According to the Derby Evening Telegraph, Darren Wassall believed the Rams were confident in the days before the match against Nottingham Forest.

In contrast, Paul Clement had said after the Preston game in early February that the Rams lacked confidence after a long winless spell.

We have heard numerous reports, speculation and observations regarding players like Chris Martin, Johnny Russell, Tom Ince and Cyrus Christie not playing well at various times this season because they had lost his confidence.

Similarly last season many of us believed that Richard Keogh was suffering through a spell of lost confidence, which most linked directly to his failed clearance in the clubs play-off defeat. It would be easy to believe that Lee Grant’s confidence might have also been shaken after a series of brain snaps led to him gifting goals to opponents.

For me, this is one of the biggest changes we have seen in football over the years: back in the day, when a player had a bad game or a series of bad games, we said he was rubbish. That he couldn’t beat his own grandmother, or some similar epithet.

Now we have all become pop psychologists, and we are looking for mental lapses to explain bad performances or individual errors.

How long can it be before we will watch a striker miss a simple chance and the bloke in front will turn round and say; “He missed that because I hear he’s worried about his lad not doing well at school”? Or a Rams defender will head a cross straight to the feet of an opposing striker who smashes it into the Rams’ net, only for someone to murmur “He made that mistake because rumour has it he’s worried about his upcoming contract talks.”

Flippancy aside, there is actually a serious aspect to this; we are beginning to recognize that footballers are not machines; they are human, and are not so very different from us. Certainly they are younger, stronger and fitter than us, and they are probably richer and better looking, too. But just because someone is known as “a good player”, does not mean that he will always play well every match, or even play well for a different club or manager.

I am sure that some players do not work as hard as they should in training. Some players eat too much; some drink more than they should, some smoke and others may indulge in substances even more harmful to both their bodies and performance.

Some spend too much time out clubbing, some have gambling problems, some players have worries about family situations and the list goes on. Very similar to our own day to day problems, except theirs are heightened due to them being in the public eye, with huge expectations heaped on them, often from a very young age.

Hard though it may be to believe with the wages they earn, some will still spend too much and develop serious money issues. And like us all, financial problems can weigh heavy and can contribute to a less than optimal performances.

Where this can really hurt is in the transfer market, where a manager is looking to sign a player he does not necessarily know much about personally. Talented perhaps but not as focussed on their professional career as the club may hope.

All of us can remember players who have joined the Rams, and almost immediately got the cold shoulder from the manager; there have been a number of them in recent seasons and in each case, was it due to the players’ football ability, or something else?

Did the manager become aware too late of a personal issue or personality trait the player brought with them that was previously unknown?

The best example in recent history is probably Liam Dickinson, a lower division striker signed for at the time a large fee of £750,000 by Paul Jewell in the summer of 2008 to add firepower to the Rams attack. After signing he never played a first team match for the Rams.

We did not know it at the time, but his career was essentially already over when he joined the Rams at the age of twenty-two; it certainly wasn’t because he could not play football but instead because he never saw football as his top priority. In an interview he said as much himself:

"Playing football on a Saturday was just an activity for me, a hobby, something you do for fun than an actual career prospect. If I'd scored two goals in the old days it would have been straight to the pub for sausage and chips and a pint. Now it's a bottle of water and some wine gum — it's not quite the same."

It seems that lack of focus on football led to a reputation as a bit of a wild boy, his own manager Phil Sproson, confirmed that the reason he regularly moved from club to club was because he was; "no angel".

It almost makes me wish clubs would persist a little longer with a player whose personal life is not the issue, but simply their game may not be all we could wish. Their game at one stage must have had something about it that attracted the club, so patience rather than seeking to solve all through the transfer market may be the key.

Unfortunately modern football is not renowned for implementing a long term plan as fans become more and more impatient for results and success. This means a player once a player reaches a certain age, if they that cannot in most cases instantly produce on the field, both their confidence and careers are being shredded and disposed of at a faster rate than ever before.

Of course, Derby County is well aware of all of this, and it is why they employ dieticians, sports psychologists, coaching staff and try to provide the best possible facilities and an environment conducive to getting the best out of their players. When we murmur sympathetically that a player is low on confidence, internally the club may or may not know of a problem and in turn agree or not agree that it is an acceptable reason for a dip in form.

One thing is certain: whatever we fans may have yelled in the past, no professional player is rubbish, even though they make mistakes that will have us seething with uncomprehending frustration.

Whether the explanation is obvious or hiding beneath the surface, many will continue to maintain that they are simply rubbish, even though we know, especially in this age of social media and trial by trolls, that by doing so it may be the very thing that is hurting the players’ confidence.

Things are never as simple as they seem and when we look back at how this season pans out — perhaps some of the reasons that caused another huge drop in form, may become more obvious.

Perhaps Saturdays result will help heal whatever wounds are being carried both on and off the field. We can only hope so.

Photo: Action Images

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