During a recent YouTube video, The Athletic’s Derby County reporter Ryan Conway talked about potential replacements for ex-Rams manager Phillip Cocu after the Dutchman departed from Pride Park on Saturday. Conway spent some time talking about the possibility of ex-Derby assistant manager Jody Morris returning to the East Midlands club to become their new manager.
Morris served as assistant manager at Derby County under Frank Lampard during the 2018/19 campaign when the 42-year-old manager guided the Rams to the Championship play-off final, and Morris followed Lampard to Chelsea when he subsequently took over at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2019.
Here is what Conway had to say about the possibility that Morris will become the Rams’ new manager during this video:
“Jody Morris – yeah, I mean he was here under Frank, weren’t he? He had a great relationship with the players here. As a number one, I’m not sure of his credentials – I’m maybe not so sure.”
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TIF Thoughts on what Conway had to say about the possibility of Morris becoming the new Derby manager…
Lampard’s Derby side finished in sixth place in England’s second tier in the 2018/19 campaign and only narrowly lost the play-off final that season.
Cocu took over for the 2019/20 campaign and only managed to guide the Rams to a 10th-placed finish in the Championship last season, while his Derby side took just six points from their first 11 games of the current campaign, with the 50-year-old getting sacked with the East Midlands club sitting at the bottom of the Championship.
So, perhaps you could argue that the Rams have regressed significantly since Lampard and Morris left the club in the summer of 2019.
During this YouTube video, Conway claimed that Cocu “was not the greatest motivator when things were going poorly” for Derby. Given that he also stated that Morris “had a great relationship” with the Rams’ squad when he was at the club, perhaps he could do a better job of motivating the players than Cocu did and maybe that would make him a decent candidate for the role, so it will be interesting to see if the 41-year-old is approached about returning to Pride Park as manager.