Head Coach Paul Warne challenged his Derby County players to embrace the challenge of their upcoming back-to-back home fixtures to turn around their fortunes after a recent spell of unfavourable results.
The Rams boss didn’t shy away from his side’s recent run of results, having tasted defeat in their previous three league outings, and has laid down the gauntlet for his players to reignite their form, starting with Saturday’s Sky Bet Championship clash with Watford at Pride Park Stadium (3pm kick-off) and then the visit of Sunderland on Tuesday night (7:45pm kick-off).
Derby were eliminated from the Emirates FA Cup following a penalty shoot-out against in-form Sky Bet League One side Leyton Orient on Tuesday night, following a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes, and will look to return to winning ways against the Hornets as their full focus switches to the league.
They will do so with a new name in the ranks after Norwegian striker Lars-Jorgen Salvesen became the club’s first signing of the January transfer window on Wednesday.
Warne caught up with RamsTV to discuss the latest addition to the squad and preview Saturday’s Championship clash at Pride Park.
On striker Salvesen joining the Rams…
We've been looking for a number nine for a while and one that has something different to what we've got. He's different to what we've got, for sure. He is really energetic, which I like. He is also good in the air and wants to play between the sticks, which, with the amount of crosses we put in, is crucial.
Our other strikers have all contributed this season, but I just think he brings us something else. I do feel like at times we've put a lot of balls in the box, and we probably haven't been as dominant in the air. That's definitely one of Lars' strengths. I’ve been looking for a striker of that ilk all my life, really! Out of the ones that were available to us, all the coaches and recruiters agreed that he was our best fit. I met him and spoke to him, and we've seen him live and everything came together.
On first meeting with a player and the process of seeing the transfer over the line…
I try and do as much research alongside everybody else as we can, but by the time I get involved and speak to a player, it's not a footballing decision anymore. My opening gambit when I speak to them is: ‘I can see every time you've kicked a ball in the last five or ten years, there's nothing I don't know about what you can and can't do on the pitch.’
Therefore, we can just have an honest chat and it's just about me getting to know who the player is. I always want to get to know them, and I tell them as much as I can about myself, because if they're sitting and listening to me talking knowing we might spend the next three years of our careers together, then that's a good time to get out, in all sincerity.
Lars is also trying to convince me that I should sign him. I asked him why his career took the path it had and what has he learned from his career. You can speak to a player and some will say: ‘the previous coach didn't want to play me,’ or look for excuses about certain things, but Lars didn’t.
The people who look internally for reasons are the ones that I like, because they're the ones that want to improve. They're the ones that want to listen every day, they're the ones that are grateful to be here, they're the ones that want to train harder and they're the ones you can just get everything out of. Lars showed that.
On having back-to-back home games at Pride Park against Watford and Sunderland…
I'm happy to talk about the elephant in the room; we're not in the best form. I know we didn't lose the other night at Leyton Orient, we lost on penalties after a draw, but we're not in the best form and there's no way that I can positively spin that apart from the fact. From my point of view, when watching the games back, I've been reasonably happy with aspects, but we just haven't done enough to win games. You have to win football matches, so the next few games are important, but I don't feel like they're any more important than the first or the last.
I know they're difficult and then we have a period with Cardiff City away and Sheffield United at home and the games can be chaotic, but I actually go into them with a real smile on my face. I'm really happy with the group, we've been excellent at home too.
We haven't been as good away from home, but I don't think many teams that get promoted from League One is that good away from home stepping up to the Championship. It's the same way if you look at the FA Cup results, most of the teams in the bottom eight of the league were unsuccessful. It's just how it is, so I don't read too much in the Leyton Orient fixture. My bigger disappointment was that we had a lot of players play more minutes than we anticipated.
These two games are massive, there's no dispute in that and I enjoy the pressure of it. If not, you wouldn't do this job, and the lads enjoy going out thinking what we need to win and it's a nice way to play when you're playing on the edge like that. We can really look forward to them both and if we perform at a level, we give ourselves a chance - and that's all we do.