Derby boss John Eustace insisted he remains confident his side will climb the Championship table despite a 4-1 defeat at QPR continuing their poor start to the campaign.
Eustace also admitted that the Rams’ woeful defending has to improve if they are to turn their season around.
“It’s a long season. We’ve had some difficult moments and I’m confident we’ll come through it,” he declared.
“I don’t think the players will need picking up. I think they’ll be angry and ready to go for the next game.”
Derby have conceded sloppy goals and been beset by injuries in defence – and they fell apart at Loftus Road after centre-back Sondre Langas went off with a groin problem in the 12th minute.
The opening goal came when Boy Kemper went past Mohammed Fuseini on the left and back-heeled the ball towards Alfie Lloyd, who fired into the far corner.
Nicolas Madsen converted a penalty and Harvey Vale got Rangers’ third. Paul Smyth added the fourth and Lars-Jorgen Salvesen scored a consolation goal for Derby.
“The manner we conceded the first goal in was really poor. We need to be much better than that individually,” said Eustace.
“In that first 20 minutes I felt comfortable with our shape. Obviously losing Langas doesn’t help as we had to adjust things, and individually we just needed to be better defending the box.
“I’m never going to criticise any player individually. Collectively, we need to defend better from the front and at the back.
“If you miss a tackle or lose a duel in basic defending, then good teams are going to punish you.
“The Championship has got top quality this year and if you don’t defend properly you’re going to get punished.”
QPR boss Julien Stephan admitted his team’s win was marred by defender Amadou Mbengue being carried off on a stretcher late on with what looked like a serious knee injury.
“I have a mix of emotions, because I’m very happy of course with the win but very sad with Amadou’s situation and his injury,” said Stephan.
“We don’t know exactly what the situation is with his knee, but it’s never good to see a player like this come off with a lot of pain. It’s never a good sign.
“Now we have to fight for Amadou (against Birmingham) on Saturday. This is the message that I wanted to deliver to the players.
“We have to keep our energy very positive and our mindset very positive, and use our sadness for Amadou on Saturday and fight for him.
“Normally, when you play a game like this and you score four, you are very happy and very positive – and I have to be very positive about the way we played.
“Unfortunately we had the Amadou situation and that’s why it’s a mix of feelings for us.”
Share