Left back Haydon Roberts believes he has settled into life at Derby County well after joining the club from Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion on a season-long loan deal in the summer.
The defender has started all four of Derby’s league fixtures so far in the 2022/23 League One campaign and has been a steady presence at the back, offering good cover in defence but also being a key part of Derby’s attack.
Roberts, who has been capped at England youth level, has found it easy to mix in with his team-mates and is pleased to be working with Liam Rosenior once again after working together at Brighton.
The defender spoke to RamsTV ahead of Saturday’s trip to Fleetwood Town (3pm kick-off) and discussed Derby’s start to the season, as well as the mental side of football.
On Life At Derby…
It’s been great and I’ve enjoyed every day since I’ve been here. I’ve been getting to know the lads, playing competitive games and I can’t wait for it to continue.
With the squad we have, it’s been easy to settle in. The staff have been great, the medical team and staff have made it easy for me and I’m happy it’s been that way.
All the lads have been great. I’ve made some good friends. I beat Kwaku Oduroh at table tennis all the time, but all the lads are great.
On Working With Liam Rosenior…
He’s still the same as he was when we were at Brighton and someone I can ask questions to. I’m learning a lot from him. He played professionally himself so I’m learning from him. It’s the same relationship as before and someone I look up to.
It’s a new role that I’ve been asked to do. In my youth career I’ve always played at centre back and occasionally at left back internationally. I’m learning and where I want to go in my career I need to be versatile and be able to adapt. It’s all beneficial to learn the role that I do but I think it’s one with responsibility in the way that we play. I will only get better by playing games, with patience and with training, I want to be able to affect the game in the left-back position.
On The Mental Challenge Of The Game…
Mentally, football is a simple game. How simple you want to make it is down to you. With the players that we’ve got, we have a lot of experience so it’s easy for me as a young player to settle in. We have got some experienced lads so I am learning from them, listening to their experiences and adding it to my day-to-day training and into the games. Mentally, 90 minutes is quite a long time to stay switched on. It only takes one lapse of concentration and it could be costly so I am learning that side of the game. The technical side of it is important but the mental side is definitely up there.
On The Season So Far…
I think we have started off our season well. I think as a team we should have done better away from home. We go into every match knowing that we can win with the players and squad we have got. I think we can win every game. We go into each one thinking that we should win. Look at the way we played against Charlton Athletic in the first half; I thought we were brilliant but goals win games. If you don’t score, you can’t win. At Shrewsbury, we dominated the game but we lacked that cutting edge. With time, we would win that game. It’s all about patience and I know we will be fine on the road.
On Fleetwood Town On Saturday…
I know we are more than capable of showing what we can do at Fleetwood. We will play our way, it doesn’t matter if we are home or away. We have our principles of playing but the way we play, you would have thought we were the home team on Tuesday. It’s important we go into this one with confidence and play the way the manager wants to play because it gives us the best chance of winning.