Derby County boss Wayne Rooney has admitted it will be hard to work out a game plan to nullify Barnsley ahead of the two side's clash tonight because of their adaptability, speaking to his side's media team.

The Tykes sacked former boss Markus Schopp on Monday following their 2-1 defeat to Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday, a victory for the Robins that ended their nine-month winless run at home after fighting back from being 1-0 down.

This was a loss too far for the Barnsley board, who took action after remaining patient with the Austrian and removed him from his position, having not won a single league game since August.

13 games have been played since then, leaving the South Yorkshire outfit on eight points, four adrift of safety and in danger of sinking to the foot of the Championship table tonight if they lose to the Rams tonight.

This is despite Rooney's men suffering a docking of 12 points after their entrance into administration last month, starting the season well enough to recover and are now firmly on the tails of tonight's opponents.

After losing 2-1 at home to Blackburn Rovers at the weekend, the East Midlands outfit have a point to prove but may not go into this game as well prepared as they would want to be, judging by the Rams' manager's pre-match comments.

Speaking ahead of the game, he said: "Barnsley have just lost their manager and played in different ways this season.

"It is quite difficult to analyse what they are going to do so we have to have trust in ourselves and in our game plan of how we want to play and if we do that well enough then we are more than capable of getting three points.

"It’s a very difficult league and every game is difficult.

"Whether that is Barnsley or Peterborough who are down there or Bournemouth and Fulham who are at the top.

"Every game is difficult for its own reason, so we know that going into every game that we respect every team. We know that if we’re not at our best then we will get punished."

The Verdict:

Despite their poor form this term, the core of this Barnsley side showed what they could do at their optimum level last season and there's no reason why they couldn't establish themselves as a mid-table Championship side in the coming years.

They may have lost former boss Valerien Ismael, ex-captain Alex Mowatt and reliable goalscorer Daryl Dike, but a couple of January additions on top of the new manager's existing work could set them on a much brighter course for the future and they already have key players that can step up and make a difference.

Captain Cauley Woodrow is one of those players along with Michal Helik - and you can bet key duo Mads Anderson and Carlton Morris were big misses too. Having the former back after a while out will be a major boost for Schopp's successor and something they need to make the most of.

Their attack also needs to improve if they want to stay in this division, scoring just ten times in 15 league matches so far in 2021/22 and with this, giving themselves no hope of winning most of their games.

Both teams' poor respective attacking records sets up what looks to be a close tie tonight - and it will be fascinating to see if one team can come out on top. Many would bet on Derby after managing to recover well from their points setback.