Pre-match interview: ‘The most important thing is that we feel confident and have belief against Middlesbrough’ – Eustace
Pre-match interview: ‘The most important thing is that we feel confident and have belief against Middlesbrough’ – Eustace
Head Coach John Eustace stressed the importance of the Derby County squad fostering confidence and belief as they look ahead to their Sky Bet Championship fixture at Middlesbrough on Saturday (3pm kick-off).
The Derby boss oversaw his second game at the helm when they fell to a narrow defeat against Millwall at Pride Park Stadium last Saturday.
After another full week on the training ground, Eustace is hoping they can turn around the club’s fortunes when they head to the Riverside Stadium.
Eustace spoke to RamsTV after training at Moor Farm on Thursday to discuss the match on Teesside and give an injury update.
On the takeaways from the Millwall game…
I think we can take the effort and the desire that the group showed and build on it. I thought it was there for everyone to see. We certainly didn’t deserve to lose the game. It’s very evident we need to be better in the final third with a bit more quality, which we’ve asked from the boys and we’ve had this week in training. To get that belief back in the group is key. You can see those moments throughout that game when we had opportunities.
The whole place, the fans, the players are ready to erupt if we get that goal – then we can have that feel-good factor back in the group. There’s a lot of hard work ahead, but I’ve been really happy with the effort of everyone up to now.
On making progress on the training pitch…
We are trying to give the belief back into the group. The attitude, the way they’ve gone about their business for the last few weeks, has been excellent. I’ve been really pleased with that and just keeping things very basic and very simple for them.
There was a few things we saw that were pleasing, and hopefully there’ll be a few more things coming out of this Saturday. We just take every match as it comes. It’s very important that we just focus on the next challenge.
We’ve set up to how we want to do things on Saturday, and we’ve worked very hard on it. There’s a lot of football still to be played, 12 big games, but the most important thing is the next one.
On Saturday’s opponents Middlesbrough…
I watched them against Stoke City on Tuesday, they’re a very good team. They’ve got a fantastic squad and invested heavily again in January. It’s going to be a difficult challenge, but one we’re really looking forward to.
All teams go through good spells and bad spells. They’ve been through a difficult period, but they’ve come through it with a good win on Tuesday. We just worry about ourselves, and we’ll see where it takes us. The most important thing is that we go to Middlesbrough on Saturday full of confidence and put a good account for ourselves and see where it takes us.
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