The reason John Eustace was willing to walk out on Blackburn in the play-off places for a relegation battle with Derby became clear when the Rams spent big on a huge summer overhaul of their squad, but as Ollie from @DerbyCountyBlog tells us it's been a tricky start for the new-look Rams.

So, transfer window first of all, Derby did big business, where did that money come from?

The owner, Sir David of Clowes. Persistent rumours about outside investment had no substance. There was some money left over from the (reported £10m) sale of Eiran Cashin to Brighton, but Clowes certainly topped the transfer kitty up to back his manager.

What did you think of the activity at the time? What did you think now?

On the whole, I was very pleased with the business, which certainly represented what I described as a significant ‘vibe shift’ from the summer before (Jerry Yates, Kayden Jackson, Marcus Harness and all that).

We had no strikers, now we have plenty. Patrick Agyemang - not that one - is one of the most exciting strikers we’ve had in donkey’s years, primarily because it’s never entirely clear what he’s going to do next. We had to wait for him, because he played for the United States in the Gold Cup despite requiring surgery for a hernia, but now he’s playing, and already has three assists to top up just the one goal (a towering header against Southampton). We spoke about Carlton Morris in our pre-season interview, and while a run of four goals in his first four games was never going to continue indefinitely, the hope now is that he can build up an effective partnership with Big Pat, and they’ll cause some chaos.

However, because last season’s squad was so weak, the team needed bolstering in every department. That was never going to be possible to do well in a single window, even with a bit of budget, and what has been made starkly clear to us is that it definitely isn’t a case of ‘mission accomplished’ yet. There are still some players left from the Paul Warne Experience to move out, still some positions that lack depth, and fans will be drawing up their January wishlists already (I know I am).

Ins >>> Patrick Agyemang, 24, CF, Charlotte, £5m >>> Max Johnston, 21, RB, Sturm Graz, £2m >>> Carlton Morris, 29, CF, Luton, Undisclosed >>> Rhian Brewster, 25, CF, Sheff Utd, Free >>> Andi Weimann, 33, AM, Blackburn, Free >>> Danny Batth, 34, CB, Blackburn, Free >>> Richard O’Donnell, 36, GK, Blackpool, Free >>> Lewis Travis, 27, DM, Blackburn, Undisclosed >>> Owen Beck, 22, LB, Liverpool, Loan >>> David Ozoh, 20, DM, Palace, Loan >>> Dion Sanderson, 25, CB, Birmingham, Loan >>> Bobby Clark, 20, CM, Red Bull Salzburg, Loan >>> Ben Brereton-Diaz, 26, CF, Southampton, Loan

Outs >>> Kane Wilson, 25, RB, MK Dons, Undisclosed >>> Tyrese Fornah, 25, CM, Northampton, Free >>> Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, 33, RW, MK Dons, Free >>> Tom Barkhuizen, 32, RW, Barrow Free >>> Sonny Bradley, 33, CB, Lincoln, Free >>> Conor Washington, 33, CF, Matlock, Free >>> Kemar Roofe, 32, CF, Released >>> Erik Pieters, 36, LB, Released >>> Jeff Hendrick, 33, CM, Retired >>> Rohan Luhtra, 23, GK, Released >>> Kenzo Goudmijn, 23, CM, Go Ahead Eagles, Loan >>> Ben Osborn, 31, CM, Stockport, Loan >>> Dajaune Brown, 19, CF, Port Vale, Loan >>> Jake Rooney, 22, CB, Barnsley, Loan

We had high hopes for Derby this season, it hadn’t materialised so far in fact quite the opposite, what do you make of the start?

It’s been suboptimal, to put it mildly. I was prepared to swallow some excuses and ‘trust the process’ copium while Eustace dealt with an early injury crisis and tried to bed in essentially a whole new team, but there have been some putrid performances along the way.

The annoying thing is that, with hindsight, the first five games were actually OK. Stoke beat us in injury time at their place on the opening day. It turns out that losing 5-3 to Coventry at home wasn’t quite as embarrassing as we thought at the time, given that they’ve continued to stomp all over the division at large (at least we got three in our ‘eight-goal thriller’). We then drew with Bristol City at home and Ipswich away (they equalised with a penalty in the 14th minute of injury time, the referee having clearly had some sort of episode). And then we won 1-0 at West Brom. So far, so adequate, and everyone felt relatively bullish about the first real opportunity to ‘kickstart’ the season, at home to Preston. That one, we flunked in dismal fashion, playing dreadfully and losing 1-0.

We then shithoused a point at Wrexham, courtesy of a Ben Brereton Diaz screamer, but alarm bells were certainly ringing for me when we followed that up by scrambling a 1-1 draw against Charlton at home.

We then got a more positive performance in drawing at home with Southampton.

That led us to our next “now let’s kickstart the season” moment, at struggling Oxford. I could go on at length about that, but suffice to say, Eustace was outthought by Gary ‘Shit Trainers’ Rowett, and Derby put in one of their most embarrassing performances in years (and as you know, there are some whopper contenders to measure that against).

We were lucky, then, that our midweek game was against Norwich City, who are going through a crisis of confidence, and are currently pissweak and brittle. Even then, we still had to rely on a hefty dose of luck to get past them 1-0, after failing to inhabit the pitch in the first half.

And so here we are, 18th in the early table.

