Nigel Pearson admits he needs to find the missing ingredient for promotion at Derby County

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The new Derby manager says his side need a mental and physical resilience to be successful.

New Derby County manager Nigel Pearson has told the club’s official website that his main task will be to find the missing ingredient for promotion after the bitter disappointments of recent years.

Pearson was announced as the permanent successor to Paul Clement at the iPro Stadium last week, having turned down interest from relegated Aston Villa to instead join the East Midlands side.

The man who led Leicester City to promotion and Premier League survival is likely to bring experience and discipline to the Rams squad, and is aiming to be the man to finally lead the club to promotion back to the top flight.

Discussing what needs to be done to take that final step, the 52-year-old admits that he needs to find a “missing ingredient” and stressed that he must ensure the squad have the mental and physical resilience to be successful.

Pearson told the club’s website: “What’s important for me is that I look at what needs to be done here. This club has been close on the last three occasions and my outlook on that is that whilst we have been close, there is no reason why we can’t take that next step.

“We have to find that missing ingredient, whatever that is. To be a success in the Championship you have got to be able to show a resilience physically, as well as mentally.

“There are plenty of positives. It is easy for people to look at what you can’t do, what’s negative and we will be looking to address those short comings in the past. There are, though, a lot of positives here too.”

Pearson has a good track record in the Football League, leading Leicester to promotion as champions of League One and then immediately steering them to the play-offs in his first spell and subsequently helping Hull City rebuild before his increased success in his second spell at the Foxes.

Derby fans will be desperate to see him continue that success as they look to recover from the disappointment of recent years, with the club having fallen at a late hurdle in each of the last three campaigns.