Head Coach Paul Warne says his Derby County side need to be ‘spot on’ in their preparations and on the pitch as they look ahead to an away clash with promotion-chasing Leeds United on Saturday (12:30pm kick-off).
The Rams head into the match looking to bounce back after suffering a last-minute 2-1 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday at Pride Park Stadium on Sunday. Leeds also come into the fixture off the back of a defeat after losing 1-0 at Blackburn Rovers last Saturday.
It will be the first time the sides have faced each other at Elland Road since September 2019, when the points were shared in a 1-1 draw with Chris Martin coming off the bench to score for Derby.
Warne caught up with RamsTV ahead of training on Thursday to discuss Saturday’s early afternoon Sky Bet Championship clash.
On wanting to bounce back after a difficult last-minute defeat…
I appreciate the pain of that defeat. It was tough to take and a psychological blow, more so at home, too. However, you've just got to let the result go quite quickly and build on what the performance is. It does hit hard, especially for the younger ones. The lads gave us everything, but the defeat didn't come any easier because of that. I think it does to everybody involved in the football club, obviously including the supporters. We just need to come away thinking about what we can learn from it. What the group said in the dressing room amongst themselves was reiterated back to me before I got in the room. They were bang on the money really, so I'm pretty happy where they're at.
On how the squad is shaping ahead of a tough fixture schedule…
We've got a few players missing, unfortunately. Leeds is probably the hardest place to go to, so, whether you go full strength or not it's a difficult game no matter what. You just have to get everything as right as you can. Your possession has to be amazing, your counter-attack has to be spot on and your set pieces have to be spot on. Everything has to go right and that's what we're preparing to do.
We’ll work with who we have available and try and get the best out of them. We've got quite an intensive meeting planned today with them and then we'll get on the grass and hopefully sow some seeds for the game on Saturday.
On the challenge of facing Leeds at Elland Road…
I feel they're the best team in the league. The atmosphere there is always electric, and they start matches better than any other team. Everyone I speak to in football says the same thing and they're just a really confident, good team. That's a simple fact. They have pace and goals throughout the team. They'll be hurting from losing at Blackburn, as we are after the Sheffield Wednesday match. That is accompanied by a very good management team and manager. They did brilliantly with Norwich City, too.
They have everything you need for a promotion push. There are always weaknesses in every squad, in every team's psychology. It's just a side like Leeds have a lesser amount of them. We'll have to be the best version of ourselves, represent the club as well as we can and try and bring something back. With Leeds, it's another level at times.