Following a strong start to life under Steve McClaren, it seems as if Derby County may be running out of steam.
When Steve McClaren rejoined Derby County less than two years after leaving the iPro Stadium, many people were surprised by the decision. After all, his tenure there had ended in disappointment with many feeling like he failed in his overall mission with the Rams.
Regardless, the 55-year-old rejoined the club earlier this season and things have gone pretty well thus far.
Derby find themselves back in the running for a play-off spot with the team starting to come together as a unit once again. However, in the last few weeks there have been signs that the initial momentum that McClaren brought with him is starting to wear off.
Since their triumph over bitter rivals Nottingham Forest, the Rams have picked up two wins in their last five games with a number of questionable results to their name.
The narrow 1-0 victories over QPR and Birmingham indicated they were able to grind out results, but a 0-0 home draw against Wigan followed by a 3-0 trouncing at the hands of under pressure Norwich has certainly started raising some eyebrows.
For all their victories under McClaren during the early period of his second tenure, they have not been all that convincing in the manner of their wins.
When looking through their squad it feels as if one or two key injuries could really derail their season, and they don’t have the same feeling of high-end quality that they did during their 2014 run to the play-off final.
It is certainly going to be fascinating to see how they fare for the remainder of the campaign, but given the crop of teams that are in the hunt for the play-offs this season it will be difficult for Derby to maintain their push based on these kind of performances.
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