Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[chaddyrovers]

5 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

You suggested that people should go and watch Ismael's interview, where he appears to have been given assurances that he can build a team. You wouldn't push people in that direction if you didn't believe it yourself.

You essentially presented that interview as evidence that he will be backed, ergo, everything is rosy in the garden.

We don't what assurances he has been given or what Eustace or JDT for certain. We see in the summer won't we. 

No one has said everything is rosy in the Garden have they? Nope. 

[Mattyblue]

‘We’ll see in the summer’, ‘we’ll see in January’.

Always another summer, always another January with you. These owners will *never* deliver, never, you need to come to terms with that.

[philipl]

We need to see at Stoke.

[Tricky]

13 hours ago, Hasta said:

What worries me about the 3 year contract is that if things do go seriously pear-shaped it makes it even less likely we will get rid.

My guess is that as far as managers pay goes, we were offering a very low amount but trying to attract with a longer contract.

hopefully a clause in there to get rid if we dont make top 6

[RoversClitheroe]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

We need to see at Stoke.

I think a loss or draw there and I think the fans will turn fast. 

[47er]

1 hour ago, Tricky said:

hopefully a clause in there to get rid if we dont make top 6

Which we won't imo. The impetus is now with other clubs like Bristol City and Coventry for the final play-off positions.

We'll finish out of it . 7 points out of the last 18.

[Lancaster Rover]

We've been going backwards since Christmas, the two positive results under Lowe were blip rather than the norm over the last couple of months

[RoversClitheroe]

1 hour ago, 47er said:

Which we won't imo. The impetus is now with other clubs like Bristol City and Coventry for the final play-off positions.

We'll finish out of it . 7 points out of the last 18.

Mental given how easy our run in was, but you're right.

[MarkBRFC]

9 defeats in the last 16 games.

A pathetic run of form.

[London blue]

It's May 2031, Rovers have just been relegated to the National League North. New manager Jason Lowe holds his first press conference.

"I'm delighted to come back to this famous club. I've spoken to Suhail and Steve and they have ambitious plans to get us back to where we belong. I have every confidence that despite the last 7 managers leaving mid contract that I'll be provided the funds to rebuild the squad"

Chaddy: "We see in the summer."

[USABlue]

Other than two dismal performances any.whispers from the playing side on the new boss?

[chaddyrovers]

1 minute ago, USABlue said:

Other than two dismal performances any.whispers from the playing side on the new boss?

How was the Norwich performance a dismal one? 

[roversfan99]

It was flat and passive. Dismal is strong but it was pretty poor.

[MarkBRFC]

7 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

How was the Norwich performance a dismal one? 

We couldn't get near them for a good hour I would say?

The subs perked us up a little bit but you would never have thought we were the home team in that game.

Fair play to getting the last minute equaliser but we were second best and poor for the majority.

[chaddyrovers]

4 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

We couldn't get near them for a good hour I would say?

The subs perked us up a little bit but you would never have thought we were the home team in that game.

Fair play to getting the last minute equaliser but we were second best and poor for the majority.

Well I wouldn't. Norwich started much better and they were the better team first 20 mins of each half. Rovers created a couple of  chances after the first 20 mins

Norwich wide players played as 2 number 10 which caused us massively problems. 

Tronstad, Weimann and Dennis helped us take back control of the, 

Plus a penalty not given

[lraC]

I know a scout, for another championship club, who himself, is an ex pro. He was looking at one of our players and I spoke to him, a few days after the match.

His unbiased opinion was we were second best, but he said despite their possession, Norwich hardly troubled us, so far as a goal threat was concerned and that's essentially their style.

[DE.]

Norwich reminded me of a Russell Martin team - lots of possession but rarely did anything threatening with it. They only had 3 shots on target the entire match so not sure how it can be concluded they were causing us major problems. Just seems like trying to rewrite history to be kinder to the new manager by suggesting they were an incredible team we did well to draw against, rather than an insipid outfit that were nothing special but who we nonetheless couldn't beat. The king is dead, long live the king...

It was a home match against a team below us who are poor away from home. We needed to win, instead we scraped a draw. It's nothing to be pleased about. The Derby defeat was even worse. The pressure is on for the Stoke game. 

Edited 8 hours ago by DE.

[Lancaster Rover]

There are a lot of similar teams in the champ this year, all fur coat and no knickers would be how I'd describe it. Leeds, Burnleh all have lots of the ball without looking particularly dangerous if a team can remain compact and well organised. 

