “a lift”. Perhaps there would be no better time, therefore, to give him a chance in Derby’s senior squad, given that the options they have tried to use up front of late haven’t been successful.