Eustace 'absolutely' deserved recognition if Rams avoid relegation
Will the Rams stay up?
- Published
Derby County boss John Eustace should "absolutely" have been in the conversation for Championship manager of the year if the Rams avoid relegation, according to former striker Malcolm Christie.
Eustace has won 65 points from 44 Championship matches this season with Derby and previous club Blackburn Rovers, who were in promotion-chasing sixth place upon his departure in February and have since slipped to eighth.
Following three consecutive losses after Eustace's appointment at Pride Park, a run of six wins and two draws in his past 10 matches has dragged Derby out of the drop zone with one game remaining.
Now 19th in the table with a superior goal difference to the other relegation-threatened teams, the Rams will live to fight another day in English football's second tier by matching the final-day results of Preston, Luton or Hull City.
Together with his exploits at Blackburn, who were tipped for relegation before the season began after narrowly avoiding the drop last year, that would be viewed by some as sufficient achievement to have earned Eustace consideration for the Championship coaching award recently won by Burnley manager Scott Parker.
Responding to a fan comment proposing as much, ex-Derby forward Christie told the Rams Daily podcast: "We're incredibly biased, but he's my manager of the season for sure.
"What he's done, the transformation in everything. The way I feel about this team has changed tremendously. If you go back through old Rams Daily episodes, some of the performances under [former Derby, now MK Dons manager] Paul Warne were horrible.
"There was no hope, nothing we felt we could grasp hold of, we weren't organised without the ball, teams were creating too many chances against us. It got me thinking about how much better, and how much [more] confidence I feel around what John Eustace is trying to do."
Christie continued: "Of course we can all get carried away a little but if we stay in the league, thinking about the potential for next season with the squad he's got at the moment, what could he do with a really good recruitment drive behind him and a full summer to work with these players as well? It's fantastic - I think it's really remarkable what he's done with the transformation of the team, the structure, the tactics.
"Every game I'm seeing little tactic nuances coming in and the way John is doing that, based on what the opposition are good at, it's brilliant.
"I think John prefers the game not to be exciting - for us that's fine, as long as we get the result out of it."