Does Rodgson want to win the game though? The club have committed to a pre-season tour so they don't want to qaulify for Europe.
As it's the Derby he'll probably try to win it and then thrown the last 2 games of the season.
If we qualify for Europa by finishing 5th, I don't think we need to play preliminary games to get into the group matches, through fair play and even by winning the league cup, you start much earlier.