‘IPSWICH WILL BE A TOUGH TEST FOR US’
Rowett insists players can’t afford to take bottom club lightly
GARY Rowett says he can now understand some of the problems ambushing Paul Lambert during his valiant attempt to avoid relegation at Stoke City last season.
Rowett admits he has sampled at least a taste of those difficulties during his early days after replacing Lambert in the hot seat.
Lambert returns to Stoke as Ipswich manager today (3pm) and Rowett observes: “When you look back at some of the challenges we have had, you can understand some of Paul’s challenges last season.
“It’s not fair for me to go into more detail on that because I wasn’t here, and I don’t know exactly what he’s had to do.
“But yeah, I think he will have known, as we did at the start of this season, that there’s going to be a lot of challenges that people (on the outside) can’t necessarily see.
“And certainly you could see some of those, having been in the building preseason, what he had to deal with last year.
“So it was never going to be an easy job for anybody and you are always going to be defined, effectively, on whether you keep that team in the Premier League or don’t keep that team in the Premier League.
“But certainly I can understand some of the challenges he would have had.”
Rowett, whose Derby were beaten by a doomed Sunderland towards the end of last season, dismisses any notion of an easy ride against an Ipswich side rooted to the foot of the Championship after one win all season.
He said: “Anyone who’s seen the Championship knows that’s not the case and will never be the case because any team is capable of beating any other team.
“But what we know is that if we are at our best, we can make it a very difficult afternoon for Ipswich.
“But if we aren’t, and I’ve seen it from them in previous games like Forest last week, they can make it very difficult for us.
“Paul’s style is quite a high energy pressing style, which I’m sure our fans and players will know from last season, and against that type of style, if you’re not at your best, you’re going to get pinned back sometimes and give the opposition opportunities.
“We are confident, with our recent form, that if we can play as well again, work as hard and be more clinical, then we can beat any team in this division, regardless of where they are in the league.
“But after the Wigan and Blackburn games earlier this season we would certainly never be complacent about any team at all and we will give Ipswich the respect they deserve.”
He believes Lambert will be even more motivated than usual and will try to transmit that to his struggling players.
Rowett said: “I’m sure Paul will want to come here and win the game because of his history last season with Stoke City, but at the same time you always have to pick the right way to play.
“If he looks at our games (at home), a lot of teams have sat in and blocked the game up and we’ve had to be a bit patient.
“Paul’s teams normally play with a high energy and will pick the right time to press, but whatever they do, it’s up to us to impose our game on them and be so good that they have to adjust to us.
“I think they’ve shown bits in the games I’ve seen which is much better than their league position and points tally suggests and I’m sure they will be determined to get something out of the game.
“In our last two home games we’ve maybe played with a bit more energy and the crowd have certainly warmed to that, so the challenge is: can we go out there and put in a high energy performance in ourselves - along with the quality we know we have got in the team?”