3/1 To Win
Phillip Cocu is confident that Derby County are moving in the right direction towards as they look to be more ruthless in the final third.
Derby have found goals hard to come by in the Sky Bet Championship so far this season, netting four times from their opening eight matches.
The early stages of the campaign saw the Rams’ attacking options limited due to injury, but Cocu’s side have offered greater attacking threat in recent games.
With Martyn Waghorn and Tom Lawrence back from injury, and new signing Colin Kazim-Richards offering a further option to call upon up top, Cocu is confident the goals will begin to flow soon.
The Derby boss has been encouraged by the attacking positions his side have got in to in recent matches and does not want the talk of the need for goals to be on his players’ minds too much.
Derby will look to build on the recent 1-1 draws against Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City when they make the long journey south to take on AFC Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon (3pm kick-off).
“We all think the performance in midweek (1-1 against Cardiff City) was another step forward,” Cocu told RamsTV ahead of making the trip to Bournemouth.
“We spoke to the players afterwards about how many great opportunities or great positions we created and got ourselves in to in front of the goal, as well as how many shots we had.
“That is an improvement, but we need to get more shots on target and score more goals.
“If we had scored a second goal against Cardiff then I think we would have kept control of the game and wouldn’t have to be worried about maybe one situation of bad luck which results in a goal for the opponent.
“If you score more goals then it gives much more calmness in the team. It was positive for the players to see that development and our next step is to pull the trigger and score more goals.”
Cocu added: “I don’t think it is a problem of confidence. If you want to force a goal too much, then it is less likely that you are going to score. You have to just be free and use the intuition to score.”
Bournemouth, relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season, sit second in the Championship table under the management of Jason Tindall.
They have won four and drawn four of their opening eight matches after Tindall replaced Eddie Howe in the summer.
Discussing Saturday’s opponents, Cocu said: “They have had a good start and they are a good team.
“I think they have a solid organisation, but also on top of the team performance they have a lot of individual qualities within the team who can make a difference.
“The goal for us is to try and get those players out of the game to avoid them from making a difference, as well as finding the gaps in their organisation to be creative. In that way, we have to continue like we did against Cardiff.”
