Phillip Cocu says Derby County’s players are feeling positive and ready to move forward in the lead-up to Saturday’s Sky Bet Championship trip to Luton Town (3pm kick-off).
Derby will head to Kenilworth Road looking to get their first points of the 2020/21 season on the board, after tasting a 2-0 defeat against Reading at Pride Park Stadium last weekend.
In addition to the loss to the Royals, the Rams bowed out of the Carabao Cup at the Second Round stage in midweek at home to Preston North End, with a controversial last-minute penalty handing the visitors a 2-1 victory.
Cocu says his players now have the frustration of the previous few days out their system and are fully focussed ahead of the fixture against the Hatters.
Speaking to RamsTV ahead of Saturday’s game, Cocu said: “The mood is positive in the group.
“Most of the players had a day off on Wednesday, sometimes you need a day off to get the frustration out of the system and move forward to playing against Luton on Saturday.
“It was a tough one to swallow on the Tuesday because we looked great with the ten men, after Mike te Wierik was sent off, and the effort we put in. We have to move on and another tough game against Saturday against Luton.”
Derby’s away form was a talking point in the 2019/20 campaign.
Their home record was one of the best in the Championship, but they struggled for large parts on their travels.
They went from mid-August until February without a league win on the road, before picking up impressive victories at Swansea City, Sheffield Wednesday, Millwall and Birmingham before the season was out.
Cocu wants his side to continue in that vein of form from the off this time around and said: “In the second part of last season we improved a lot in getting the results in the away games.
“We have to continue on that path and don’t think about how we did it in the first part of last season.
“We must continue to approach the games in the same way we did after Christmas. We know there are a lot of tough games we have to play, but we are also capable of getting good results.”