At one point I thought we’d #WGT?

I said back in July play-offs have to be the minimum.
And 3 transfer windows to really push on. We are in the play offs and a couple of months away from his 3rd transfer window.
Next season is going to be a big season for GR what ever happens in the play offs

Ps. Personally, always happy in and around the playoffs every season.

Great company, bit of excitement (occasionally) on the pitch. Good banter, love DCFC and going to games.

It’s been a good season for me whatever happens.
The PL would be an embarrassment should we go up.

I think he has achieved what could have reasonably been expected at the start of the season. As you said, getting to 2nd maybe raised expectations to a slightly unrealistic level, but obviously we would all have taken 6th at the start of the season. The main plus, even though it took a while to get there, is the change of system that really appears to be paying dividends at the most vital stage of the season. It's anyone's guess now as to who will go up, everyone has just as good a chance but we are certainly the form team going in.

Depends on how you define form, given the last five games, we have the worst form!

Fulham W3 D1 L1
Villa W3 D1 L1
'Boro W3 D1 L1
Derby W2 D1 L2

Just sayin'

Last three games we are equal first with 'Boro (W2 D1)

Rowett has achieved the minimum to keep him as manager for next season. Not lose his next three games including penalty shoot outs) and he will have exceeded expectations, plus I will have a free season ticket.

I predicted finishing 6th, so he has performed to expectations for me, and, with 2/3 games to go, that could well be exceeded.
The difficult part for him will be next season, if we don't go up, and he is left with a bunch of high earners and no investment to change things.

I think Steve Bruce has at the moment failed massively compared to GR. thevsquad he has and the budget he works to he should have at least finished 2nd. He’s had 2 seasons now so there’s no excuse for him not getting Villa up and that pressure on him can work
Against him going into the play offs. And to think some people wanted him has Derby manager

I predicted mid table but when Ledley came in I thought we had a chance.

I didn't see the wobble coming with our victories drying up and then turning to draws. I think either way we should stick with Rowza, if we don't go up and face austerity mark II he's the man with a limited budget and if we go up I think our counter attacking game might become a bit more potent, especially as teams will come out against us.

The switch to 3 at the back was a big moment, who knows if it was a last throw of the dice or planned all along, either way it shows to me that GR is willing to learn, adapt and take risks. Resilience.

Questions remain over the balance of defence and attack, industrial vs beautiful, blooding youngsters and transfers. However, he's exceeded expectations to me and has been severely hampered by our wage bill.

I’d say 6th is around about par for Derby and the squad we had at the start of the season. For a while Rowett looked like the next Sean Dyche, then he seemed as baffled as anybody when we started sliding. Whether he has rediscovered the magic touch or whether it is a bit of a flash in the pan I don’t know. Had Madine not missed that sitter for Cardiff to give them a 2-0 lead I think we would now be be lighting the torches and breaking out the pitchforks. Small margins in this game.

If we go up it will be a small miracle and if we don’t I think it would be a great achievement to be in the same position this time next season. A large amount of deadwood is drifting back to Pride Park in the summer and the best we can hope for is to give it away or loan it out to somebody, anybody. To challenge seriously again I think we need one of two things to happen: either kids like Elsnik, Thomas and Lowe and more experienced kids like Bennett and Hanson need to be able to be get to a level not just as first-team Championship squad players but top six Championship players, a huge ask, or we need to cash in on our Golden Boot and use that to finance replacing the weak areas of the team. It might be necessary to sell Vydra regardless just to balance the books. To improve those areas without significant outlay would take either sniffing out cheap talent from the lower leagues or abroad, something we have apparently been incapable of in recent seasons or else some fairly spectacular loanees. If Rowett can do what is still needed to trim the squad and keep us challenging he will have done a very good job.

Overall a success. The Sunderland game was a low point. I had attributed the slump prior to that to some bad luck. But Sunderland, who had been crap prior to playing us and became crap again after playing us, gave us a real beating. That’s when I questioned Rowett’s ability to motivate the team. We bounced back after that but lapsed again against Burton. At that point I didn’t think Rowett could turn it around.
Well he has and what’s more it was when it mattered.
The seeds where there v Boro and we moved on from there.
I think we are the team in form going into the play offs. It’s a strong quartet in the mix this time round and hard to pick a winner but I really fancy us to do it.
And that is down to Rowett being brave enough to change formation at a crucial moment.
Bravo Gary you’ve shown you have the minerals and definitely should stay on next season.

