Derby County manager Phillip Cocu has revealed why centre-back Matt Clarke did not start against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

The player had started 24 consecutive games for the Rams before the match against Tony Mowbray's side on Saturday and it seems as though it was a poor decision to drop the centre-half.

The Rams lost the game 4-0 on their own turf, and it now means that they have failed to pick up a point in their opening three games of the new Championship season.

Clarke's omission from the side did not work for Derby, and it will now be interesting to see whether Cocu includes the defender in the team next week for the fixture with Norwich City.

Cocu has explained his reasoning behind leaving Clarke out of the side and hinted that it was to do with the player lacking pace.

Speaking to the Derby Telegraph, Cocu said: "So we sat down with him to show him some clips, and we knew also that they (Blackburn Rovers) would start with Armstrong, and that is maybe not the perfect fit at this moment for him (Clarke).

"Some more weeks in him, he can definitely deal with it but for now it was better that we had some more legs."

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The Verdict

It was a surprise to see Clarke left out and it seems as though it was a terrible decision from Cocu to do so after the defence's performance on the weekend.

Now, Derby will look to put him back in and potentially try and strengthen their backline in the transfer window after some poor defensive displays in the first three fixtures of the new Championship season.

If Derby are to improve and get some positive results then they must learn and look at their mistakes, and then go on and rectify them as soon as possible.