Richard Keogh.

Arguably, Richard Keogh has been the target of an unfair share of criticism, with multiple fans blaming him for the errors made within the defence (containing four men, let's not forget that) and believing him to be at fault for losses and the lack of clean sheets.

Are the fans forgetting that Richard Keogh is the one with the most completed passes out of the entire team - 1,686 - with the second most completed passes record being held by Fikayo Tomori (1,352)? He also has got an average pass completion of 83.2% and approximately 30% of those has been forward passes. Throughout the first half of the season, Fikayo Tomori has had experienced full backs by his side, such as Craig Forsyth and Scott Malone, so he has been able to focus on his own game while Richard Keogh has been responsible in attempting to tidy up mistakes by an inexperienced 18 year old, Jayden Bogle and rusty Andre Wisdom therefore he has not been able to concentrate on his own game, yet still he has put in a shift every single minute he spends on the pitch, and defensively statistically, he has been our best centre back. Not to put down Fikayo Tomori, I must also state that Keogh has scored, officially, an single own goal against Chelsea in the League Cup (preferably would rather have none but...!) and Tomori has scored two, one against Swansea in the league and one against Chelsea in the League Cup. Richard Keogh is also on par with Fikayo Tomori in terms of chances created, having created three clear cut chances and Keogh has won more aerial duels, winning 83 in 21 games, while Tomori has won 61 in 19 games. Keogh also has dispossessed the opposition more than any other centre back at the club, and although he can be clumsy on the ball as shown in his recent displays against Leeds United and Southampton, he is still, regardless, a solid defender, widely admired by other clubs' fans apart from our own. Fikayo Tomori is also a brilliant defender with bags of potential, and we can only blame his lack of expertise when he makes an error. However, this does not excuse the constant criticism of Richard Keogh.

Keogh has made 101 clearances - that is 14 more clearances than Tomori, 60 more than Bogle and 42 more than Forsyth and Malone combined. He has been a solid presence at the back alongside Fikayo Tomori, and he is someone that the fans should put a lot more belief in. Otherwise he would not be captain - he is playing under the Frank Lampard, the most decorated player at Chelsea and Lampard has played alongside and against some world class defenders such as John Terry, Carles Puyol and Jake Buxton... he knows his stuff.

Some fans really dislike Richard Keogh because of an error he made in the play off final in 2014 that broke thousands of hearts when he accidentally allowed Bobby Zamora through onto goal to score the only goal in the fixture in the dying seconds, their only shot on target, allowing ten men QPR to achieve promotion under Harry Redknapp. But this is football! It happened almost five years ago, things like that happen, we move on, we have grown as a club and a lot of things has happened since then - we have made the playoffs twice, gone through seven managers, and watched 5 different centre backs pair up with Keogh in defence. Throughout the years, Keogh has remained a consistent figure in the defensive line of Derby County, and has been in the starting line up under all seven managers ever since that fateful day at Wembley back in 2014, not to mention him picking up a further 18 caps for Republic of Ireland (being on the bench for a further 25 games too behind Premier League defenders, Ciaran Clark and Shane Duffy.). He has a wealth of expertise, both domestically and internationally as he has played a total of 556 career games, 278 of these games at Derby County which is exactly 50% of his career.

Not only that he works his socks off for the club in every single game he participates in, he plays with his heart on his sleeve, has shown incredible commitment to the club ever since joining us in 2012, and has always spoken highly of everything to do with Derby County. He has simply been the scapegoat, and for whatever reason, but he does not deserve it. Kudos to him for having incredibly thick skin and brushing off criticism and verbal abuse from some fans, but we really should treat him better - there should not be a scapegoat in any football team. We should be behind every single player (maybe apart from Florian Jozefzoon...).

Maybe we should start showing some more respect for someone who has committed the majority of his career to attempting in taking us up to the dream land.

"If you are not excited by that (winning the playoffs), or ready for the challenge, then you shouldn’t be at this football club because that is the reality. You are at a big club and the pressures that come with it." - Richard Keogh