DOOM GLOOM
Frank fury as he vows to stamp out negativity surrounding Rams
g o i ng to come in my dressing room with the lads, but it is s important to o show the positive e nature of the e players on the e pitch and the e fans as a whole.
“If there are e individuals who are doom and d gloom then we will try and d prove them all wrong.”
Derby have a h i s t o ry of blowing their promot ion hopes in the second half of the season after just missing out in four of the last five years. But Lampard says everyone at Pride Park mu must rally together t to ensure it is not a self- fulfilling prophecy. The former England midfielder added: “I know and fully understand what recent history says at Derby.
“They start w well then don’t do s so well in this m month and that m month.
“But as a team a and as a staff we h have to be the o ones that even w when it is tough, w we have to show
DLFwe are still in it and we are still fighting. We actually have a young team, a transitional team where we are trying to bring the age down, where we have five major injuries recently across our midfield, three long-term injuries at the club.
“Then people want to talk or expect we are going to win every week or be rosy – it doesn’t work that way. I don’t expect our fans to come away from Villa Park at the weekend and go, ‘ That was great, that was a fantastic performance’.
“But we are a club fighting with lots of injuries and youngsters and players who have been fighting for a long time to get promoted and it hasn’t quite happened and are in the last years of their contracts.”
STAM HEADS ’NOORD
Stam will continue in his role as head coach at Eredivisie side PEC Zwolle until the end of tthe current campaign. The 46-year-old, who led Reading to the 2016 Championship play-offs, said: “I really enjoy PEC Zw Zwolle, but if the opportunity arises to work at a club like Feyenoord, you have to seriously think about it.”