John Eustace - our head coach

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

You couldn’t help but like JDT as a person. It was some of the football I didn’t like. He had me scratching my head when he referred to the modern style of possession of the ball at all costs as “ the Dutch disease “ and then promptly started to play in that style.

[frosty]

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Think people are confusing brfcs with real life again.

Not sure I’ve heard a single negative comment about him ‘IRL’. All this ‘folk are against him because they see him as a Swag, appointment, a yes man’ is pure brfcs stuff. He seems more popular with match goers than JDT ever was already.

 

Mental that though, innit? Bristol City aside I've appreciated what Eustace has done in the last few games or so. But JDT.....JDT was the one IMO, the chance to do something different after years of nothingness, the one who actually had genuine ambitions for Blackburn Rovers and who could quite easily have taken us there. And the club cocked it up.

[joey_big_nose]

18 minutes ago, frosty said:

Mental that though, innit? Bristol City aside I've appreciated what Eustace has done in the last few games or so. But JDT.....JDT was the one IMO, the chance to do something different after years of nothingness, the one who actually had genuine ambitions for Blackburn Rovers and who could quite easily have taken us there. And the club cocked it up.

I liked JDT a lot as the way we played on our day was brilliant... but I am not sure he really was the real deal even if we had backed him. We did well generally against other mid table sides, but we really struggled against motivated teams at the bottom and the top of the table. We only managed to get back into a game after conceding first once or twice over 20+ games. Those are two stats that persisted so long over his 18 month tenure it really make me question whether he has it in him to properly motivate and organise a team. The way we played sometimes verged on the unhinged with three players overloading the far right channel of the pitch but only one player on his own in central midfield. We'd dominate games without converting chances but end up losing over and over again to very soft goals.

If he goes on to make a big impact as a manager in England or the big European leagues fair play. But I wouldn't bet my house on it. If I was a hiring CEO looking through his CV there would be as much to worry me as interest me in his time at Rovers.

[AllRoverAsia]

It's quite scary how a faction are so persistent in ripping JDT a new one, usually without the context of what he had to deal with by way of lack of support from above and later on the players, led by the trio of disloyal shit houses in Wharton, Brittain and Hyam.

Eustace, let's see how he does next season when he experiences the same.

JDT suffered as he followed GOD, aka Mowbray, and the disciples never forgave him for that.

You'll get what you deserve 

Edited April 14 by AllRoverAsia

[philipl]

Still giving Eustace the benefit of the doubt but the doubts are a bit less.

That performance at Leeds needed the players to perform supremely professionally after the collection of horror errors at Bristol but it also needed excellent coaching. 

The travel time and psychological support needed post Bristol would have meant the coaching time would have been very limited. So that organisation came from work done before this week.

It is also clear Eustace has a plan B with both a fully functioning 4 at the back and 3/5 at the back.

[rigger]

8 hours ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

Agree generally, but I wouldn't go as far as to say he's more popular that JDT ever was. There were more shouts of Euseless near where I am in the BB end at the Ipswich game than I thought was fair, albeit they seemed like lone voices!

 

It seems like most are giving him quite a lot of rope this season, so long as we stay up. I certainly haven't made my mind up on him yet and I get the sense that most are broadly in the same boat. 

That may be because his name leads easily to the simple chant.

[chaddyrovers]

14 hours ago, ABBEY said:

Fantastic  result ..  master class by the manager today . 

great to see you praise Eustace for the win at Leeds. Well done sir

13 hours ago, martonrover said:

I think some of the flak has been completely OTT and disproportionate.

Without doubt, the fact that he’s not JDT (I think some have a shrine in their spare bedroom, complete with life size manikin), and that Waggott (reportedly) recruited him have influenced thinking.

If we’d been hopeless it would be justified, but on the whole he’s steadied the ship and we’ve been competitive in most games.

The one criticism is his win percentage, but even that is on an upward trajectory of late.

People talk about him not having the baggage that JDT did, but he’s had to come in and work with what was already here.

IF he keeps us up, he’s achieved his goal, and then we all wait and see what happens in the Summer.

I agree that some of the flak and comments about Eustace has been OTT and disproportionate. 

It was clear that Eustace needed to fix the defence and stop us leaking goals after goals. He had to steadied the ship and pick up points. He has done that. At times it hasn't been good watch and yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed how we defended as a team, put our bodies on the line and look to play on the counter. It was great seeing Leeds fans moan and complain yesterday 

8 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

And JDT had plenty of rumblings from day one.

