Liam Rosenior, who is one member of the four-man coaching team that has taken charge of Derby County on an interim basis following the dismissal of Phillip Cocu, spent some time talking about Krystian Bielik during a post-match interview after Derby’s 1-0 loss to Bristol City this past weekend, which was featured on the latest edition of the BBC’s Sportscene Podcast.
After rupturing a cruciate ligament back in January, Bielik was out of action for the start of this season. He made his first senior appearance of the 2020/21 campaign in what was ultimately Cocu’s last game in charge of the Rams but he was absent from the Derby squad that faced Bristol City at the weekend.
Rosenior addressed Bielik’s absence from the Rams squad that lost to the Robins at the weekend and discussed his future at Pride Park during this post-match interview that was featured on the latest edition of BBC’s Sportscene podcast, saying:
“He’s a huge player for the squad, we need to look after his long-term interests. We picked the first 11, he could easily have been on the bench today but we felt with the U-23 game yesterday, he needed minutes because he’s been out [since January].
“We’re trying to manage the players the best that we possibly can, not just for the short-term but for their long-term development as well. Krystian will come back into the squad and be a big part of things to come.”
Do you think Cocu brought Bielik back to the first-team too soon?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Rosenior had to say about Bielik…
As he was out of action for so long, perhaps it’s understandable why the interim Rams coaching team opted to leave the £4.86m-rated man out of their squad for Saturday’s loss to Bristol City.
However, given that Bielik had returned to first-team action under Cocu, do Rosenior’s comments suggest that he thinks the ex-Rams manager was not thinking about the 22-year-old’s long-term development when he opted to play him for 90 minutes versus Barnsley?
It certainly seems, to us, as though Rosenior disagreed with Cocu’s decision to bring Bielik back into the first-team fold so soon after returning from his long-term injury and we think it will be interesting to see how the 22-year-old’s return to senior football is handled from this point onwards, as it does seem that Rosenior views him as an important squad member.