What Barnsley can expect from Derby County in the FA Cup on Sunday

We look ahead to the 3rd Round FA Cup tie with Derby County at Pride Park on Sunday by speaking to Cory Hancock from Rams Review podcast to get an insight into Paul Warne`s side.

Here’s Cory`s answers to 5 quickfire questions:

Flashback to 2022

Derby are in great form. Only losing twice in 16 games in all competitions (losing a penalty shootout at Anfield in the EFL cup & a 1-0 loss at Ipswich on 21st October) what do you put this great form down to?

I think there are several factors. People will point to new manager Paul Warne and his ideas and style getting across to the players, I think that plays a role, but I also feel like this team is starting to get to know each other as well. We brought in a load of players in summer (for nearly a complete rebuild) and it takes time for those players to mesh together, they are starting to do that and our form has picked up. Warne has made us more defensively solid and we have people this season that can score goals, something that we have been lacking for a few seasons. That is a winning combination!

You have had two tricky away ties so far in the FA Cup at Torquay & Newport, are Derby taking this competition seriously?

Derby are taking this competition as seriously as they can. Let’s be honest, Derby won’t win the cup, but manager Paul Warne sets out to win every match and this competition is no exception. The money from the competition will help a bit as well. Personally, I just see this as an extra game that the club doesn’t need now.

How strong a side do you expect Paul Warne to put out on Sunday against Barnsley?

I’d expect a relatively strong side. We are not blessed with a lot of depth, and we are in good form so I would not expect too many changes. However, I could see a few players given a rest, especially at centre-half and maybe in midfield as well.

From the outside many fans have wondered how the Rams could afford the wages of some of your recent signings. Could you clear this up for us?

Since exiting administration, one of the restrictions on Derby is that they cannot pay fees to clubs or agents for a set amount of time (in all honesty, I’m not sure what this amount of time is) so we could only work on signing free agents in the summer.

The club essentially needs a full rebuild hence why we brought in more than 12 signings. We spoke on our podcast to football finance expert Kieran Maguire who noted that Derby’s match day revenue is high (Derby make about £7 million in Championship ticket sales) so that would increase the budgets quite significantly over a lot of other clubs whose revenues are smaller (i.e. Burton Albion). We also have a wage cap, which has been reported at £12,500 per week.

There is an agreed upon business plan between Derby and EFL so everything is a-okay these days. Free signings can still restrict what Derby can do, but hopefully we will be completely out of the previous regime’s mire in the next two seasons.

Which Derby player has impressed the most so far this season?

Two players spring to mind, goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith and striker David McGoldrick. Wildsmith was a career backup at Sheffield Wednesday and when we picked him up on free, most thought he would continue in the same vein, however, he is our undisputed number one and is getting better with each passing game. He’s been given a solid run in the team, playing week in and week out and we are reaping the benefits of that.

David McGoldrick is pure class. The 35 year old veteran has been rolling back the years as of late and is probably our most influential attacking player. He’s scored 8 goals already for us this year but his link up play is quality. We’ve called out for a player of his class for years.

Thanks to Cory for taking the time to give reds an insight into what to expect on Sunday. Look out for our match review blog later on Sunday once we have returned back from Pride Park.

Highlight from our last outing to Pride Park: