Head Coach Paul Warne says his Derby County squad is ‘becoming more and more like my group’ following their 3-0 friendly victory at Matlock Town on Friday night.
The Rams were convincing winners over the Gladiators in their opening pre-season fixture ahead of the upcoming 2024/25 Sky Bet Championship season.
Summer signings Kayden Jackson and Jerry Yates were on target, while midfielder Liam Thompson also scored at the Proctor Cars Stadium.
After enjoying two full weeks on the training ground with his players, Warne has been pleased with what he has seen from the Rams - but he knows plenty of work lies ahead in the next month ahead of the start of the season.
Warne spoke to RamsTV after the win at Matlock to review the friendly curtain-raiser and assess pre-season so far, as well as looking ahead to next week’s training camp in Spain.
On the opening pre-season friendly…
We have had a good couple of weeks with the lads. We tweaked the off-season stuff and wanted to sign some younger, more athletic players to build us for the Championship season. We have a long way to go, but we got through the game injury-free. There were a couple of times where I was a bit worried on the bench – Josh Vickers got hit, Jerry Yates took a whack. I'm pleased. Everyone got 45 minutes. Darren Robinson played a bit more and Kenzo Goudmijn played a bit less but, generally, I'm pleased. I knew it was going to be difficult as these games always are when you get into your stride. There is a lot of rustiness around but the actual effort to get the ball back when we lost it was good and our ability to get the ball back was good. They're becoming more and more like my group and I'm pleased with them.
On what he looks for in pre-season…
The first game is just about fitness and a bit like a training session, as it is for Matlock as well. The result is irrelevant and it's just about getting minutes in their legs. I've said to the lads today, we don't pick a team for the first game of the season today. However, every time you put the Derby shirt on you represent all of us so play at a level that is going to get you in the team. It's a good gauge to see where they are at - they physically looked ok but it's only 45 minutes. The first half we played a 5-2-3 shape and you ask a lot of your wing backs but if they cross it from the right you'll have a left wing back at the far post. We did that to an extent but doing that for 45 minutes is one thing - 90 is another! In the second half we went to 4-4-2 and it was a joy for everyone to watch.
On seeing the new signings and Jake Rooney on the pitch after injury…
It was brilliant to see Jake Rooney and Ryan Nyambe, who missed out at the end of the season. It was good to see him as well. I was chuffed for Liam Thompson to score too. Conor Washington, Joe Ward and Ben Osborn were missing tonight but they will come to Spain. Whether they play in the game against Stockport, I don’t know. We are trying to be cautious. It was a good game tonight and I'd like this one to be a tradition. It was a good turnout again, so it's a good start. We got no injuries and I hope we helped Matlock out as well. We travel to Spain now on Sunday with no other issues.
On pre-season so far…
It's been positive. We didn't pick up any new fresh injuries tonight and the lads are in a good place. It's all about bedding in the new players and adding to that. We're a long way off where we want to be but the lads who are here are giving us everything every day. Long may that continue. There will be changes here and there but I've been happy with how they've trained. We have a few other members of staff - there have been tweaks everywhere visually and members of staff - and it's just about everyone preparing for another season ahead.
On his summer signings so far…
Two of them scored tonight. I've brought Kayden in because of his pace and he can play different positions and he's a goal threat. Jerry is a goal threat, too. He has scored goals in the Championship in a different style to how we play, so he'll get chances for us. He could have got himself a hat-trick tonight. We've not seen Ben Osborn yet – we've seen him in training and he looks like Zidane! As for Kenzo Goudmijn, he is what we want a midfielder to be, he always wants to play forward. We've been really pleased with him – he's only trained a couple of days but I think you can see that he knows what he's going to do with the ball when he gets it. He's a good addition. They're all really good people, the lads like them and they've fitted straight into the dressing room straight away.
On the training camp in Spain this week...
It's essential to me. You are going to lose games, win games and you go through bad times during the season but it's about how tight the group are together. You have to stick together, like you're seeing with the England squad. Going away in pre-season and building those bonds is essential. It's nice for us as staff to see them socially and they get to know each other better. It allows us to spend time with them in the classroom to show them that the system we play in the first game won’t be the same in the second, third or fourth game. We have to try and teach them a lot of stuff quickly to be prepared. It's really important to our success that we've had as a management team that we get away from everything and really get together as a group. I'll give them time to have a beer, have a game of golf so we look forward to that. Getting away from my phone will be nice as well!
