The July edition of The Rampage is set for release this Thursday and is jam-packed full of exclusive Derby County content.
In the 11th instalment of the Rams’ monthly magazine, we speak to the 2020/21 Player of the Season, Graeme Shinnie who discusses his football family ties, playing while managing Crohn’s diseases and his time so far with Derby.
There is also an in-depth 2021/22 season preview, while Owen Bradley takes a look of some of the best, and questionable, Rams’ haircuts over the years.
As always, we get an update from the Derby County Community Trust, Derby County Women as well as an extensive interview with Under-18s manager Adam Robinson.
The Rampage also spoke to Head of Performance Luke Jenkinson and first-team fitness coach Shane Nicholson to get a behind the scenes look at how the Derby pre-season is panning out.
Here is an extract from that piece that you can read exclusively in The Rampage from Thursday…
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The COVID-19 global pandemic disjointed the 2019/20 season, which lead to a condensed pre-season at the start of last season under former boss Philip Cocu. Without being able to have a proper break and a shorter amount of time, Derby’s last pre-season was very different to the norm for all professional football teams. However, the condensed 2020/21 campaign, allowed the Sky Bet Championship season for the upcoming campaign return to its usual scheduling and the players were able to have a much-needed rest. With five weeks of training ahead of the new season starting, Rooney and his staff have ample time to get to work with the Rams squad to push on.
“Each manager has their own philosophy for what pre-season looks like,” Jenkinson said. “With the current manager, the vast majority of the conditioning will be within football sessions with the highly skilled coaches along with myself, Henry and Shane. We are able to manipulate drills so let’s say a counter-attacking drill that has disguised running – the focus is ‘can you make an entry into the box?’ Not just running from cone to cone which can be less stimulating. So, we will get as much conditioning through training as possible.
“Of course, there will be times where we can control the variables a little bit closer and we will do isolated conditioning but when we do have to do that, a lot of it will be competitive. It can be done in groups and in races and each player has their own distances to get – so say you are running four or five meters less than someone else, you will still have to get there in the same time. We just try to make it as fun and competitive as possible because ultimately pre-season isn’t the most fun time but the light-hearted we can make it and the more football we can get done, the better it will be for the lads. Put a scoring system on it and suddenly everyone is excited!”
For the full article and other exclusive content, CLICK HERE to purchase your copy of The Rampage.