All anecdotal but I never got the feeling that Ewood ever took to him - and I certainly haven’t seen any pining for him since he left (the said pining a few on here get accused of).

I think some fans took him and some didn't. There is a guy who sits in front who never took to him and still wants Mowbray back. 

I think some fans didn't like JDT's style of football and didn't enjoy play that way. 

[Mattyblue]

End of the day the majority of match goers at a club like Rovers would much prefer to see Eustace or Mogga football than what they deemed JDT’s to be - i’e “pissing about wi’ it”.

People on here might not get it, but that’s been my observation.

[Upside Down]

JDT oozed class and sophistication as well as having high standards and tonnes of ambition.

The majority of folk who still go every week couldn't relate to this but a dolloper like Mowbray that had absolutely no ambition, class, sophistication and dressed like he'd just had a rummage round the bins in a charity shop closing down sale, yeah that's a guy they can identify with.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I think JDT’s main problem was he wanted to play “ Rolls-Royce “ football with a team of “ Ford Mondeo’s “ . What he could achieve with a team of “ Rolls-Royce’s “ remains to be seen. I’ll be surprised if that happens at Sweden for obvious reasons.

The thought crossed my mind after yesterdays game  that if we had played in a similar committed fashion with a similar formation last season at the Dingledome we might have got a similar result.

[Upside Down]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I think JDT’s main problem was he wanted to play “ Rolls-Royce “ football with a team of “ Ford Mondeo’s “ . What he could achieve with a team of “ Rolls-Royce’s “ remains to be seen. I’ll be surprised if that happens at Sweden for obvious reasons.

The thought crossed my mind after yesterdays game  that if we had played in a similar committed fashion with a similar formation last season at the Dingledome we might have got a similar result.

In all fairness we only started playing the kamikaze style this season. That was after JDT had already handed in his notice and it wasn't accepted.

Last year he was pretty pragmatic and we were only a few good signings away from being real contenders.

Then venkys did their thing and tried to relegate the club again and the rest is history.

[M_B]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

Still giving Eustace the benefit of the doubt but the doubts are a bit less.

That performance at Leeds needed the players to perform supremely professionally after the collection of horror errors at Bristol but it also needed excellent coaching. 

The travel time and psychological support needed post Bristol would have meant the coaching time would have been very limited. So that organisation came from work done before this week.

It is also clear Eustace has a plan B with both a fully functioning 4 at the back and 3/5 at the back.

The last 6 matches looked, on paper, as tough as it gets,many were asking where our next point was coming from.

The Bristol game has taken the gloss off a pretty decent run of form, considering our position and who we've played. 

[Exiled_Rover]

9 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

You couldn’t help but like JDT as a person. It was some of the football I didn’t like. He had me scratching my head when he referred to the modern style of possession of the ball at all costs as “ the Dutch disease “ and then promptly started to play in that style.

He didn't though - he was insistent that his players progressed the ball up the pitch as quickly as possible. They just weren't talented enough to do it.

The Dutch Disease (I've never heard it referred to as that before JDT) is when you just keep possession for the sake of keeping possession - usually amongst the back 4.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

5 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He didn't though - he was insistent that his players progressed the ball up the pitch as quickly as possible. They just weren't talented enough to do it.

The Dutch Disease (I've never heard it referred to as that before JDT) is when you just keep possession for the sake of keeping possession - usually amongst the back 4.

Therein lies his mistake. He was asking his players to play in a way they weren’t capable of doing. In the end it looks like some of the downed tools.

Edited April 14 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

40 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

In all fairness we only started playing the kamikaze style this season. That was after JDT had already handed in his notice and it wasn't accepted.

Last year he was pretty pragmatic and we were only a few good signings away from being real contenders.

Then venkys did their thing and tried to relegate the club again and the rest is history.

I would agree with most of that. Only the Chicken Chokers would hold a manager to his contract when he plainly had had enough of their nonsense. Just one in a long line of crazy decisions made by them.

[AllRoverAsia]

42 minutes ago, M_B said:

The last 6 matches looked, on paper, as tough as it gets,many were asking where our next point was coming from.

The Bristol game has taken the gloss off a pretty decent run of form, considering our position and who we've played. 

All the above is true.

It's taking me a while to "like" Eustace but when he joined all I asked is that he avoids relegation and he's almost achieved that and I'm confident he will.

