Former goalkeeping coach Eric Steele has been sharing his concerns over the current squad of players at Derby County and the lack of leadership within it.
This comes after Steele was featured on a recent episode of the BBC Radio Derby’s Sportscene Podcast where he reflected on the club’s recent 2-1 defeat against Swansea City in the Championship.
On the subject of Derby’s squad, Steele had this to say on the matter, (10.26): “What really concerns me, and it has for a long time is that we’ve got a soft belly in this squad of players.
“There’s nothing said when goals go in, there’s nothing said when mistakes are made and that was a time to say ‘right we’ve conceded the first,’ and you just say now ‘right hang on, we’ve got to dig in here for 10 minutes,’ but I didn’t, I deliberately watched there was no reaction, you look and go ‘come on, this is still a great result at 1-1,’ they’re not to know what’s going on at Rotherham.
“Ultimately, you just say ‘come on, dig in, this is a chance we get 1-1, they still might get a set-piece near the end,’ whatever, but we’ve not seen that over the last three months never mind the last 90 minutes so we’re not exactly disappointed by what we saw.”
So far this season, Wayne Rooney’s side have won just 11 out of the 45 Championship games they’ve played, drawing 10 and losing 24 in the process (per BBC Sport).
In their recent game against Swansea, Derby took the lead through Tom Lawrence early into the second half, followed by two quick goals from the home side to take the points away from the Rams.
TIF Thoughts on Eric Steele’s comments on Derby’s squad…
Given how Derby have lost their previous six league games, it’s easy to see why Steele thinks there have been a lack of leaders in Derby’s squad this season that haven’t taken any games by the scruff of the neck and push the team forward on the pitch.
Do you think Derby have a lack of leaders in their squad?
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In our view, with Derby only having one match left to play this season to secure their safety for their next campaign, they will need all of their players to be leaders on the pitch when they face Sheffield Wednesday and make sure they get all three points.
In other news: ‘It’s unforgivable’ – Sky Sports pundit launches scathing attack on Derby County