Derby County VS Cambridge United

Cambridge United challenge Derby in this English League 2 clash at Pride Park early Saturday morning Beijing time. This is the 3rd-highest level of English football. The visitors winning would surely be a surprise here but I expect to make Derby work very hard indeed! The hosts do have an edge in all areas of the game but the odds of around 1.40 offered by the biggest bookies with the largest stake limits are undoubtedly too low! I see Derby having a 59% chance of sending the visitors home empty-handed. Derby had a horribly bad last season in the Championship ( 2nd tier) and were relegated. There were a lot of internal problems within the club and things do not look too good at the moment either.. Derby's season has been a big disappointment and they currently occupy the 7th place in the standings with 35 points to their account. Plymouth, who currently top the standings, have 53 points to their account already! I have, as a result of mainly performances by the hosts, considerably lowered their power-rating that reflects the teams' pure class from my in-depth analysis. The bookmakers still seem to have (too much) faith in their potential though.. The main rationale behind this pick is indeed to oppose the over-valued hosts.. I have Derby in the 9th place in my power rating. They do have potential for more but their game has structural problems.. The biggest issue has been too slow and predictable offense – for a team of Derby's caliber, the goal of being promoted back to Championship and financial resources..

Derby's strikers and midfielders should work harder and put more pressure on the opponents defenders to be able to rob the ball close to the opponent's goal to create more promising scoring chances.. Even Oxford United, in the 13th place, have netted the ball 29 times in this league this season.. Derby's players have a total market value of 22.90 million euros – a big number for this level but this is massively too high! In my view 15-16 million would be a fair number! Derby have won just one of their latest games in League One. Cambridge are, of course, not a great team and are in the 19th place with 24 points. They do have some potential for improvement though.. They have defended better than early season in their most recent games. The visitors did beat Shrewsbury four days ago 2-1 at home as narrow underdogs according to the betting market. Before this they were very solid defensively against Plymouth at home as clear underdogs. The visitors only recorded one shot on the hosts' goal and Cambridge could easily have won the clash! They have a 68% chance to avoid losing by more than one goal's difference and bring my fans and me yet another winner betting on this league that the bookies do not know very well..

Derby will probably remain without defender James Chester (injury). Eiran Cashin is expected to join by Craig Forsyth in the middle of the back four after keeping a clean sheet three days ago against Bolton. It was a goalless draw. Just two full days between matches is not optimal in professional football – a small edge for the visitors! Important striker David McGoldrick, who has scored goals in 16 League One games since his arrival in the summer missed the most recent match due to a fitness problem. He is expected to play here but might not be 100% healthy which might hurt Derby quite a lot,.  He would lead the offensive line alongside James Collins or Will Osula. The visitors' Sam Smith scored the 1-1 goal against Shrewsbury and is an under-rated striker to follow here!