If it helps, the average end of season prediction was 7th and we finished 6th.
On that basis, to be fair to GR, we have done slightly better than expected.
It's been a bit of a roller coaster but isn't that the Derby Way?

I predicted 10th in Peeders league, so overall he's exceeded my expectations.

Problem is my expectations were that we'd have the kind of season Brentford and PNE have had. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we may be second with five points in hand over third place. That created hope. It's always the hope that gets you.

comment by Peeder - grinding out results the Derby Way (U1684)
posted 8 hours, 5 minutes ago
If it helps, the average end of season prediction was 7th and we finished 6th.
On that basis, to be fair to GR, we have done slightly better than expected.
It's been a bit of a roller coaster but isn't that the Derby Way?
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If you exclude my token and over-optimistic prediction then the average was probably 6th so about right.....

I predicted 7th but also predicted a fair few 3-1 losses!

We have some very talented individual players but the sum of the individuals has not been the sum of what it should be. That's teamwork and only recently has it manifested itself within the Plan B formation.

Yes, we have over-achieved but couldn't you argue that of Burnley, Bournemouth, Huddersfield, Palace et al?

Ergo, what is over- achievement? You can only achieve what you achieve.

I like the use of "ergo" before 8 in the morning

comment by HebridesRam (U2909)
posted 1 hour, 33 minutes ago
comment by Peeder - grinding out results the Derby Way (U1684)
posted 8 hours, 5 minutes ago
If it helps, the average end of season prediction was 7th and we finished 6th.
On that basis, to be fair to GR, we have done slightly better than expected.
It's been a bit of a roller coaster but isn't that the Derby Way?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you exclude my token and over-optimistic prediction then the average was probably 6th so about right.....
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Heb, without your optimism, the average vote would have been lower.
Ergo, you kept us pretty much on track

The 2 wins against Preston have turned out to vital now. I said it on Easter Monday. Beating Preston away was more important than beating Sunderland the Friday before. A lot of people would have been happy to beat Sunderland and then lose to Preston. We’d be 7th now if that had happened

Sixth I believe, was the minimum that Rowett could achieve and keep his job. I predicted 7th at the start of the season and most others predicted a similar position so we haven't over achieved.

What Rowett appears to have done well is take some under performing players and improve them. This appears to working for Vydra, Weimann and recently Jerome. Is this the work of Kevin Phillips because I haven't seen a similar improvement in our defenders.

What Rowett hasn't done is address the problem at left back where both Forsyth and Olsson don't look top of the championship players. He has also relied on Huddlestone's passing ability to make up for the lack of midfielders. This worked up until the new year but our lack of a box to box midfielder has been shown up by several teams. Not least Fulham where Cairney had the freedom of Pride Park.

Another problem in the making is the age of the team and the lack of young talent breaking through. I have been disappointed to see how many of our promising young players have spent so much time sitting on the bench at league one and two clubs. I can only see one bright star, Luke Thomas.

The left back position is a worry but if there had been a better left back available Derby would have signed him.
The average age of the team is also a concern but I’m hoping some of the younger players force their way into the 1st team. At the moment these younger players can’t be doing enough to get themselves into the 1st team. Just think how old the average age would be now if we’d signed Charlie Adam and Peter Crouch like some folk wanted

Left back? Concern? Yes.

But does anyone think Forsyth could with a decent pre- season get his 5hit together and become a proficient full- back?

View, on the basis that you can’t polish a 💩 , no.

Simple as.

He may be able to improve slightly but ultimately is not made of the right stuff and is punching way above his weight.

He is not the answer and it really is as clear as that.

I’ve only seen 1 left back that I’ve rated this year and that was George Friend at Boro and we don’t have a chance of getting him

You couldn't wait to get rid of Gareth Roberts