This is why I think Sheff Utd are the best bet to win it as they at least have a couple of ways of playing, they can maintain possession but if needed can be much more direct, something Leeds, Burnleh and others struggle with. We've seen on 3 occasions now if you limit Leeds to having to play around a compact defensive unit they're not particularly threatening, I'd argue the same could be said about the Dingles too

[RevidgeBlue]

40 minutes ago, DE. said:

We needed to win, instead we scraped a draw. It's nothing to be pleased about. The Derby defeat was even worse. The pressure is on for the Stoke game. 

Perfectly summed up in a nutshell.

[MarkBRFC]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

The pressure is on for the Stoke game. 

Pressure isn't a thing at this club.

[DE.]

14 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

Pressure isn't a thing at this club.

Well, that's true. I should have said the pressure should be on, but it won't be because as far as the hierarchy is concerned this season's mission is already achieved.

[onlyonejackwalker]

I can't help feeling we missed an amazing opportunity when appointing Valerian.

Of all the names mentioned by fans from Duff to Cooper, from Allardyce to Edwards, from Warnock to Lowe, from Travis / Tronstad, no one, I repeat no one suggested, wanted, or recommended Ismael.

Our manager had just left, we had an us against the world mentality and could have maintained and increased squad and fan harmony at just the right time, with the correct appointment.

We all know that the financial and performance future looks bleak. It was therefore imperative we tried to maximise the returns possible this season by galvanising the club with someone we would universally unite behind. 

Just for three months if need be. Make it clear to the rest of the division we were trying to get promoted. Was that too much to ask?

We knew the players were tired and overused with uncertain futures. And now even all of us are jaded. And we've not kicked a ball. So frustrating.

We would all be buzzing if every set piece was being aimed at Gueye under Allardyce, or we were kicking people off the park under Warnock. Or Duffer had a 3.5 year contract, or Travis and Tronstad were trying to both manage and play.  Win or lose we would all be re-invigorated.

It's not all about big budgets, parachute payments, expensive signings and big followings as Luton and Ipswich and Brentford have proven the last few years.

Belief, confidence, shared goals, comraderie, team spirt, friendship, unity, will to win, momentum, happiness, strength ie an appreciation of the psychology of sport are equally as important. Especially so when you cannot compete financially.

I've nothing against Ismael. I wish him well with his project. Unfortunately as the rest of us knew already, there is no such thing as a project here and the only thing that could save us was promotion to the Premier League.

[roversfan99]

I know one thing about Ismael. Its a better appointment than having Travis and/or Tronstad as player manager!

[chaddyrovers]

44 minutes ago, onlyonejackwalker said:

I can't help feeling we missed an amazing opportunity when appointing Valerian.

Of all the names mentioned by fans from Duff to Cooper, from Allardyce to Edwards, from Warnock to Lowe, from Travis / Tronstad, no one, I repeat no one suggested, wanted, or recommended Ismael.

Our manager had just left, we had an us against the world mentality and could have maintained and increased squad and fan harmony at just the right time, with the correct appointment.

We all know that the financial and performance future looks bleak. It was therefore imperative we tried to maximise the returns possible this season by galvanising the club with someone we would universally unite behind. 

Just for three months if need be. Make it clear to the rest of the division we were trying to get promoted. Was that too much to ask?

We knew the players were tired and overused with uncertain futures. And now even all of us are jaded. And we've not kicked a ball. So frustrating.

We would all be buzzing if every set piece was being aimed at Gueye under Allardyce, or we were kicking people off the park under Warnock. Or Duffer had a 3.5 year contract, or Travis and Tronstad were trying to both manage and play.  Win or lose we would all be re-invigorated.

It's not all about big budgets, parachute payments, expensive signings and big followings as Luton and Ipswich and Brentford have proven the last few years.

Belief, confidence, shared goals, comraderie, team spirt, friendship, unity, will to win, momentum, happiness, strength ie an appreciation of the psychology of sport are equally as important. Especially so when you cannot compete financially.

I've nothing against Ismael. I wish him well with his project. Unfortunately as the rest of us knew already, there is no such thing as a project here and the only thing that could save us was promotion to the Premier League.

Cooper and Edwards are still being paid by the former clubs and alot more than we are paying. Would Allardyce or Warnock realistic? Probably not.

Duff, would have been OK choice..done well in Ireland 

Ismael wants us to put the ball into Gueye from wide areas. I want out our keeper to be aiming for him at goal kicks..

I said I expected a foreign head coach appointment and that what we got. In my first post after Eustace leaving I mentioned Ismael and Wagner who reported got to the final interview stage. 

[roversfan99]

You mentioned about 400 managers that you would have been happy with. Basically anyone you could think of that didnt have any connection to Burnley.

Ive not seen much in the way of crosses to Gueye in the first 2 games to the extent that anyone can be sure what the tactics are yet.