The Derby cult hero is sad to see Marriott and the Rams struggle this term and sought to explain how he and the Pride Park side could both improve.
Derby County cult hero Craig Ramage has issued a strong criticism regarding how Phillip Cocu and his coaches are utilising Jack Marriott, insisting the team isn’t playing to his strengths and reiterating that it should be built around him.
The 25-year-old enjoyed a superb debut season at Pride Park following his move from Peterborough United last summer, scoring 12 goals and registering six assists during the 2018-19 campaign despite his squad rotation role (Transfermarkt).
This term, Marriott has slowly been reintegrated back into the team following bouts of injury and illness in pre-season which had a knock-on effect on building his match fitness (Derby Telegraph), for which he’s had to play catch up, but despite this, he has still looked far from his best.
Ramage, born and bred in Derby and a Rams academy graduate who was at the club between 1986 and 1994, said once again that he would build the team around Marriott, and rubbished claims that he cannot play up front on his own.
“I feel for him. You have to play a certain way to get the best from him. We are not playing to his strengths,” Ramage wrote in the Derby Telegraph. “We have become possession-based, a bit tippy-tappy. We are not looking for that forward pass, that early ball that puts Jack in down the side of defenders… you have to have a creative element around him to put him in.
“Let’s be honest, he has come into a struggling side this season. I hear people suggesting he can be a ’10’ or that he cannot play up top on his own. I don’t believe that. I saw him last season when he had the likes of Mason Mount and Harry Wilson around him, and Jack was a live wire. I have said this already, I would be building the team around Jack Marriott.”
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