Jourdan

I had archied more likely down as..... 

 
?

Villa it is then!! 

I'm a great believer in not mocking the afflicted, so I'll leave well alone!   ?

I’ll clap him if he agrees to rework of the comic play off final moments with Kelle Roos.

Right time to dig out the boxing gloves again ??

Scrap scrap scrap

This is such a strange thread considering everything that has and is going on and in terms of our overall performances I think Rooney is not far off manager of the season if the league were to finish now 

Sorry yeah, I was't accusing you of saying that.
You can see the tone of some other people's posts though I assume, the existence of the thread at all seems to be a personal affront to them.

Should Rooney be doing better? It’s a fair question and one I look at from two perspectives.
The first being whether the majority of players are excelling under Rooney. On balance, I think Davies, Jagielka, Bird, Shinnie and Lawrence are having positive seasons and playing close to their most effective. However it’s quite telling that only one of those players is an attacking player.
We have far too many players who are either not delivering or deeply inconsistent. Could Rooney be getting more quality and consistency out of Byrne, Forsyth, Knight, Sibley, Jozwiak, Morrison, Kazim and Baldock amongst others? Are they performing to their potential? History tells us not.
The second aspect I look at is results against teams we would be expected to run close and compete with. The Bournemouth, WBA and Fulham results were excellent and richly deserved but not really critical to our chances of survival. Stepping up in games against Luton, Peterborough, Preston, Barnsley and Millwall amongst others would have served us far better and would have been far more energising.
I think it says it all that we have failed to beat eight of the bottom 12, including five of the eight teams immediately above us.
It’s all well and good patting ourselves on the back for giving the top teams in the division a headache, but what do those results matter if they are not backed up?
Of course Rooney could be getting more out of this squad. All bar two teams in the division have won more games than us. How is that acceptable in such a poor division?
Does the transfer embargo and administration explain why Rooney has been unable to coax more from Sibley, Jozwiak, Morrison and Kazim, all players who could conceivably make a difference to our ability to win games?

This isn't to say that the hyopthetical other manager is guaranteed to fare any better, but...
Would another manager play Jason Knight at left wing, nullifying any attacking threat he may possess? Would another manager keep choosing a right hand sifde of Byrne & Ebosele when they're clearly not suited to playing together? Would another manager take a Polish international winger, give him a defensive / covering role in the team before discarding him because of defensive lapses, never actually allowing him to play in the role he was signed for?
Would a different manager have managed Sibley in a way that he seems so frustrated every time he appears (out of position) that he now looks like an also-ran in our U23s? Would another manager be so worried about a CM picking up too many bookings that he plays 3 CMs who possess practically zero goal threat?
Would another manager fight to bring in a 3rd CB as cover but hardly ever sub him on even when we need to hold onto a point (or 3)? 
These aren't decisions dictated by our 'situation', they're managerial choices. We don't have loads of options, we don't always have good options, but we do have options!
Again, we have no way of knowing for sure what would have happened had different choices been made but it doesn't mean that what he does do is beyond question.
I'd just hate for us to get to this point next season in League One and still see most of the same or similar issues keep popping up and costing us points, having buried my head in the sand for 2 years and put any and all shortcomings down to 'the situation'.
It may make it seem like I'm being unnecessarily harsh on Rooney, but I don't mean it that way. I just can't compartmentalise and lock away my doubts like some other seem to be able to.
Ideally it will be totally different next season, the lessons Rooney should be learning from this season (and last, even though some don't seem to want to acknowledge it) may all come together and he leads us back to The Championship with relative ease.

Should Rooney be doing better? It’s a fair question and one I look at from two perspectives.
The first being whether the majority of players are excelling under Rooney. On balance, I think Davies, Jagielka, Bird, Shinnie and Lawrence are having positive seasons and playing close to their most effective. However it’s quite telling that only one of those players is an attacking player.
We have far too many players who are either not delivering or deeply inconsistent. Could Rooney be getting more quality and consistency out of Byrne, Forsyth, Knight, Sibley, Jozwiak, Morrison, Kazim and Baldock amongst others? Are they performing to their potential? History tells us not.
The second aspect I look at is results against teams we would be expected to run close and compete with. The Bournemouth, WBA and Fulham results were excellent and richly deserved but not really critical to our chances of survival. Stepping up in games against Luton, Peterborough, Preston, Barnsley and Millwall amongst others would have served us far better and would have been far more energising.
I think it says it all that we have failed to beat eight of the bottom 12, including five of the eight teams immediately above us.
It’s all well and good patting ourselves on the back for giving the top teams in the division a headache, but what do those results matter if they are not backed up?
Of course Rooney could be getting more out of this squad. All bar two teams in the division have won more games than us. How is that acceptable in such a poor division?
Does the transfer embargo and administration explain why Rooney has been unable to coax more from Sibley, Jozwiak, Morrison and Kazim, all players who could conceivably make a difference to our ability to win games?

No.
The low expectation / underdog tag has helped us out this season leading to a few points being picked up unexpectedly, but when it comes down to the games which should in theory be more winnable we often don't turn up, or even worse self destruct.
In League One there will be a target on our backs every game, we'll be expected to win more than we lose & draw combined even with the current squad. You won't often get teams who show you soem respect and allow allow you to play, you'll get teams the likes of which we've struggled to perform against in The CHampionship the past 2 seasons.
A team in League One with CKR & Baldock up top, Shinnie in CM and Davies at CB would still be considered one who should be challenging, even if on experience alone.
Obviously there will be big changes to the squad, but we'll someone have to rid ourselelves of this inability to deal with the pressure of expectation, no matter who the players are.
We'll be coming up against some very experienced managers who've been working at that level for years, who know all of the tricks of the trade; managers who've seen Championship teams come down before thinking that they'll stroll back up before and know exactly how to deal with them.
Some of those managers may never get a club promoted, they may be on the League One merry go round forever  but they know how to cause a few upsets; if they come up against a manager who thinks he can run before he can walk they'll have him for breakfast. That's my main concern.
 

