Derby County Have To Find Cover For Jerry Yates And Lars-Jorgen Salvesen

Derby County are in desperate need of goals to help keep them in the Championship, with time running out for the club to retain their second tier status after winning promotion from League One last season.

The Rams returned to the bottom three on Friday evening after QPR eased past them at Loftus Road in John Eustace’s first game as head coach following his departure from Blackburn Rovers the previous day.

The 4-0 defeat showed the difference between the two sides, with the R’s able to take their chances and put the East Midlands outfit to the sword, as they offered very little in return. Jerry Yates did find the back of the net late on, but his goal was chalked off for offside on an embarrassing night for the team.

Derby missed out on key targets in the January transfer window and they are severely lacking in the forward department still. Therefore, Eustace revealing that he may utilise the free agent market will intrigue supporters, and a former Leeds United and Rangers striker could be the man to help them stay in the Championship.

Kemar Roofe could be the perfect tonic for Derby’s recent woes

Bringing in free agents is a last resort for the Rams but it is one that must not be dismissed, with retaining their status as a second-tier club vital to the progression that they want to make in the next few years.

Eustace did not shy away from the idea himself and speaking to the press after the game he dropped a hint about his own plans for the coming weeks: “It’s something we can definitely have a look at. Obviously, you know, the last 24 hours I have had enough to think about, but yeah, that’s something we can look at for sure.”

The 45-year-old was asked if more bodies and fresh faces could help give his team a boost, and he replied: “Yeah, maybe but, you know, the most important thing is that this group of players need some guidance.

“They need some stability and they need some leadership. I’m here now to help that group of players. All the hard work starts on Monday on that training field. You know, you win games when you do Monday to Friday correctly and I’m really looking forward to working with the squad of players going forward.”

Eustace continued: “We can’t be sulky. We can’t be feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to create that fighting mentality. We don’t want to be victims. We’re fighters and coming in now, we make sure that these boys are ready, they roll their sleeves up. We’ve got players coming back from injury in the next couple of weeks as well, which is going to be important to the group and we’ve just got to keep going. If we give up there are going to be problems.”

One of those new faces could be Kemar Roofe after Rangers let the striker go in the summer.

Injuries blighted his time at Ibrox, but on his day he is an incredibly dangerous finisher and is exactly what Derby need at the moment with goals not coming naturally.

In his last season in the Championship he scored 14 goals as Leeds finished in the play-offs before eventually losing to the Rams in the semi-final.