He's outscoring everyone bar Yates: Derby may regret losing top-class star

John Eustace’s dramatic managerial appointment was meant to swiftly turn around Derby County’s fortunes, but the ex-Blackburn Rovers boss’ arrival onto the scene hasn’t sparked a run of victories just yet.

Instead, the consistent losses that saw Paul Warne be relieved from his duties have continued on, with Eustace tasting back-to-back losses in the Rams hot-seat since taking on the reins.

Results really do need to pick up soon from the perspective of the relegation candidates, with a hope that Jerry Yates can get back to his best in-front of goal soon to try and guide his team out of their tricky predicament.

Yates’ hot-and-cold form for Derby

Amazingly, despite only scoring two strikes across his last ten Championship outings, the ex-Blackpool striker remains Derby’s most potent goalscorer this season.

In total, Yates has helped himself to seven goals and three assists across 31 second-tier contests, with a need for the Doncaster-born attacker to stop fluffing his lines now to steer his team to some vital wins.

This acrobatic effort back in November was the pick of the bunch from Yates’ red-hot Rams form, but these sensational attacking displays have been nowhere to be seen as of late, with Eustace’s men firing blanks across his opening two games in charge.

Unfortunately, away from the 28-year-old, there is a severe lack of goalscoring heroes at the new boss’ disposal, with this ex-Rams star – who was once front and centre of Frank Lampard’s Premier League-aspiring side – even managing to outscore every Derby player this season bar Yates, despite long spells on the sidelines for his new team owing to injury.

The ex-Derby star outscoring every player bar Yates

Once upon a time, Derby were regularly challenging for promotion up to the top flight, away from their current task of staying put in the second tier.

Under Lampard during the 2018/19 season, the Rams very nearly rose up to the promised land, with Jack Marriott an exciting and daring attacker the Derby boss could rely on.

Unfortunately for Lampard and Co, a playoff final versus Aston Villa would prove to be a bridge too far, but Marriott would still round off that campaign with a strike at Wembley, bumping up his total during his debut season in Derbyshire to a promising 13 in all competitions.

After that season – similar to the football club in the years that followed – Marriott’s playing days would slightly unravel, with a meagre three strikes greeting him the campaign after, leading to him becoming somewhat of an EFL nomad when departing Pride Park for good in 2021 on a free transfer.

The “top class” ace – as he was once hailed by Lampard – even had to drop down to League Two temporarily with current employers Wrexham, but this has proven to be an inspired move by the injury-prone attacker.

Indeed, this season so far, Marriott has chipped in with five league goals from 16 games as his much-talked-about team gun for back-to-back promotions all the way up to Derby’s level.

Amazingly, despite being missing for 18 clashes this season due to a broken fibula, Marriott’s efforts would put him in the silver medal position in Derby’s top goalscorers, with Kayden Jackson enduring a deeply frustrating campaign on the contrary, with two fewer goals than his counterpart from 18 more encounters.

Eustace will hope his team can sort out their deficiencies in front of goal promptly, whilst Marriott will strive to gain more minutes into his legs to increase his own tally in League One.

Related

Derby let “relentless” star go for £0, now he’s outperforming Mendez-Laing

Derby County let this midfield ace leave prematurely.