Derby County told to forget Ipswich Town ace & make new transfer priority | OneFootball

Derby County have been urged to prioritise defensive reinforcements ahead of another move for Ipswich Town attacker Anis Mehmeti.

Derby County have started the season slowly but rather than reignite their interest in Anis Mehmeti in the January transfer window, The Rams have been urged to strengthen their defence as a priority instead.

Having missed out on the top six and the play-off places on the final day of last season, the expectation would be that Derby would challenge for the expanded top eight spots at the very least this season.

However, as they head into the prolonged international break, Derby instead sit in the bottom three and the relegation places with just one win in their opening eight games of the Championship campaign.

No team has scored fewer goals than The Rams in the second-tier so far this season and only four teams, including the two teams below them in the league table, Preston North End and Burnley, have conceded more than them.

They have kept just one clean sheet so far this season and have conceded more than one goal in six of their nine matches across all competitions.

As a result, rather than fixing issues in attack with the addition of Mehmeti, there is also a fair bit of concern about the defensive goings on for John Eustace and his Derby side.

Derby urged to strengthen defensively

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Having shipped 14 goals in their eight games so far this season at an average of 1.75 goals per game, in contrast to 1.28 goals per game last season, Derby are surprisingly struggling defensively.

As well as that, County also have a slew of injuries which has led FLW’s Derby Fan Pundit Shaun Woodward to suggest focusing on defensive reinforcements, rather than making another move for Ipswich man Mehmeti as they did in the summer, should be the priority in January.

Shaun says: “I think I would have liked to have seen Anis Mehmeti come into Derby.

“He is a very talented player at this level and has shown it at Bristol City what a great player he could be with his goals and assists.

“I just think that right now he isn’t the type of player that we need.

“We are so short defensively with (Eiran) Cashin and (Matt) Clarke now out injured. We have got no left-backs at the club for the foreseeable future with Fozzy (Craig Forsyth), (Charlie) Taylor and (Derry) Murkin all out.

“For me, defensively we need to be strengthening and that is a key area we need to be looking at.

“As much as I wouldn’t have minded Mehmeti coming into Derby, I think that right now under the circumstances, we need to strengthen the defence because until that we are going to keep shipping goals so that, to me, is the priority in January.”

A slow start for John Eustace and Derby

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Some pressure has grown on John Eustace, despite the largely very impressive job he has done at Derby after similarly strong stints with Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers; both stints that he left with each club sitting in the top six and the play-off places in the Championship at the time of his departure.

Derby were not rip-roaring last season and narrowly missed out on the top six due to impressive form in the second half of the campaign and so patience is something Eustace has surely certainly earned at Pride Park.

It is a concern, though, that Eustace’s football, primarily a conservative approach and so often extremely difficult for opponents to play against, has lost what makes it so effective.

Individual errors but, more often than not when they concede, finding themselves disorganised and out of shape is uncharacteristic of Derby in recent years and of Eustace’s football as a whole.

Injuries have certainly affected things and look set to rock the boat for a while longer yet, especially with the issues at left-back outlined and a shortage of fit centre-backs, too.

Derby boast some very impressive attackers and do have a bit of depth in the final third so while Mehmeti would be a worthwhile addition for pretty much any Championship side, the defence is something that needs sorting first and foremost.