It has to be noted that this is an atypically tough Championship. I feel confident in saying that the three teams who came up from League One will not go back down, which would obviously send three incumbents to the drop. Meanwhile, the four parachute payment sides are all outside of the top eight at the time of writing, which demonstrates how tough the league is, even with that financial advantage. Stoke, Hull, Preston, dare I say QPR are all currently overachieving based on pre-season predictions. This has been a start to make any pundit sweat about the accuracy of their “1-24” list.

For us, there have been a few chinks of light, but also more than enough warnings about how badly things could go wrong. The next four games - QPR home, Sheffield United away, Hull home, Blackburn away, leading us up to the next international break - feel critically important in defining exactly how badly we are going to struggle.

Rams in the league so far…
Stoke 3-1 Derby Baker 70, Thomas 90, Mubama 90 – Morris 60
Derby 3-5 Coventry Elder 12, Morris pen 45, Adams 50 – Thomas 7, Wright pen 25, Thomas-Asante 72, Mason-Clark 75, Torp 79
Derby 1-1 Bristol City Morris 86 – Twine 35
Ipswich 2-2 Derby Greaves 33, Clarke pen 90 – Morris pen 50, Brewster 70
West Brom 0-1 Derby Weimann 84
Derby 0-1 Preston Devine 29
Wrexham 1-1 Derby O’Brien 59 – Brereton 72
Derby 1-1 Charlton Clarke 79 – Bree 37
Derby 1-1 Southampton Agyemang 40 – Armstrong 7
Oxford 1-0 Derby Mills 24
Derby 1-0 Norwich Ozoh 55

What’s wrong with the side?

Funnily enough, the key problem is actually quite easy to diagnose, even for us numpty fans. Once they were all finally fit, Eustace got so excited by the opportunity to pick from Morris, Agyemang, Brereton Diaz, Rhian Brewster and the rest that he decided to bang four of them up top in a 4-2-3-1. Individually, they’re all very talented players, but as a posse, it simply hasn’t worked because there is no creator to unlock doors and play them in. Eustace criticised the players’ attitude after they stank out Oxford, but if you’re making a Rowett side look like prime Guardiola-ball at times, I’d dare to suggest that it’s not just down to them ‘wanting it more’, it’s also because they outnumbered us in midfield.

Norwich City, who for all their obvious frailties as a unit are a technical side, took the living piss out of us for 45 minutes on Tuesday night. It was humiliating, but somehow, Eustace got away with it before bowing to the inevitable and changing to 3-4-3, with Morris through the middle, Agyemang to his left and Brereton Diaz right. But it was the introduction of Norway international defender Sondre Langas, finally back from a serious knee injury, that completely changed the complexion of the game, as Derby managed to win at Pride Park for the first time since April.

In summary, it still remains to be confirmed exactly how Eustace’s best team is going to look, but at least get a glimpse of what is possible for a raucous second-half spell against Norwich, where we rallied, created three great chances and scored one of them. There was also a fantastic 15 minutes or so against Southampton, but flicking through the fixtures, I couldn’t give you a game in which we’ve had a convincing performance over the 90 yet.

A final note specific to this game is that we have only one specialist central midfielder available, David Ozoh. Ebou Adams is taking his inevitable yellow card suspension early doors, while Eustace’s midfield general, Lewis Travis, is out with a calf injury. While going ‘top heavy’ in the summer, Eustace neglected to bolster the midfield, so it’s unclear who will partner Ozoh, although my best guess would be the RB Salzburg loanee Bobby Clark, a much-hyped former Liverpool starlet who is yet to make an impression here.

What’s the general consensus on Eustace?

He was hailed as essentially a demigod after keeping us up against all odds last season. However, his reputation has taken a dent this season, as fans who were already fully fed up of watching tripe for years were hoping to see the exciting plan come together an awful lot quicker than this. There was immense pressure on the Norwich game, the first half of which was beyond unacceptable (and was rightly booed), forcing Eustace to reluctantly relinquish his front four dream.

The fact that he was able to belatedly recognise and accept that his preferred team just wasn’t going to work and return to the drawing board is to his credit. All we can do now is hope that the plan B he adopts for this game is effective from the start.

What’s the reason for optimism?

The return of Langas, and the opportunity that affords Eustace to shelve the failed Gang of Four tactic. Langas will slot in alongside the very able defensive leader Matt Clarke, and Eustace’s faithful career companion, Dion Sanderson.

There’s quality, talent and goal threats in the squad. Eustace just hasn’t found a way to truly unlock it yet. Even so, we’ve managed to keep ourselves above the drop line, which I think is important at all times, personally. It is still early enough in the season for the coach to land upon a team that clicks into place. He certainly has options, so there can be no excuses.

Revised expectations for the season?

I said before a ball was kicked that I thought we’d finish in mid-table, and I still believe that’s more than achievable.

Links >>> Official Website >>> Derby Telegraph — Local Press >>> Derby County Blog — Contributor’s blog >>> DCFCFans — Forum >>> Ground Guide – Pride Park

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

tsbains64 added 14:52 - Oct 24 Didnt mention Zamora !
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TacticalR added 12:01 - Oct 25 Thanks to Ollie. Interesting. It makes you wonder who the real Eustace is. He had to fight for survival last season, and now wants to play all his strikers at once. Perhaps the real Eustace will only be revealed over time (if he gets another season at Derby). Eustace's attachment to Sanderson seems strange...we all lost faith in Sanderson pretty quickly when he was here, and then he got relegated with Birmingham.

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