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Former Derby County star Shaun Barkley is of the view that a lot of effort by Rams new boy Jerry Yates’ has gone unnoticed and praised the forward’s mentality of putting the team’s need ahead of everything.
Yates joined Derby on a season-long loan from Swansea City in the summer and has featured regularly for the Rams.
On Saturday, Yates scored his first goal in a Derby shirt against Millwall, which ended with a 1-1 scoreline at the Den, to help his team secure their first point on the road this season.
Barker is of the opinion that the centre forward has been outstanding since his arrival at Pride Park and pointed out that his off-the-ball work-rate, link-up play and other efforts go unnoticed.
The former Rams star added that being a centre forward, Yates often gets isolated during away games but praised his mentality to always give the preference to his team and do the job for them.
“He has been outstanding since he has been at the football club”, Barker told Rams TV.
“His work rate without the ball and a lot of things that go unnoticed.
“His link-up play, he is clever with his flicks and sometimes it can be quite lonely as a centre forward especially away from home.
“You can be isolated; maybe you don’t get the link up with the other players as much as you like at Pride Park, so it can be frustrating and it can be disappointing, but you can see that he cares about doing his job first and foremost; goals come second to that.”
Derby will visit Oxford on Tuesday and Yates will be determined to continue his form in front of the opposition goal.
