McCarthy Considering Changes for Derby Clash Friday, 18th Dec 2015 15:45 Town boss Mick McCarthy has admitted that he’s weighing up whether to make changes to what's recently been a settled side ahead of Saturday’s game against third-placed Derby County at Portman Road. The Blues have been unchanged for the last four matches during which time they have won three - including their last two games away at the MK Dons and Fulham - and have lost only the home fixture with leaders Middlesbrough a fortnight ago. “There’s always the consideration of changing it,” McCarthy said with the Blues going into their third game in eight days. “And, of course, if I change it and we win I’m a champ and I’m a chump if we lose. That’s my own thought process, not what anybody else thinks. “The lads have been brilliant and I think we do get a little bit mollycoddling, ‘Oh, we’ll have to rest a few…’. “I think Derby had three missing out of their team on Tuesday, so they’re not resting players, they’ll come with their full complement. “There are two schools of thought, the team that has been playing has been brilliant and we’ve had good results, so why not continue with them? “But then you think maybe [we’d be better with] fresh legs. But they’re fit enough. I’m not worried about any of the lads not being able to cope with three games in a week, they’re more than fit enough.” The Blues will be facing a Derby side featuring a host of big money summer signings and McCarthy has said on a number of occasions that he expects the Rams, along with leaders Middlesbrough, Brighton, Hull City and Burnley, to be remain at the top of the division for the whole season. “Some of the fees and some of the wages we’ve heard, they’ve gone out on a limb to do it," he added. "Yes, it puts pressure on them but they look the real deal to me, they look like they’re a really good team, a good squad of players. “But there are other teams in it. There are some really good teams and if you blink or let your guard down at any stage we’ll all be trying to leapfrog each other. It’s maintaining it. They didn’t last year, so I think that does add pressure.” McCarthy says the signing of a former Canaries midfielder was the close season business which most caught his eye: “Bradley Johnson stands out for me, he got into the Premier League with Norwich and was outstanding and I was surprised they let him go. “But if what I hear about the fee that they paid for him and they wages they’re paying him [is true], maybe we’d get five players for that. That tells you where they’ve set the bar. “Tom Ince as well, they spent big on him, they spent big on George Thorne. They spent £3 million on him two years ago and sadly for him he was injured. “Darren Bent up front, they’ve given him a good salary. But good luck to them, I’ve got no envy in me at all because I love beating them all the more, it makes it all the more pleasurable.” McCarthy seems likely to resist the temptation to make changes and will probably pick the XI which has seen the Blues up to sixth. Dean Gerken will keep his place in goal with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Jonas Knudsen on the left and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the heart of the defence. In midfield, Cole Skuse will start despite having suffered a broken nose at Fulham with Jonathan Douglas likely to continue alongside him. In the wide roles, the Town boss could consider bringing in either Kevin Bru or Ryan Fraser - who is expected to be fit despite taking a knock in training - but in the end will probably opt to stick with Ainsley Maitland-Niles on the right and Freddie Sears on the left with Daryl Murphy and Brett Pitman up front. Fraser is likely to be used from the bench at some stage, while former Ram Luke Varney will be amongst the subs having signed a contract to the end of the season. Derby, who will go into the top two if they beat the Blues with leaders Middlesbrough at second-placed Brighton at Saturday lunchtime, will be without first-choice keeper Scott Carson for a fourth game in a row due to a back injury. Lee Grant will continue to deputise. Irish international midfielder Jeff Hendrick is a doubt having picked up an ankle injury during Tuesday's 4-0 home victory over Bristol City. Midfielder Will Hughes is a long-term absentee having suffered cruciate ligament damage early in the campaign. Manager Paul Clement knows what to expect from Town, telling the Rams’ official site: “Ipswich get the ball forward very quickly from their goalkeeper to the strikers and push a lot of bodies forward. “They get on the end of second balls and create chances from there and they’re on a great run. We have to expect a very, very tough game for that reason. “We have proved that we can handle this type of game. We have good, solid and secure defenders and we have to be ready for the challenge." Historically, Town have had the better of Derby, winning 33 games (31 in the league), drawing 21 (19) and losing 25 (24). Last time the teams met, at Portman Road in January, Chris Martin’s second-half goal saw the Rams to a 1-0 victory. Martin seized on a Tommy Smith error in the 57th minute to win the game for the visitors, who had John Eustace sent off late on. In August at the iPro Stadium, Berra nodded home his third goal of the season to secure the Blues a deserved point as the game ended 1-1. The Scotland international headed in Paul Anderson's freekick on 52 to level Martin's 13th minute goal for the Rams. Former Blues striker Darren Bent joined the Rams in the summer following a loan spell in the second half of last season. The 31-year-old came through the academy ranks at Playford Road and went on to make 116 starts and 25 sub appearances for the first team, scoring 55 goals, between 2001 and 2005 before moving on to then-Premier League Charlton. The former England international has been rather a bit-part player during 2015/16 up to now, having made just his second league start during Tuesday’s 4-0 victory over Bristol City, in addition to 11 appearances as a sub. He has scored two goals, having netted 12 times in 13 starts and four sub appearances during last season’s half-season loan from Aston Villa. In addition to Bent, Rams centre-half Richard Keogh was an academy schoolboy and Portman Road ballboy during his formative years. Varney was with Derby from November 2008 to July 2011, initially on loan from Charlton, but made only 11 starts and four sub appearances, scoring one goal, spending much of his time with the Rams out on loan. Blues keeper-coach Malcolm Webster held a similar position at Derby under George Burley's spell in charge of the Rams. Saturday’s referee is Keith Hill from Hertfordshire, who has shown a not insignificant 79 yellow cards and four red in 19 games so far this season. Hill’s last Town game was the 3-2 home defeat to Brighton in August in which he booked seven players, including four Blues, Jonas Knudsen, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Ryan Fraser and Brett Pitman. Prior to that, he took charge of the 2-0 home defeat of Rotherham in September 2014 in which he booked two Millers and no Blues. He was also the referee in the 4-1 defeat at Norwich in November 2010 in which he controversially red-carded Damien Delaney for a very harsh professional foul just before half-time, having similarly contentiously failed to dismiss Canaries’ skipper Grant Holt for a wild challenge early on. A month before that, Hill took control of the 2-1 home victory over Leeds United in which he showed yellow cards to one Town player and three to Whites, former Blue Alex Bruce receiving two of them and as a result then a red. Squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Parr, Berra, Smith, Malarczyk, Skuse, Douglas, Coke, Tabb, Bru, Maitland-Niles, Fraser, Oar, Sears, Pitman, Murphy, Varney.
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