3/1 To Win
Andre Wisdom has praised the way Derby County have responded since they fell to their 2-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers and has challenged the players to make sure they take that form into the international break.
Since that defeat to Nuno Espirito Santo’s side a fortnight ago, the Rams have bounced back to win three successive games in all competitions and kept two clean sheets in the process.
Gary Rowett’s men defeated Preston North End 1-0 at Pride Park Stadium and backed that up with a 2-1 win at Bolton Wanderers in a addition to a 1-0 victory over Grimsby Town in the re-arranged Carabao Cup first round tie earlier this week.
Wisdom, the 24-year-old full back who re-joined the club on a permanent basis from Liverpool this summer, says the defeat to Wolves highlighted a few weaknesses that have been quickly addressed.
“We didn’t start too well with our first home game, but we’re still trying to build a team that can play, but is also going to be nasty at times too,” Wisdom told RamsTV.
“If we do the basics right, we have got enough quality in the team to play against anyone.
“That’s what is good about this league. The games come thick and fast and after we lost to Wolves on the Saturday we had the game against Preston on the Tuesday night and put it right.
“You can quickly redeem yourself and the reaction from the lads was brilliant. What we didn’t show against Wolves, we had against Preston.
“We were a bit nastier in defence, good on the counter attack and we mixed our play up a bit too. We recognised our weaknesses against Wolves and made sure we responded.”
In particular, Wisdom says Derby have set their bar for the season with their display in the win at Bolton last weekend.
David Nugent bagged two goals in the first 20 minutes, but Rowett’s side could have been out of sight before the half-time interval with Matej Vydra and Wisdom, himself, having golden opportunities to add to the scoreline.
Whilst the performance was particularly eye-catching, Wisdom, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Sheffield United, says the players need to avoid making things difficult for themselves and add a ruthless touch to their fine attacking play.
He added: “It (the Bolton game) was the best we’ve played so far for sure. We need to keeping playing to that level now, but when we get into the good positions we are creating, we need to be doing better.
“That’s myself included. I had a good chance towards the end of the first half, but we need to be finishing off those chances and put the game to bed.
“We don’t want to be making things harder for ourselves as we did in the end against Bolton.
“We scored two, but we could have got three or four before half time. If we continue playing like that and creating those chances, I’m sure more goals will come.”
