When Carlton Morris will do his Derby County medical as John Eustace set for three new signings

Derby County are eyeing summer additions to bolster their depleted ranks ahead of the 2025/26 Championship season.

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has joined MK Dons, Sonny Bradley has joined Lincoln City, and Derby County have released a further seven first-team players on top of that.

Kemar Roofe, Tyrese Fornah, Jeff Hendrick, Erik Pieters, Tom Barkhuizen, Conor Washington, and Rohan Luthra are among those, while Nat Phillips, Marcus Harness, and Harrison Armstrong’s loans have expired.

Derby’s financial situation is becoming clearer. But what is certainly apparent is the need for signings to ensure John Eustace can easily improve upon last season’s 19th-place finish.

• READ MORE: Derby County’s top five scorers of all time, including 23-capped England international and First Division champion

Derby County eye a trio of new signings, including Luton Town’s Carlton Morris

Eiran Cashin could be a Derby target, while other former Eustace favourites like Lewis Travis have been linked to Derby.

Things are unclear regarding Jerry Yates’ permanent Derby future, meaning added firepower and depth in attack is paramount.

The Rams are set to sign three players to bolster both ends of the pitch. Veteran centre-back Danny Batth is arriving on a free transfer from Blackburn Rovers as is Andi Weimann.

The most crucial piece of transfer news revealed by John Percy of The Telegraph is that of Luton Town striker Carlton Morris.

Derby are lining up numerous deals currently and have agreed a fee with Luton for Morris, but he is not set for a medical until next week as he is currently on post-season holiday.

Youth signings like Kamil Conteh are needed for Derby as well, but the most important factor is to improve the floor of the squad first as much as possible.

Signings such as Weimann, Batth, and Morris may not have much resale or long-term value, but they improve the floor of the team a vast amount, with Morris a 29-year-old in his prime as well.

Ironically, Eustace’s Derby lost to Luton but still stayed up at the expense of the Hatters. Now, they will secure their star striker if he passes his medical at Pride Park.

• READ MORE: Derby County’s five most expensive sales, including FA Cup and Championship Golden Boot winners

Derby target Carlton Morris’ impressive goalscoring statistics

Looking purely at the surface level stats, Morris appears to be a regular EFL striker with a mix of some prolific and some profligate seasons. He has scored 42 and assisted 14 in 145 Championship games.

However, dig a little deeper, for example, and you see that Morris has scored 53 goals from an xG of 47.1 over the last five seasons — per FBref.

That includes a minor underperformance of 0.4 last year but a career overperformance for the most part. His clinical nature was also apparent in the Premier League with 11 goals.

Not only is that promising but Morris could be described as unlucky or on the wrong side of variance last season. Per FotMob, he was in the top 15.3% of Championship players for post-shot xG.

That is mightily impressive and gave him an improvement on his regular xG of 1.33. It suggests his shots are — on average — better and more accurate than your average Championship striker.

His leadership and experience will also be fantastic for Derby to add, given he regularly captained Luton in recent years in Tom Lockyer’s absence.

Derby County can be a threat next season after rule change, Championship rivals must be wary

The new Championship campaign is less than two months away, and Derby County supporters are preparing themselves for a full season with John Eustace at the helm.

Fixture release day is 26 June, and there are plenty of games for EFL fans to keep an eye out for in 2025/26, but for the Rams this new year is all about progression after their survival was secured on the final day.

It’s been 17 years since the Rams were last in the Premier League, and while a highly ambitious target, Eustace will be aiming to get the East Midlands outfit back to the top flight in the coming years.

However, a new rule for the coming season will benefit Derby for one clear reason and their Championship rivals will be wary of it.

• READ MORE – John Eustace’s plans for out-of-contract Derby County star become clearer, there’s ‘interest’ from elsewhere

Derby County will benefit from the new corner rule for timewasting

While those at the very top of the game have made plenty of changes to try and stop timewasting in football, it does seem to continue in every match around the world – and that includes the Rams.

Derby do their fair share of slowing the game down, but goalkeepers will now be punished by referees if they are found to be holding onto the ball for longer than eight seconds. The opposing team will be handed a corner kick in this instance.

Eustace’s side were the best side from set pieces in the Championship last season, scoring 22 of their 56 goals from free kicks, corners and penalties.

Rivals will be extremely worried about the threat that the Rams possess from this part of their game, and coaches must ensure that they do not give their opponents the ideal opportunity to find the back of the net.

• READ MORE – Derby County’s five most expensive signings of all time as the Rams await investment

John Eustace must not ignore his team’s set piece strength

It is extremely important that Derby do not just rely on set pieces to score goals next season, and with Jerry Yates unlikely to return to Pride Park, bringing in a new striker is a priority.

Nevertheless, that does not mean they should ignore it and they must keep providing that threat at all times.

Sondre Langas and Matt Clarke will be crucial to the Rams’ season, and the two centre-backs will be expected to pitch in with goals from time to time. If Eustace can find a happy medium, then a mid-table finish is surely on the cards for East Midlands outfit.