Paul Warne admitted his Derby County team will need to be more physical and 'up for the battle' after the defeat to Shrewsbury Town in their latest pre-season friendly on Saturday.
James Collins scored the Rams’ only goal at the Crowud Meadow, from a well-worked corner routine, as Derby fell to a 2-1 loss in Shropshire.
The Rams' Head Coach also praised Corey Blackett-Taylor’s ‘real deft shift playing at wing back’ and pointed to positive improvements in the side's overall play.
Warne spoke to RamsTV after the game to discuss what bright sparks can be taken from the game and where improvements can be made as the start of the 2024/25 Sky Bet Championship season approaches.
On the result and challenge against Shrewsbury…
There were some really good things and things I wasn't as pleased with, but we had to use this game for that. The next two friendlies against Barnsley and Real Valladolid will be completely different, hopefully. We had to use this one to add all the minutes up.
I wanted the defenders to defend, so that's on me. It is what it is. It's a pre-season game. There were good bits. I thought David Ozoh settled into the team really well. I'm pleased for Collo to get a goal, but I thought Corey Blackett-Taylor did really well. That's a real deft shift, playing as a wing-back.
On needing to provide the fans with a worthwhile performance…
There were some good things. I just didn't think we had enough character on the ball, or as much as I would like. That was my one disappointment. I thought the game was going to go in our favour, really, after we equalised and then we conceded a sloppy second goal by not being physcial enough. I thought it was a foul, but I'll watch it back. That was hugely disappointing, but we still had some really good moments.
We suddenly turned into a counter-attacking team, but without anything at the end of it.. I thought Tommo came on and did really well. Kenzo was trying to play forward. Players are going to make mistakes; that's absolutely fine. They're not going to be faultless, but I just wanted a bit more character, really.
Generally speaking, I come away from here happy we have picked up no injuries. The squad's a little bit fitter. I want to say a big thank you for the fans who kindly came today. I didn't feel like we gave them enough for their money, really. I'm a little bit disappointed with that, but then I'm pretty pleased on certain things too.
On seeing both positives and negatives…
I thought there were times when the connective play was quite good. Even in the first half, if we'd just picked the right pass, we were in so many times - but we didn't. So that's a good educational tool for the lads.
It was not a do-or-die game today, but I just felt that we didn't pick the right pass. It also enables me to show the benefits of physicality, really. You have to be up for the battle. I thought at times the back three looked quite good, although there were occasions when we needed to miss a pass out. That is, again, a good educational thing. The middle centre-half could have maybe hit the wide man as opposed to taking another pass, but there were certain things I liked as well.
On David Ozoh and the midfield’s role…
I thought David did really well. In possession of the ball, we had one six and two eights. Tom Barkhuizen then had a freer roll, so it was very difficult for the midfielders. I thought their actual play and David’s work rate was pretty phenomenal. It might not have looked it, but it was because they were covering all angles.
Generally speaking, I thought we defended pretty well. We defended the set-pieces as well, although it was a free-kick that went in, ironically, for the first goal. In open play, we defended well and we tried to press. Shrewsbury got out a couple of times, but that was gtom very good play from them. There's no idiots in football.
On players getting the game time they needed…
I liked the fact that everyone's now got their time in. From our point of view, it sort of feels like the end of pre-season - but it isn't. We've done everything we wanted to do. We've ticked all the boxes for all the physicality. Now we can pick an aggressive team to go out and play on Wednesday at Barnsley and then against Real Valladolid at Pride Park in the final friendly.
