2 lessons Paul Warne will have learned from Derby County's 2-0 loss to Sunderland AFC | OneFootball

The Rams were comfortably beaten by the league leaders on Tuesday evening at the Stadium of Light.

Derby County's dismal away form continued on Tuesday evening, as they were put to the sword by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, losing the game 2-0.

Jobe Bellingham's 25-yard stunner and a Wilson Isidor goal either side of the break saw the Black Cats to all three points in a rain-soaked clash in the north-east, and despite the home side going back to the top of the Championship table, it was the Rams who perhaps allowed them to get there.

Derby were poor with the possession that they had, and continued to be wasteful in good positions, allowing their opponents to get a foot-hold in the game after Paul Warne's side had started the brighter.

A late flurry of action in the Sunderland box saw Eiran Cashin go close to halving the deficit, but it was another away trip that ended without a point for the Rams, who have now lost their last three matches.

Warne will be hoping for a much improved performance on Saturday, as Queens Park Rangers make the trip to Pride Park. Football League World has taken a look at two lessons that the 51-year-old will have learned from his side's 2-0 defeat.

Jerry Yates can not be left isolated again

Jerry Yates has enjoyed a relatively good start to life at Derby after joining on loan from Swansea City in the summer, but he is yet to find the back of the net, and Tuesday was possibly the toughest match he had in his short time at the club so far.

Without Kayden Jackson and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, the 27-year-old found himself relatively alone up front after both failed to impress against Norwich City on Saturday.

The Rams' injury issues saw Warne change his formation for the first time this season, and it was a decision he might regret, particularly as his team were found lacking when counter-attacking.

Marcus Harness and Tawanda Chirewa struggled to prove why they should be in the starting XI going forward in deeper roles than what Jackson and Mendez-Laing usually play, and it seems incredibly likely that both will come back in against QPR.

Yates' link-up play has been brilliant in 2024/25, and his clever flicks and turns have wowed the Pride Park faithful on several occasions, but at points on Tuesday he found himself 10–15 yards away from his fellow attackers, and that gap must be closed if Derby are to succeed.

Derby must stop losing the ball so easily

One of the Rams' worst traits in the opening two months of the campaign has been how easy it has been for teams to win the ball back off them.

Derby completed just 76% of their passes against Sunderland, with it costing them immediately for the first goal as Chirewa's misplaced pass allowed Bellingham to strike the ball from distance under little pressure.

It was a situation that Warne has seen too many times already this season, with all three of Norwich City's goals coming from the Rams finding themselves caught in possession in different areas of the pitch.

The jump from League One to the Championship is particularly large now, but those in black-and-white must be calmer when on the ball, and not make the same mistakes that seem to be costing them almost constantly at this moment in time.

Warne must work out a way to make his midfield more compact, and get them playing more efficiently, something that proved to work so well as they won promotion from the third tier.

This is not a quick fix, and it will take David Ozoh to recover from his injury to help, but if Derby do not find a way to stop themselves from losing the ball so easily, they may start to concede even more goals.