Derby County host Wycombe Wanderers in a pivotal League One clash on Saturday afternoon.
The Rams have had a fantastic week so far and they’ll want that to continue at Pride Park.
After securing an emphatic 3-0 victory over Leyton Orient in League One last weekend, Derby then watched Bolton Wanderers lose against Portsmouth on Monday night, closing the gap between them and the automatic promotion places to just three points.
In the convincing win over Orient, there were several standout performers.
Louie Sibley scored a piledriver, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was magic and Conor Hourinhane anchored the ship to perfection in midfield.
There were, however, some negatives for Paul Warne to contend with and one of those was the performance of Kane Wilson, who didn’t have his best game in a Derby shirt.
The 23-year-old has been enjoying his more advanced role down the right flank, allowing him license to create chances in the final third.
Against Orient, however, he was well off the pace in every department.
Aside from completing just 55% of his passes and two of his nine dribbles, as per Sofascore, he also won just three of his 18 attempted ground duels and lost possession a staggering 28 times.
The former Bristol City man somehow managed to last a full ninety minutes but now could be dropped for their home clash against Wycombe.
Tom Barkhuizen, who scored off the bench, is the likely candidate to replace him.
Why Paul Warne should start Tom Barkhuizen v Wycombe
After scoring his first goal in the league this season against Orient, Barkhuizen deserves an opportunity to start down the right flank against the Chairboys.
In his 18-minute cameo, he only touched the ball four times but one of those touches saw him slide the ball into an empty net as the hosts left themselves exposed in pursuit of a comeback.
An “energetic” and “powerful” forward player, as hailed by assistant boss Tom McKenna during his time at Morecambe in 2015, Barkhuizen possesses the explosive running power and creativity to cause problems against Wycombe.
He’s shown the creative side of his game for Warne this season, ranking third in the Derby squad for big chances created (4) and assists (3).
This shows how dangerous he can be when given a chance while demonstrating he’s levels ahead of Wilson who only has one assist and one big chance created in 150 more minutes this term.
Therefore, Wilson’s lacklustre performance should see him get dropped with Barkhuizen looking primed to replace him.