Familiarity key for Rosenior in his player search
DERBY County’s interim boss Liam Rosenior says part of his transfer plan was to bring in signings who knew each other to help compensate for the short pre-season.
The Rams have made 11 signings this summer and announced their latest arrival at the weekend as Korey Smith arrived on a free transfer following his exit from Swansea City. Among the additions the Rams have made, Conor Hourihane, James Collins and David McGoldrick have all been involved with the Republic of Ireland set-up.
Hourihane and Chester also played together at Aston Villa.
Rosenior said he knew it was going to be a short pre-season given the chain of events that led to Clowes Developments rescuing the club with a takeover on July 1.
And he felt the best way to help speed up the understanding was to bring players in who had previous experience of working together.
“A lot of them have played together for the Republic of Ireland and a lot of them have played together in their careers,” he told the Derby Telegraph.
“That assimilation process is not there because they are all so close already and that was part of our plan.
“That was to bring players together who had played together because I knew it was going to be a short pre-season. I knew we needed players who understood each other’s games.
“I think you saw that at the weekend with Conor (Hourihane) and the interlinking play between Didzy (David McGoldrick) and James Collins. They’ve played together up front before.
“For me, it’s just making sure they understand the way we want to play but once we get out on the pitch I just want them to express themselves and enjoy playing football. It looked like that at times.”
Derby face their next pre-season assignment tonight when they travel to face League Two Stevenage (7.30pm) as they look to make it three wins out of three.
On what is set to be the hottest day of the year, Derby will tackle Steve Evans’ side on the back of an impressive performance against Hertha
Berlin at the weekend.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s goal in the first half sealed a fine victory against the Bundesliga side in front of a crowd of more than 7,000 at Pride Park Stadium.
New signing Smith watched the game against hertha Berlin from the stands but is set to be involved against Stevenage.
Their last pre-season friendly of the summer will be a home clash against Leicester City on Saturday.