Derby County are 22nd in the Championship after two defeats in their first two league games of the season.
Coventry City secured their first win at Pride Park since 2003 on Saturday, as the Rams were beaten 5-3 on their own patch by a ruthless Sky Blues side.
It followed a late 3-1 defeat to Stoke City on the opening weekend, and John Eustace will be hoping to replicate Paul Warne’s 3-0 win over Bristol City from 12 months ago on Friday night as the Robins visit the East Midlands.
Nevertheless, injuries have played a crucial role for Derby already this season, and David Ozoh has spoken out about the situation during an open training session.
David Ozoh explains what to expect from Derby County going forward
While it is still very early days in the 2025/26 campaign, supporters need to see improvements from their players in the coming weeks.
However, Ozoh believes that there is plenty more to come from his team, and when asked what Eustace has asked for, he said (via: BBC Radio Derby): “Just running, to be fair. That’s the biggest thing, we want to be the highest-pressing team.
“We want to run, we want to make this place [Pride Park] a fortress as well. We’re getting used to it, it’s just the start. We’ve got a lot of us coming back from injuries, there’s a lot of fitness issues. But, it’s not an excuse. We’re going to push on, we’ve got the confidence to turn it around.
“It’s exciting, some of the new signings that haven’t played, we’ve seen what they’ve done at other clubs and we can’t wait to get them playing here. We know once everyone is back fit, we can be dangerous in the league. So, hopefully they can come back soon and we can kick on.”
The Rams have eight players still to return
Corey Blackett-Taylor was the latest Derby player to be struck down by injury, with the winger coming off the pitch against Stoke with a hamstring issue.
There are plenty of stars coming back to full fitness, including Kane Wilson and Rhian Brewster, with the latter having not had a pre-season after leaving Sheffield United in the summer.
Nevertheless, Curtis Nelson, Owen Beck, Sondre Langas, Lars-Jorgen Salvesen and Patrick Agyemang, are also on the mend and Eustace will be keen to see them all back in action sooner rather than later.
Derby clearly have a squad that is full of quality, but with their fitness problems, it could take some time for the team to get firing.
