Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[dallydally]

49 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Not watching anymore games this season.

Absolutely fed up, I can't believe the club want playoffs.

Every single thing points to them not wanting it.

That's EXACTLY why I didn't renew my season ticket this year. Got totally fed up with the owners and their local stooges. None of them have a clue so hit them the only place it hurts - the income stream!

[lraC]

4 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

Don't forget Captain Coyle being what, 3 or 4 down at half time on his first game of that season? I imagine that turned quicker!

That said, I reckon that Coyle team would have battered what Ismael put out there last night. Him talking about the second half being better is utter delusion - I don't think I've ever seen a team look less arsed about attacking.

I think Coyle used the excuse of signings were not made and once the window closed and he had what he wanted, things would change.

Of course they didn’t and as we know that appointment led to relegation and as we have heard with the Elliott Bennett podcast, he described Coyle, as the worst manager he has worked under.

I already get the impression that some of the players have grave doubts about this manager, so if he is also given the time to bring in his own players, during the summer window, let’s hope we don’t have history repeating itself. 

[chaddyrovers]

13 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Why do we need behind the scenes footage of our recruitment?

It called engagement with the fan base. The world is changing and people want to see more and more behind the scenes footage, more engagement with the club or sport. 

13 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Its all about the players we can see. Most of them have been crap or totally pointless.

so if most of our players have been crap or totally pointless, then we have been in the top half all season and fighting for a playoff place. Your choice are words is just pathetic. 

 

13 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

I suppose the only question is how much of that is just down to the pathetic budget.

the budget is what it is but we have still have signed some good quality signings like Ohashi, Gueye or Karbgo. Cantwell should have been but it just hasn't clicked with him. 

[ageoftherover]

9 hours ago, Ghost7 said:

Not impressed by anything I've seen so far. The team's gone backwards.

They're probably as fed up as the rest of us. 

As for VI, there might be a club/situation where he'd thrive, but this one in this moment is probably too high a degree of difficulty for him. 

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, lraC said:

I’m convinced that certain elements of the team selection is based on  cost and not ability. Choose the right players and then play the right system and then e have a chance.

The line up and the tactics were woeful, last night and on Saturday. 

How do you work that out? which players were left out due to cost? Tronstad and Ohashi probably can't start 3 games in a week after their injury. 

His move to a back 3 was always going to happened after being bullied by Derby on Saturday. Lets be honest. 

How would you have set up last night? 

I'm not a fan of the 3 at the back myself and going forward from the summer I think we need to playing 4-2-3-1 formation and getting more crosses into the box plus a couple of more wide options with pace. 

[simongarnerisgod]

no idea why he`s ditched the formation that was working  just because we had a bad 10 minutes at derby and that was because we`ve got a flapping keeper,he`s made brittain and ribeiro,two of our better players,look completely ordinary in the last two games and he`s done the same to travis,who has to worry about lining up alongside forshaw,who is slow,cant run and is always nowhere near the ball

[JCRovers]

Sorry to say this but head coach looks already lost after just three games. Switch of formation from a back four to back three after just 15 minutes against Derby and then start with a back three against Stoke only to panic and go 4-4-2 in the final ten is just ridiculous. Dropping Tronstad to the bench and play Forshaw is a joke in itself. I don't think the players know at this point what Ismaël wants them to do on the pitch, what positions to take up and where to make the runs, hence the constant changes in tactical setup. Fully expect more defeats and abysmal displays from now on until the end of season. 

After riding their luck with the appointment of Eustace, this one might actually cause a turn of fortunes. Given the contractual situation for many of the players, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if some of them will want to seek a move elsewhere in the summer. If that's the case, then there's a genuine concern as to whether the team will be competitive enough to even stay up next season. 

[lraC]

39 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

How do you work that out? which players were left out due to cost? Tronstad and Ohashi probably can't start 3 games in a week after their injury. 

His move to a back 3 was always going to happened after being bullied by Derby on Saturday. Lets be honest. 

How would you have set up last night? 

I'm not a fan of the 3 at the back myself and going forward from the summer I think we need to playing 4-2-3-1 formation and getting more crosses into the box plus a couple of more wide options with pace. 

There is now way, I would have started with either Sanderson or Forshaw and there is a strong argument for leaving Cantwell on the bench too.

I would have gone with Transtad from the start and just see how he went, as I go agree that it would have been a bit of a risk, but given that he came on anyway, I think that would be validated. I would have had JRC in for Cantwell and Buckley in midfield instead of playing 3/5 at the back. 

