Newly appointed Derby County manager, Wayne Rooney began his reign with a 1-0 home loss to Rotherham United on Saturday.
Despite dominating most of the possession in the Championship match, The Rams fells behind to an 86th-minute goal from Jamie Lindsay.
This comes a day after the former Manchester United striker retired from football to sign a permanent deal to become The Rams head coach on a two-and-a-half-year contract which will run until the summer of 2023.
Prior to the contract, Rooney was the club’s interim coach following the sack of Phillip Cocu in November 2020, guiding them to three victories and four draws in nine matches during his interim stint.
Reacting to the defeat, Rooney said: “Rotherham got what they deserved. It was a very sloppy performance from us. We knew they’d play with a lot of energy and we weren’t confident on the ball. We have no excuses. I’m not happy at all with today’s performance.
“We knew how Rotherham would set up today and we didn’t deal with it. Today, our creativity was lacking. The biggest disappointment was the concentration. The sloppy mistakes are ones we can’t afford to let happen.
“…Today was just sloppy. We need to get back to playing with belief and confidence. The players know I believe in them.
“…The only positive from today is that we have a game coming up on Tuesday [against AFC Bournemouth]. I’m expecting to see a reaction from today’s performance.”
