The Derby County manager was full of praise for two Rams stars after their defeat to Barnsley.
The Rams have not had the best 2024 pre-season so far as they prepare for the new campaign.
Things got off to a bright start for Paul Warne and his men, with back-to-back wins picked up at the beginning of their summer schedule.
However, Derby County were beaten 4-0 by Chesterfield on July 24th and are now winless in their last three outings.
The Derbyshire outfit lost 2-1 to Shrewsbury Town on July 27th and were once again bested on Wednesday.
Derby travelled to Oakwell Stadium for a meeting with Yorkshire outfit Barnsley on July 31st.
New signing David Ozoh was praised by a journalist for his first-half showing against the Tykes but a number of players struggled during the club’s latest friendly.
Paul Warne makes Jerry Yates and Kayden Jackson claims
Derby shipped four goals to Barnsley on Wednesday, with their defensive ability across pre-season so far quite concerning.
The Rams will be among the relegation candidates going into the 2024/25 Championship season, especially if they continue to ship goals.
The majority of sides who suffer relegation from the second division often go down due to their frailties at the back, and Derby will need to tighten this area up before their season opener on August 9th.
On a more positive note, Warne was impressed with Derby’s attacking unit against Barnsley.
Speaking to Derby’s official media post-match, the 51-year-old claimed it was the best he had seen Jerry Yates and Kayden Jackson play for the club.
He said: “I thought in the first half, at times, our front three were a excellent. That’s the best I think Jerry Yates has played for us, probably the best Kayden Jackson has played for us too, although he should have scored.
“It just looked a little bit more like a Derby performance.”
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Kayden Jackson and Jerry Yates must improve for Derby County in 2024/25
While tightening up their defence should be a priority for Derby, improving their attacking threat may also boost their survival chances in 2024/25.
The Rams finished second in League One last term but only had the joint-fifth-best attack.
In a bid to step up their threat at the top end of the pitch, Warne has signed three first-team attackers so far this summer – Yates and Jackson being two of them.
However, neither player has made the move to Pride Park with any sort of crazy goal-scoring record behind them.
Jackson scored three in 29 Championship games for Ipswich Town this past season.
Granted, he was primarily used as a substitute, being limited to 995 minutes of action, but that tally will need to go up next term.
As for Yates, he scored eight in 43 league matches for Swansea City. This is not a terrible return but Derby will need a striker who can hit 15+ goals if they want to stand a real chance of staying up.