Dwight Gayle made his full debut for Derby County last night but it ended in disappointment as his side lost 2-1 to Charlton Athletic.
There was excitement surrounding the arrival of striker Dwight Gayle from the Derby faithful.
The experienced 34-year-old was brought in on a free transfer after top scorer James Collins suffered a knee injury, keeping him out till April at the earliest.
After previously firing Newcastle United to promotion and scoring 106 career goals, the Rams were unsurprisingly apprehensive about him pulling on the Derby shirt.
He came off the bench to make his debut in the 2-1 defeat to Barnsley on Saturday while his impressive performance earned him a start against Charlton Athletic.
As far as full debuts go, there have been better as Gayle only made 18 touches, nine passes and registered zero shots on goal before being substituted in the 62nd minute.
Understandably, given his age and the fact he only played 402 minutes of senior football for Stoke City this term, the former Newcastle striker was always going to be rusty.
Gayle needs time to get up to speed but during the fast and frenetic business end of the season, there is little time to think and journalist Adrian Clarke isn’t convinced that he’s the man to fire Derby to promotion.
Adrian Clarke isn’t convinced by Dwight Gayle
Whilst he didn’t have the best debut in the world, he wasn’t helped by his Derby teammates who often left him isolated as a lone striker and didn’t get players running off him.
Speaking on the What the EFL?! podcast, Clarke doesn’t think Gayle can lead the line on his own and is unsure whether he can get up to speed quickly after playing such little football as of late.
“I did look at the team, I don’t know what you think guys, but they had Dwight Gayle up top on his own and they had Waghorn, Barkhuizen and Sibley all on the bench,” Clarke said.
“I just don’t know about Dwight Gayle after he’s been out, he’s had such little football, I don’t know if he’s the man to be leading the line on his own.”
Gayle has arrived at the club in a difficult period.
Although automatic promotion is well within their reach, Derby aren’t playing enough attacking football, creating chances or getting service into their forward players.
As a striker who relies on service, Gayle was starved of it against Charlton and he will need that to improve if he is to become a success at Pride Park.
Warne has to figure out how to get the best out of the veteran forward, whether that is changing the system to accommodate him with two strikers or instructing his wingers to fire more crosses into the box, the Rams simply have to show more of a threat in the final third.