"Desperately need" - Derby County told to eye up Huddersfield Town transfer deal | OneFootball

Derby County's defensive frailties were exposed during Friday evening's defeat to Blackburn Rovers, and reinforcements are needed

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Derby County have been urged to plot a series of League One transfers - including Huddersfield Town centre-back Michael Helik - in order to bolster the team's backline following Friday evening's 4-2 defeat away at Blackburn Rovers.

The Rams often utilised a back-five in League One but headed into the 2024/25 Championship curtain-raiser deploying a flat four of Kane Wilson, Curtis Nelson, Eiran Cashin and Callum Elder.

Paul Warne's side held their own for much of the contest at Ewood Park and drew level with 23 minutes to play after Nelson converted a Nathaniel Mendez-Laing corner, although they soon capitulated by conceding three times in the space of ten minutes to go 4-1 down.

Again from the captain's corner delivery, Wilson pegged one goal back for the visitors in the closing stages, but it proved too little, too late.

Though Friday's thrashing could appear to be a simple baptism of fire after clinching promotion from League One in the previous campaign, Derby's lack of defensive mettle was displayed on more than one occasion throughout their pre-season preparations, where they lost 4-0 and 4-3 to Chesterfield and Barnsley respectively.

As a result, Derby have been told to seek a number of recruits from the league in which they achieved promotion to strengthen Warne's defensive line moving forward.

Derby County told to consider Josh Earl, Michal Helik transfer moves

Derby supporters were left stunned at just how the defence was torn apart in quick succession by Blackburn, and FLW's resident Rams fan pundit Shaun Woodward is hoping that it will prompt Warne into action on the transfer front, with a range of names he has identified as potential targets.

"As we showed against Blackburn and to be honest in pre-season, shipping an average of three goals a game over the last five or six games [is poor], I know they're only friendlies before the Blackburn game but even so, you don't want to be conceding goals like we are," Shaun told Football League World.

"Especially when Warne prides himself on his defensive capabilities and his team are normally hard to beat, so he'll be bitterly disappointed behind the scenes at how easily we're shipping goals.

"I mean the other night, we just capitulated in that 10 minute spell after equalising, it was schoolboy defending so we desperately need reinforcements in my opinion.

"I'm worried about Cashin, Nelson and Sonny Bradley - none of them have got any pace and we're up against some really intelligent, quick-thinking wingers and centre-forwards who look like they're going to tear us to pieces.

"Blackburn aren't tipped to be up there this season and they could've scored five or six, so that's very worrying moving forward.

"I would be desperately looking to bring in a centre-half and a left-back. For me we need someone younger in both positions, I would be tempted to do a cheeky bid for Lee Buchanan maybe - ex-Derby player I know, but we could offer him Championship football which Birmingham can't.

"It might be a bit cheeky but he's 23, he's quick, knows the club, probably lives around the area so you never know.

"Or someone like Josh Earl. Again, he's at a good age, mid-twenties, has played a lot of football for Barnsley and he's always impressed whenever he's played against Derby.

"Centre-halves, I think realistically we're going to be in for League One players because we don't have the money to bring in ready-made Championship players, so we should be looking at the better League One players.

"Someone like Michal Helik at Huddersfield Town, he's 28 which is a great age for a centre-half, big and strong, he's always played well for Huddersfield and impressed against Derby a number of times - but we need some reinforcements desperately."

Derby County should consider Huddersfield Town's Michal Helik as immediate signing

Shaun has provided an intriguing list of theoretical targets, of which Helik may well be the pick of the bunch.

Admittedly, Derby do need another left-back but there are questions to be had whether a Pride Park return for Buchanan is actually realistic, while Earl, though impressive, only moved to Barnsley from Fleetwood Town in February.

Helik, then, not only feels the most realistic but also the very best option, having accumulated four years' worth of Championship experience with both Barnsley and Huddersfield Town.

The Poland international was at the heartbeat of the defence as each team launched unlikely play-off finishes in separate spells, and he proved equally impressive last season despite Huddersfield's relegation from the Championship.

He's defensively imperious in any case but his goalscoring prowess is what really distinguishes Helik, who scored a whopping nine times from defence last term.

Derby themselves scored 24 times from set piece situations in the same campaign while both of their goals on Friday were courtesy of Mendez-Laing's pinpoint corner deliveries, which could be optimised even further with the addition of Helik.