This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Player view’ series. This content strand is where we put ourselves in the shoes of a given player, and offer an opinion-based outlook on the perspective on the situation at hand...

Derby County certainly haven't lived up to their pre-season promotion credentials in the Championship this season under Phillip Cocu.

The Rams head into the international break sat 19th in the league table, and supporters will be bitterly disappointed with how their league campaign has started.

Derby narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League under Frank Lampard's guidance last term, after they were beaten by Aston Villa in the Play-Off final at Wembley.

But with Cocu arriving, there were high-hopes that the Rams could go one better this season, and return to the top-flight.

This hasn't been the case though, with a number of key players struggling to find some form in the early stages of this year's campaign.

One player that has struggled more than most is Kieran Dowell, who hasn't had the best of starts to life with Derby, since he completed his loan move to the Rams from Everton during the summer.

Dowell is yet to score, and has just one assist to his name so far this season, and supporters won't be happy with his disappointing start to the 2019/20 season.

His poor run of form will surely make Cocu question whether the Everton loanee is good enough to be starting every week for Derby, especially when the Rams boss has other options available to him.

One man that will be keen to force his way back into the starting XI is Duane Holmes, who hasn't had much of a look-in since Dowell arrived.

Holmes has made just two appearances for Derby this season, with both of them coming at right-back, which seems to be a position that Cocu is keen to play the American at in the absence of Jayden Bogle.

But this shouldn't be the case, and Holmes has every right to feel aggrieved, as many will feel as though he is good enough to be starting in his natural central midfield role in the Derby team.

He was a regular in midfield under Frank Lampard last season, and certainly played his part in their promotion bid, which ultimately fell short at the final hurdle.

Cocu has to make changes to his squad, otherwise Derby are going to be in serious trouble this season, and you can't expect an upturn in results if you're going to persist with playing players that aren't in good form.

Holmes will be quietly confident that he could return to the Rams midfield after the international break, when they take on Cardiff City on the 13th September, in what will be another tough test for Phillip Cocu's side.