3/1 To Win
Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne says he's looking forward to the festive period of games getting underway on Thursday - and he enjoys games coming 'thick and fast.'
The Rams take on Lincoln City at Pride Park Stadium on Thursday evening (7:45pm kick-off) before travelling to Wigan Athletic a few days later on Boxing Day, while they will also take on Oxford United and Peterborough United either side of the new year.
Warne spoke to RamsTV on Tuesday morning to look ahead to the festive schedule, starting with the visit of the Imps under the floodlights.
On the Christmas period...
The back-to-back games come thick and fast and the league table can change quite quickly. We need to try and keep the group healthy, happy and fit. I like games coming thick and fast though, I think it really suits us.
On the work-life balance over Christmas...
It's difficult, at times. The players aren't robots, if they are a professional footballer at 27 years old then they are still entitled to see their kids. I base how we work on trust to a certain extent. I've never had my teams in on Christmas Day but I do expect the players to do something and send a video message to the group showing they've done something like a run. It's based on trust and I expect a really good performance on Boxing Day.
On his thoughts looking back at Saturday 1-1 draw against Wycombe...
My most honest opinion is that physically we were OK but our decision making wasn't great in many instances. That aside, we still possibly should have won. In the first-half we had a lot of control but no goal threat and then in the second half we had zero control but more goal threat. At the very end we made a bad decision with our defensive line and experience should separate that. We would have won, although not handsomely. We made all the changes we could to win the game and we thought we'd done enough but, all in all, I was hugely disappointed and we need to put it right on Thursday night.
On playing on Thursday evening rather than Saturday afternoon...
It's a bit random, but having Thursday to Boxing Day is good and we get a little bit more recovery. It also gives us an opportunity to go and watch games in person on Saturday. It will be great going into work on Friday if we've won on Thursday knowing we can just look at the fixtures and watch the opposition, but it does give our lads extra rest and over this period that's a good thing.
On the squad fitness...
We have no injuries from Saturday. Ryan Nyambe is back in training today. Callum Elder and Liam Thompson have got more training in their legs too.
