Barnsley v Derby Preview: experience to tell?

Gary Rowett – 90min.com

Gary Rowett can do both his former employers – Burton Albion and Birmingham City – a favour on Saturday if his Derby County side can outwit Barnsley, who are not in the best of form.

One of the 43-year-old’s final games as Blues boss was a 3-0 defeat to the Tykes, for whom Conor Hourihane ran the show with three assists. Hourihane provided set piece proficiency which accounted for a lot of their goals, whereas they have only scored four goals from dead ball scenarios so far this season.

Barnsley clearly miss the Aston Villa midfielder’s quality deliveries but they also miss his leadership, with an average squad age of 23. The Tykes have lost their last four games, a run which started with a 1-0 home defeat to Cardiff. Paul Heckingbottom rested a few players for that game, perhaps with the Leeds clash in mind, but that has since back-fired on him.

At Bolton last week, their left-side got torn apart by the opposing right-back. A lot of teams in their shoes might have benefited from an experienced, hard-hitting midfielder helping out Harvey Barnes and Andy Yiadom.

The former is the club’s top assister with four and second top scorer with five, but is not the most physically developed player. Yiadom meanwhile was arguably the team’s most consistent player last term, but Heckingbottom has openly questioned his mentality after he didn’t get his move to Huddersfield in the summer.

Derby might not provide the same kind of problems as Bolton because they don’t have width on their right flank. Full-back Chris Baird is not the most adventurous while the wide men, normally any two of Johnny Russell, Tom Lawrence and Andreas Weimann, are given freedom to drift inside. The duo along will not cause so many problems for Barnes or Yiadom, but they will combine well with the nippy Matej Vydra and the selfless David Nugent to examine a potentially soft-centred Tykes midfield.

Brad Potts and George Moncur built up a reputation in the lower leagues primarily for the work they did with the ball and not necessarily what they did without it. There will be a big responsibility therefore on defensive midfielder Joe Williams to hold things together during ropey periods – and he is only 20.

Heckingbottom hinted recently that changes to the squad will be needed in January. That might include a ‘Hassellesque’ leader at centre-back to partner Liam Lindsay, because Adam Jackson remains absent and the form of Angus MacDonald – who recently picked up a virus himself – has perhaps suffered from the weight of captaincy.

By contrast, Derby have a centre-back pairing of Richard Keogh and Curtis Davies, who have performed at the top of this division for much of their careers. The duo are ably protected by Tom Huddlestone, a fine ball-player from deep and Joe Ledley, who has filled in impeccably for the suspended Bradley Johnson, completing the East Midlanders’ experienced spine.

With Barnsley in a state of flux, this is a great chance for Rowett’s Rams to move closer to the top two.

The Football Lab’s Verdict: 0-3