Nat Phillips has detailed the one key difference between Derby County under John Eustace and Paul Warne as his side look to make it five wins in a row in the Championship this weekend.
The Rams travel to Swansea City on Saturday afternoon, looking to put more distance between themselves and the bottom three after they move out of the drop zone on Wednesday evening with a 2-0 win over Preston North End.
Goals from the iconic Craig Forsyth and Jerry Yates secured all three points for the home side at Pride Park in mid-week, with their run of four straight wins their best in the Championship since July 2020, when the East Midlands outfit were managed by Phillip Cocu.
However, Derby will be without Yates in South Wales this weekend, with the 28-year-old unavailable to play against his parent club. But they may just be able to find different ways to score, as has been the case since Eustace came in.
Phillips makes Eustace claim as Derby find form
Nearly all hope had been lost in DE24 by the time Warne was sacked, with the team struggling for goals while embarking on a seven-game losing run in the league.
Yet from the off, it was clear to see that Eustace had completely different ideas about how to go about keeping the Rams in the Championship, and while they were beaten in his first three matches, the last few weeks have been near-perfect.
Derby have now scored nine goals in their last four matches, having found the back of the net just once in their previous 10 games.
Speaking to RamsTV ahead of their clash with Swansea, defender Nat Phillips detailed the one major difference between life under Eustace and Warne.
He said:Â “Something that I’ve noticed is I feel as though we have more organisation around protecting our attacks.
“I think previously, in times when we would be up the pitch and baring down on the opposition’s goalkeeper, we didn’t score, and quite often it was a counter-attack.
“Whereas now, we’re quite good at sustaining our attacks. When the ball pops out of the box, it falls at our feet again, we can go again and put teams under a bit more pressure.”
Derby’s win over Preston was an example of Eustace’s attacking plans
Despite the first-half performance against Preston being arguably the worst since the Rams started their winning run, they came out firing after the break and hit their opponents early.
| Derby County v Preston North End stats (FotMob) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stat | Derby County | Preston North End |
| Possession | 36% | 64% |
| Shots (on target) | 7 (2) | 5 (1) |
| xG | 0.66 | 0.3 |
| Big chances (missed) | 2 (1) | 0 (0) |
| Cross accuracy | 24% | 6% |
| Touches in opposition box | 12 | 10 |
| Corners | 4 | 3 |
As Phillips stated, Derby were sustained in their pressure in the final third and they did not allow the Lilywhites a way out of their own box as corners, crosses and throw-ins bombarded Paul Heckingbottom’s side in the opening 10 minutes of the second-half.
It paid off as Forsyth and Yates scored the goals to secure a crucial three points to take Eustace’s side out of the bottom three and continue their momentum heading into this weekend.
While every game is tough in the Championship, confidence is flowing through this Derby team right now and they will come out firing against Swansea on Saturday.
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