The team are winning very few football matches and that can become a habit that is hard to break. If we can keep some of our better youngsters, bring in a bit of experience and some fire power; with a new Manager that can motivate the players, instil some confidence and show some tactical awareness, who knows, we might be challenging ?

Should Rooney be doing better? It’s a fair question and one I look at from two perspectives.
The first being whether the majority of players are excelling under Rooney. On balance, I think Davies, Jagielka, Bird, Shinnie and Lawrence are having positive seasons and playing close to their most effective. However it’s quite telling that only one of those players is an attacking player.
We have far too many players who are either not delivering or deeply inconsistent. Could Rooney be getting more quality and consistency out of Byrne, Forsyth, Knight, Sibley, Jozwiak, Morrison, Kazim and Baldock amongst others? Are they performing to their potential? History tells us not.
The second aspect I look at is results against teams we would be expected to run close and compete with. The Bournemouth, WBA and Fulham results were excellent and richly deserved but not really critical to our chances of survival. Stepping up in games against Luton, Peterborough, Preston, Barnsley and Millwall amongst others would have served us far better and would have been far more energising.
I think it says it all that we have failed to beat eight of the bottom 12, including five of the eight teams immediately above us.
It’s all well and good patting ourselves on the back for giving the top teams in the division a headache, but what do those results matter if they are not backed up?
Of course Rooney could be getting more out of this squad. All bar two teams in the division have won more games than us. How is that acceptable in such a poor division?
Does the transfer embargo and administration explain why Rooney has been unable to coax more from Sibley, Jozwiak, Morrison and Kazim, all players who could conceivably make a difference to our ability to win games?

Yep, no experience whatsoever. Playing and managing are two completely different skill sets ?

Much of what our management team does is mystifying. What’s the plan with the goalkeepers? Why is Lawrence captain? Why are youngsters so often played out of position ? Why do we pick defensive midfielders when we have little fluidity up front and we need wins? Why are our set plays repeatedly rubbish? Why do we so often give up a lead? 

How often do we see our management team influence things on the pitch to change a game around ? (Yesterday’s subs were decent, but apart from that ...?)
no. This is not a strong championship and our squad should be well ahead of where they are on points. 

Wouldn’t have made any difference to my vote and opinion

Very fair post.
Most people seem to want to thank his loyalty and give him that chance, which is understandable.
But I think it is the biggest season we may ever have and he has done little to suggest he has the tactical skills to get us a Promotion. @LeedsCityRamhas just said 'criticism is opportunistic' but I could argue the reverse. One win against a Bournemouth team who were happy to take chances is being highlighted against a background of something like 4 other wins in over 30 matches.
The reaction to any mild criticism of him is more knee-jerk and angry than those who are saying does he have what it takes to turn it round now/after takeover/next season. 
It's a forum for discussion and I personally am bored to tears of analysis of accounts, FFP etc. There is plenty of fulsome praise of Rooney and even his detractors are careful to give him due respect before asking has he got anything wrong, yet even then there is this mocking 'you only come out when we lose' line, which I am finding increasingly incredibly passive aggressive. 

Bristol City 1-0 Derby
Weimann

After those games I said that those were great results but would only really count for anything if we took the confidence gained by them into other fixtures. 
While losing to QPR in itself holds no shame, the last minute nature if it was shattering and it was another game we took the lead in only to throw it away, with the manager doing nothing to stem the tide against us after they'd equalised.
That was followed by an insipid performance against a crap Bristol team so it looks like that momentum / confidence has evaporated already.  
Even if we had won all 3 (including QPR) that wouldn't offset the damage caused by losses to Peterborough, Barnsley & now Bristol City - in those games we don't just miss out on points ourselves we strengthen the position of teams above us.
There's a saying in darts, trebles for show, doubles for dough. 
I think it's reasonable to question how we're able to go from the performance against Bournemouth to the performance against Bristol. Are Buchanan & Baldock (subbed after 22 mins) really that vital to the way we play? The rest of the starting lineup minus a needless change to GK was the same.

I think we should have been able to turn a few more draws into narrow victories. 
We've played a couple of heroic rearguard actions for 90 mins to gain unlikely draws. 
But when a bit of doughty defending to protect a 1 goal lead has been needed, with maybe a tactical tweak to achieve it, we seem to be found consistently wanting. 

I don't agree with your logic. If the majority of people think that 4 wins out of 21 is the BEST Rooney can do then surely that means then the points tally accrued by the end of the season given the BEST expectations will have us playing in League 1 next season?
So if relegation isn't to be a formality Rooney needs to up that win rate which then makes the first premise false?

'Consistently having a pop'...?
Pretty mild criticism at worst. He hasn't got any previous experience, he had a shocking end to his first season and performances are very up n down this season, with us hovering just above the relegation places regardless of points deduction with only Barnsley having won less games (and one of them was against us).
Nobody is forgetting the good things he has done this season and no one is demanding he is sacked. There is a long way to go but its starting to look increasingly like we may start turning our attention to next season in a few weeks time, so I think it's not ridiculous for people to worry in a respectful way if Rooney has what it takes to do a total rebuild in a new league.