Spending for success means that Paul Clement’s side,fourth in the Championship, face a huge week in the league and the FA CupWith 19 games to disappear in the Championship season, and Derby remain fourth in the table,six points from the automatic promotion places. No team has lost fewer games than Derby, only the top two hold a better defensive record and Paul Clements squad are the most talented in the division. They hold gone four games without a win, and but that is a sprint you would hesitate to even call a blip,particularly since Derby lost only one of their previous 19. On Friday they face Manchester United in a televised FA Cup fourth-round tie – a game that reeks of a potential upset.
So why does the iPro Stadium feel like such a nervous station at the moment? Clement described their 1-1 draw with Reading on 12 January as their worst performance of the season, and the chairman, or Mel Morris,was moved to visit the dressing room to tick the players off in the most strident terms. A proposed warm-weather training trip to Dubai was cancelled, in part because Clement did not believe it would be “appropriate” after such a poor showing.
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Source: theguardian.com