Agreed, if he still has it in him i'd always select him. The set up doesn't seem to suit him, playing way to deep for Rowett. He's much more effective playing just behind the forwards. Regards to the 442, i thought it didn't suit us today, we looked way to narrow and like we'd never played it before, perhaps if we persist with it we might improve.
The reason we looked narrow is it was a 4-2-3-1, I think gr said it himself in his interview.
For me, the problem stems back to recruitment, every manager has his best/favorite formation, with GR it seems to be 5-2-3, we just don't have the players to play it, our CB's Hutch, Pearce & Wallace are all, tough tackling cb's, with Cooper, you can tell he has had a bit of training to try and get forward, he can do ok sometimes but looks nervous on the ball.
None of our CB's have the pace needed to play a 3 man defense, Danny Mc and Malone have been promoted and brought back to the club to fill the wingback rolls.
He brought in dutch to be the hard man in midfield and get his foot in, while evans was brought in to get forward, Mitchell and Leonard are doing better jobs right now
Then you have George Saville, a great player for us last time around but plays his best football in a 4-4-2.
Jed on one side with Bennet on the other with Bod, Bradshaw, Smith, Afobe, Parrott, Zahore all being tried down the middle (I may have missed someone)
His 5-2-3 then changed to a 5-3-2, I don't think any of our midfield players look comfortable in a 3 again he changed personal with Thompson, Evans, Ginger, Dutch, Mitchell, Leonard, Saville, all being tried.
My point being that his recruitment has been terrible, along with his formation choice, he brought players to the club and played them out of place, did any of the forwards who I spoke of above have any kind of chance to score, do any of the attacking midfielders who I spoke of above have any kind of chance to play their best football.
We have for a good few seasons been known as a hard team to beat as our defense has been solid, I think we all can now see cracks in the defense.
Again do any of our defenders have a chance to keep a clean sheet when they play in a system that creates problems for them?