Derby County's Hope: Mohammed Fuseini Sparks Revival
Sometimes a draw feels like a jailbreak.
Derby County stagger into the first international break with one win from eight, two draws, five defeats and a goal difference of minus seven. The table does not flatter them. It exposes them. A side that has misfired in both boxes now finds itself peering over the edge of the Championship’s bottom three.
When you are down there, everything changes. A point is no longer just a point. It is oxygen, noise, something to cling to in the silence of a two-week pause.
Derby have shown flickers of resilience this season, but Saturday carried a different edge. This time they actually imposed themselves: more shots, more efforts on target, better chances carved out than fellow strugglers Burnley. And still, somehow, they were staring at a fourth straight defeat and the grim prospect of going into the break rock bottom.
Then Mohammed Fuseini stepped into the story.
For years, Derby fans have pleaded for pace on the flanks. Patrick Agyemang brought power and chaos last season, a direct runner who bullied defenders, but he was never pure speed. Not the kind that makes full-backs backpedal before the ball has even arrived.
Fuseini, signed on loan from Union Saint-Gilloise on deadline day, has changed that conversation almost overnight. He has not yet delivered end product on a consistent loop, but you can see why he is already one of Derby’s brightest sparks. He plays like the pitch belongs to him: head up, fearless, always looking to beat his man, always willing to let fly, always ready to sprint in behind and stretch a back line that thought it was safe.
When a team is stuck in a rut, it needs someone who can tear up the script in a single moment and drag everyone to their feet. Fuseini has that in him. Saturday proved it.
Thrown on again as an impact option, he brought exactly what tired defenders hate late in games: raw acceleration and zero hesitation. One run, one opening, one sensational strike, and the mood inside the club flipped. What looked like another bleak chapter became a last-gasp point and a jolt of belief.
This is where his role becomes so intriguing for John Eustace. As Fuseini settles into a new country, new team-mates and a new style of play, you would expect his decision-making and end product to sharpen. The raw tools are already obvious. The more comfortable he becomes, the more he stops being just an exciting cameo and starts becoming a weekly problem for opposition full-backs.
Derby’s longer-term picture suddenly looks more dangerous in attack. Once players return to full fitness, the idea of Fuseini on one wing and Agyemang on the other, with Carlton Morris leading the line, carries real menace. That front three would give the Rams pace, power and presence – the kind of blend that can turn narrow defeats into something very different.
For now, though, it is about what happened in that single, decisive swing of Fuseini’s boot. His late equaliser did more than rescue a point. It turned despair into something closer to hope, handed the dressing room and the stands a burst of positivity to carry through the break, and hinted that this season does not have to be defined by its miserable start.
The fixtures resume on 10 October. If Derby are to launch any kind of revival, history may look back on Fuseini’s strike as the moment the fight really began.
