Derby County fell to a 3-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic on Saturday, which ended the Rams' five match unbeaten run in the Championship ahead of Wednesday's clash at home to Wigan Athletic.

The defeat at The Valley means that Derby have not won in any of their last five games away from home in the league, with the Rams also losing 3-0 at rivals Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup in that time.

It was also the second time this season that Cocu's side have been convincingly beaten 3-0 away from home, having gone down to the same score line against Brentford at the end of August, which highlights Derby's problems away from home in the opening months of the season.

Here, then we take a look at THREE things Cocu must change to get the Rams producing better displays on their travels...

Getting the ball forwards quicker

Derby have shown a few signs of implementing the type of methodical possession based build up play that Cocu is wanting from them so far this season, with the Rams' starting to demonstrate their ability to adapt to the Dutchman's demands during their recent five match unbeaten run.

However, at Charlton, similarly to a few other performances away from home this season, Derby's build up play was too laboured and easy for the opposition to read and defend against by remaining compact - and that is highlighted by the face that with 62% the Rams managed just four efforts, with their opponents having ten attempts.

That has seen Derby register just three goals in their last four games away from home in the league, and the Rams need to start getting the ball forwards much quicker, with their midfielders needing to take more risks with forward passes rather than giving it square or backwards.

Offering more protection to the full-backs

At times so far this season away from home Derby have been guilty of allowing their full-backs to become isolated against their opponents, with teams often creating two against one situations down either side which enables them to find easy sources of crosses into the penalty area.

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Cocu has at times alternated between the players starting in the wide positions, with the likes of Florian Jozefzoon, Martyn Waghorn, Tom Lawrence and Jamie Paterson all being tried on the wings away from home, but none of those players naturally offer much in terms of their ability to track.

That is something that Cocu needs to address and try to instill into his wide players, with the Rams giving their full-backs way too much to do at times having to attempt to stop two players down their flank without any support - and the Dutchman will need to find a settled wide pair so that they can start to form a better understanding with their respective full-back down their side of the pitch.

Finding a creative spark

Despite averaging 62% possession at Charlton on Saturday, Derby struggled to create any real clear-cut chances in front of goal.

Cocu needs to find a way of getting his side to find more creativity so that the Rams can provide better service up to Chris Martin, who was left to feed off scraps throughout.

It might be time for Cocu to start selecting Kieran Dowell in midfield alongside Krystian Bielik away from home, with the Everton loanee offering more ability to make things happen from the middle of the pitch, although the midfielder would need to show improvement from his performances so far this campaign to justify being selected.