The Rams boss spoke about his side’s fixture pile-up this season, comparing it to that of his former club – but with less players available.
Derby County manager Frank Lampard has spoken of the amount of fixtures his side has played this campaign, making a comparison to Premier League leaders Manchester City in terms of how many games they’ve played.
Out of all the teams in the Championship, the Rams have played the most games this season across all competitions, with Wednesday night’s game against Millwall at Pride Park being their 40th of the season (Derby official website).
In addition to their 31 league fixtures so far this term, Derby have also played four games in the FA Cup – two against Southampton, one against Accrington Stanley and one against Brighton & Hove Albion – and four in the EFL Cup, which included a lengthy penalty shootout against Manchester United (Transfermarkt).
“I think we have played second most games to Manchester City in all the leagues,” Lampard told Derby channel Rams TV. “They played on Saturday night and went one ahead of us. That shows you the amount of games and what you have to deal with – and Manchester City have a really big squad of players.
“In some areas in the team we don’t have anyone to call upon in the first team squad because of injuries and in others we do, so that is my job to manage that in terms of minutes and training.”
Despite his personnel issues, Lampard insists he doesn’t like excuses and feels Derby have done well in spite of those and the fixture pile-up, while also looking on the bright side in terms of being able to concentrate on the league now.
The East Midlanders currently sit seventh in the table on 51 points, two behind sixth-placed Bristol City, with both having played 31 league games so far compared to most of the teams in the division, who have got through 32 or 33 league games so far.
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