Before the Fulham match last weekend, some of us were saying it might be time for the Rams to bring John Eustace back for the defensive midfield role he filled so successfully last season.

Will Hughes had not been especially impressive in that position; playing him there also reduced the team’s attacking threat. In addition, Omar Mascarell had contributed nothing in his second half substitute appearance at Charlton in midweek, so it seemed like a good time to go back to what had worked in the past.

More importantly than whatever any of us might think, Steve McClaren seemed to agree. The result was certainly right for the Rams, as the team once again looked as competitive as they did for so much of last season.

There was something about the Rams’ starting line-up for the Fulham match that struck me as odd: Steve McClaren has been manager for very close to a year now, and yet only one player in the starting eleven — Cyrus Christie — was brought to the club by McClaren.

I think we have become so used to a new manager adopting a “new broom sweeps clean” mentality and clearing out the entire squad that Steve’s approach takes a bit of getting used to.

The team playing against Fulham had very much of a Nigel Clough look to it; and since so many have recently signed long-term contracts, the team will continue to have that look for quite some time.

Is this just a gee whiz factoid, or does it tell us something about Mac’s approach? I think it tells us that McClaren perhaps sees himself more as a coach than just a transfer market operator; that he can improve the players he has more effectively than simply going out and replacing them all. For someone like me who has warned repeatedly what a dangerous place the transfer market is, it’s a refreshing attitude.

I’m not sure what to make of some of the statistics now being generated during football matches. Going back to the Charlton Championship game a week ago, the BBC tells us the Rams had 63% of possession to Charlton’s 37%. As Charlton won 3-2, they must have been extremely efficient with their time in possession.

Just as strange - the BBC also tells us that Fulham, despite getting a right going-over from the Rams - had 53% of possession to the Rams’ 47%. The less the Rams see of the ball, the more they score? Perhaps it’s as my dad used to say; “It’s the balls in the net that count.”

Earlier in the week the second worst-kept secret in recent Derby County history was made official: the club took Stoke defender Ryan Shotton on loan (if you’ve forgotten already, the worst-kept was that the club wanted to sign George Thorne).

The Shotton signing is just a bit of a puzzler: he plays mainly at right-back, yet Cyrus Christie has been successful so far in his appearances for the Rams. Shotton’s appearance in Tuesday’s League Cup match against Charlton leads us to wonder who will play right back against Ipswich at the weekend; Shotton seems to be too expensive to be purely a squad player.

Speaking of squad players, Whitbread and Mascarell also had a chance on Tuesday to push a claim to a first team place. Could Whitbread and Shotton be seen as helping to eliminate the Rams’ tendency to concede squirelly goals? And will Mascarell be able to keep Eustace out of the team or vice versa?

The Ipswich home game brings with it some memories of a strange encounter from last season, as McClaren was taking over from Clough. I’ll be looking for Eustace to keep his place. I’m not sure about Shotton or Whitbread, but I get the feeling defensive changes might be in the air.

Photo: Action Images

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