He's done the job so starts with a clean slate next season and hope that he gets the support from the Board and owners that all managers deserve.

[lraC]

1 hour ago, AllRoverAsia said:

All the above is true.

It's taking me a while to "like" Eustace but when he joined all I asked is that he avoids relegation and he's almost achieved that and I'm confident he will.

He's done the job so starts with a clean slate next season and hope that he gets the support from the Board and owners that all managers deserve.

I am pretty sure he will, if he keeps us up, which now looks a lot more likely.

From my point of view, knowing it was a Waggott decision to appoint him and then hearing nothing but positives being spun, even when there were none or few to be seen, created a serious sense of doubt.

Yesterday certainly helped to endear him and if we not get over the line, I am happy to accept that I was wrong about him, as up until yesterday, I had very serious reservations. 

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, lraC said:

From my point of view, knowing it was a Waggott decision to appoint him

Surely it was GB who give the board of directors which was probably Waggott, Pasha(unofficially), Silvester and Cheston to decide which way they went to replace JDT. 

I think Eustace was the best candidate out there not in work we could have got. (don't have any knowledge of foreign head coaches who haven't worked in English football)

[Moptop1]

3 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

All the above is true.

It's taking me a while to "like" Eustace but when he joined all I asked is that he avoids relegation and he's almost achieved that and I'm confident he will.

He's done the job so starts with a clean slate next season and hope that he gets the support from the Board and owners that all managers deserve.

History shows us, he’ll be up against it with these owners. They’ll always pull the plug on anything that is going well for the club. They won’t want us doing well. 

Promotion would scare them. So, we can’t have that happening. Let’s sell most of the team.

There you go, promotion gone for another year…

And so the circle is complete.

Job done, failed Promotion (again).

[AllRoverAsia]

3 minutes ago, Moptop1 said:

History shows us, he’ll be up against it with these owners. They’ll always pull the plug on anything that is going well for the club. They won’t want us doing well. 

Promotion would scare them. So, we can’t have that happening. Let’s sell most of the team.

There you go, promotion gone for another year…

And so the circle is complete.

Job done, failed Promotion (again).

Like this season the plan will be just to stay in the Championship.

It "suits" the project......

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Like this season the plan will be just to stay in the Championship.

It "suits" the project......

Stay in the Championship, sell a few more “ paintings off the wall “ . One day there won’t be any “ paintings “ left.

[lraC]

31 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Surely it was GB who give the board of directors which was probably Waggott, Pasha(unofficially), Silvester and Cheston to decide which way they went to replace JDT. 

I think Eustace was the best candidate out there not in work we could have got. (don't have any knowledge of foreign head coaches who haven't worked in English football)

From what I’ve read on here, it was Waggott’s appointment, but I stand to be corrected. 

[chaddyrovers]

52 minutes ago, lraC said:

From what I’ve read on here, it was Waggott’s appointment, but I stand to be corrected. 

GB outlined in his recent interview how we appoint Eustace

[lraC]

13 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

GB outlined in his recent interview how we appoint Eustace

Fair enough. What did he say?

[chaddyrovers]

4 minutes ago, lraC said:

Fair enough. What did he say?

Eustace had impressed at Birmingham earlier this season before his controversial sacking, and Rovers were confident he was the right man for the job.

Broughton continued: “My role then was to present the board of directors with a list. It is something we had been working on – and I have been quite open about it - for the previous 12 months.

“You have to highlight the risks, strengths and weaknesses of anybody who sits on that list.

“My job, when John Eustace comes into the post on the back of that, is to support him as best as possible, as I did with Jon Dahl previously.”

Rovers still have work to do heading into the final eight games of the Championship season as they aim to pull away from the relegation zone.

Broughton explained: “If you go back to where (Eustace) started at Kidderminster Harriers, they were very open and knows as the ‘Barcelona of non-league football’ in terms of some of their attacking play.

“You also saw at Birmingham last year that all of their players were either under 21 or over 28, they had very few players in that middle section. He also left the club in the play-off positions.

“Some of the headline data might not suggest that is the perfect match but when you scratch beneath the surface and do the research, there is a lot of alignment with the way we want to do things.

“The head coach needs the opportunity to get on the grass and implement his style of play. In John’s first five weeks here, we had double gameweeks because of our success in the FA Cup.

“This is the first extended period where he has been on the grass with the players, but I think he will need the rest of the season and pre-season as well for him to be able to put his slant on our game model.”