Daniel Farke is poised to let battle commence in the race to replace injured midfielder Tom Trybull.
The influential playmaker is poised to miss the rest of the season, after Farke confirmed on Friday he suffered knee and ankle ligament damage in his match-winning cameo last weekend against Middlesbrough.
Trybull now faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines, but Farke has plenty of options to replace the 24-year-old.
'You are down for a few days but then you have to think about finding solutions,' he said.
'We have had bad luck this season with injuries. We were without Alex Pritchard for 20 games, Timm Klose as well at the start and a long period without Tom and Alex Tettey. From Derby on we will try to get the best results with the other lads. The good thing is we have options.
'Harrison Reed is in a really good shape, although we needed him more on the right at present, but he can play in the centre.
'Mario Vrancic is much improved in his form. It was hard to leave him out of the starting line-up because I was content with him in the last games.
'Moritz Leitner can play this defensive role, although he is not maybe the same type of player in that area of the pitch.
'There will be several chances for other lads. We trust them and I am pretty sure they will do their best to replace Tom.
'We had 23 on the training pitch this week, so there is a lot of competition.'
City prepare for a swift reunion with Cameron Jerome on Saturday, after Farke sanctioned his sale to Derby sale last month, and the German accepts the potential exists for the experienced striker to prove a point or two in the East Midlands.
'I wish him all the success at Derby and he can score many goals and play many games between now and the end of the season - but he can take a break this weekend,' said Farke.
'I hope he will. I am glad he got his first goal last week.
'Normally football writes the story that he scores his first goal against his old club. It is part of the game. Players leave and they are good lads with good character and Cam did a lot for this club and had big success.
'We never show fear whoever we play.
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'We know we are in good shape, we are confident and we have shown some outstanding away form.
'We are not just turning up to give them a game, we also want the result and return back with points.
'We will be respectful against a team who are second in the table and unbeaten in 11 league games and they concede the fewest number of goals in our league.
'They have one of the oldest starting line-ups, close to 30, so this is one of the most experienced in the Championship.
'They know what it takes to win games and they don't make many mistakes. We have not made mistakes defensively lately and that will be crucial.'
Farke predicts another tight affair in an echo of the Rams' 2-1 win at Carrow Road at the end of a gruelling spell for Norwich.
'We had played 120 minutes at Arsenal, it was our third game in six days and they had just had about eight or nine days to prepare. We had so much load,' he said. 'It was still close. We were on the front foot early and had several chances.
'Marco Stiepermann had a one-versus-one with the keeper and the ball struck the bar and bounced down on the line. I got the feeling if we had scored first we would win. It went the other way - with their first strike on our goal - and then they played with no mistakes.
'I think they scored twice from three chances. It was difficult to turn the game around.
'To get in front would be the best option because Derby won't give many chances away. We need to be effective, clinical and brutal.'
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