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Kenny Jackett determined to overcome Wolves' defeats with victory

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They say you learn more in defeat than in victory.

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And the last two games have given Wolves head coach Kenny Jackett plenty of material to work on as he tries to plot a way forward after two damaging losses.

Seven days on from the 5-0 defeat at Derby, Jackett has left no stone unturned in analysis of his side's performance and where the lessons are to be learned.

A huge admirer of Steve McClaren's side, he concludes Derby – and to a lesser degree Wolves' previous conqueror Ipswich - offer the template to emulate if Wolves are to join them as forces in the Championship this season.

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"I don't want to be over-critical of ourselves but we've come up against two good sides and we have to learn from them," said the boss.

"It's an ability to be able to learn from them. But most importantly it's about looking internally and making an assessment and then moving off that.

"You can make excuses and say it was a poor performance last Saturday, but similarly, Ipswich and Derby were tests for us.

"How did we come up? Where do we need to improve? What do we want to achieve in the future?

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"Who do we want to be like? I'd love to be able to play like Derby.

"I think they're excellent. It's a class team to me.

"I admire Derby for being a very good side, I like their style and they have a good pattern; I like the way they play.

"And, looking at Saturday's performance, they deserve to be top.

"They've built well and consistently improved.

"Since Steve McClaren has been there I don't think he's changed it.

"He plays that way and he plays that system and they don't adapt for anyone.

"If someone plays a back three, they don't change it - they play it their way all the way through."

Jackett recognises the importance of a centre forward and he believes Chris Martin is so key to their success, even though he didn't add to his 12 goals this season last weekend.

So much so that he openly admits centre-backs Danny Batth and Ethan Ebanks-Landell couldn't deal with the threat of the target man.

"I felt the keeper's distribution was excellent, and from there, we just couldn't deal with Martin," confessed Jackett.

"Martin consistently got to the ball before both of our centre-halves.

"That frustrated me because the ball is only coming one way – towards you.

"He never ever goes in behind the defenders and yet he's such an influential player.

"As soon as the ball goes into him, he touches it off and when that happens, it opens up so much, because there are runners off him and then he's moving.

"If you stopped it at source and got on top of him with a header or whatever you might stop it.

"Then you try that and he's clever enough then to get a free kick!

"So I like the way they play, they play their system very well and they play their way.

"Ipswich's front two are very good. They turned down £8m for David McGoldrick – it seemed he was gone to Leicester for £8m at one stage.

"Him and Daryl Murphy both did very well against us.

"They're similar to Derby but not in style - they don't play at all in their own half but they're very organised in what they do.

"They finished ninth last season so their natural progression is to aim for the top six now.

"That's where they'll be looking.

"But really my concern is my own team, and after being 3-0 down at half-time, all from set-pieces, we knew where we needed to start."

Jackett is a big admirer of Derby's formation.

Similar to Wolves, they play 4-3-3, but instead of two defensive midfielders and one attacking one, they play one 'holder' in Omar Mascarell or Craig Bryson and two 'runners' in Jee Hendrick and Will Hughes.

"They do it right in midfield – they play one defensive midfielder and two runners," said the boss.

"I've generally varied my midfield with two holders and one in front or one holder, which has always been Kevin McDonald, and two forward.

"They have been the two options since probably last Christmas.

"I do think you need to be fluent and need to go from one to the other, depending on the right personnel and the right game.

"That's the ideal and where I'd like to get to, yes."

Jackett admitted his three-man midfield of Kevin McDonald, Lee Evans and George Saville were overrun by Derby's.

"With us you can usually make out the two holding midfielders and one with a bit of freedom, but at Derby the three of them got the runaround.

"Their three ran the game and they were better than ours.

"Jeff Hendrick broke through and got two goals and ran away from Lee Evans.

"It just seems they were evolving and their movement and fluency was very good.

"Will Hughes was excellent. I can certainly remember him getting in some fantastic positions and he got into lots of pockets of space.

"Hendrick and Omar Mascarell played slightly between those two but turned up in some very good positions and played well."