Have you listened to the Elliott Bennett  podcast, where he states that he was told that Mowbray had to limit his starts, due to finances and have you not heard it from yesteryear with the like of Solgado, Nelson, Etc?

Would you totally dismiss, the possibility under this regime of a team being picked for financial reasons, rather than the best available to win the game?

I am not saying, I am correct by the way, but the starting lineup twice so far under this manager, have been questionable, in my opinion. 

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

It called engagement with the fan base. The world is changing and people want to see more and more behind the scenes footage, more engagement with the club or sport. 

so if most of our players have been crap or totally pointless, then we have been in the top half all season and fighting for a playoff place. Your choice are words is just pathetic. 

 

the budget is what it is but we have still have signed some good quality signings like Ohashi, Gueye or Karbgo. Cantwell should have been but it just hasn't clicked with him. 

We arent showing any fight for a play off place. But we are where we are because of a now departed manager getting so much out of a limited group and our best performers have predominantly been players already at the club.

We dont know if Kargbo is good quality, hes barely played and is now out for the season. The other 2 have been average and both have suffered long goalless spells.

The budget is what it is. A huge reason why we cant ever build a squad capable of sustaining a play off push over a whole season.

[RoverInverness]

IMO the players have got used to working for two pretty good managers. Eustace knew how to make a team solid and was an excellent man manager. JDT genuinely knew how to improve the players as footballers and to get an effective high press.

What is Ismael good at? Well we can't see yet, that's for sure.

What is Ismael trying to do with the team and the style of play? Well I haven't got a clue, the players don't seem to have a clue, does anybody watching have a clue?

I hope I'm wrong, but I got a bad feeling about this. When I saw the team sheet, with Forshaw and a back three, like literally thousands of other Rovers fans I knew only one thing, that we were almost certain to lose.

Gregg the Egg wasn't popular on here, but as I said at the time, at least he had a fucking plan. The club got away with changing the style of play when Eustace was appointed, because they got lucky and appointed a guy who knew what he was doing. 

I have such negative feelings towards Waggott and Pasha, almost more than I have for the owners. Desperately unimaginative leeches. Ismael doesn't appear to be a motivator, he doesn't appear to be a good man manager (he seems quite cold and quite odd), he doesn't appear to be a tactician, his assistant looks like a vampire and I am starting to wonder if he is, indeed, essentially just a long ball merchant as people have suggested. I wonder if even he understands why he was appointed. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

24 minutes ago, lraC said:

There is now way, I would have started with either Sanderson or Forshaw and there is a strong argument for leaving Cantwell on the bench too.

I would have gone with Transtad from the start and just see how he went, as I go agree that it would have been a bit of a risk, but given that he came on anyway, I think that would be validated. I would have had JRC in for Cantwell and Buckley in midfield instead of playing 3/5 at the back. 

Have you listened to the Elliott Bennett  podcast, where he states that he was told that Mowbray had to limit his starts, due to finances and have you not heard it from yesteryear with the like of Solgado, Nelson, Etc?

Would you totally dismiss, the possibility under this regime of a team being picked for financial reasons, rather than the best available to win the game?

I am not saying, I am correct by the way, but the starting lineup twice so far under this manager, have been questionable, in my opinion. 

Buckley is out with concussion apparently. A strange one.

[lraC]

7 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Buckley is out with concussion apparently. A strange one.

He was on the bench last night, so must have been available.

[Inferi]

The tactics clearly aren't working. It didn't work against Derby either and there were no visible improvements against Stoke. Seemingly the game plan is to just cross the ball into the box at the first opportunity. Low quality crosses towards Gueye with a very low chance of success since there are several defenders in position ready to defend. It was so obvious that we needed a different approach and yet Ismael didn't make any meaningful changes until it was way too late. 

I think his post match interview can be described as reality-defying nonsense. There was nothing to be happy about, and if he's actually pleased with the second half performance it's very worrying. 

[martonrover]

3 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Even after just 3 games, I think it's clear Ismael doesn't know what he's doing

Maybe not on the football pitch, but a 3.5 year contract sets him up nicely.

Off the pitch he can't lose.

[lraC]

5 minutes ago, martonrover said:

Maybe not on the football pitch, but a 3.5 year contract sets him up nicely.

Off the pitch he can't lose.

Whether he turns out to be good or not, the length of the contract is plain crazy. 

[speeeeeeedie]

Last night's game was utterly bemusing from start to finish. I am still trying to work it all out.

Why did Ismael change formation? How is adding a central defender going to create more goals? Rovers have to be the worst team in the division when it comes to crossing the ball. It's utterly woeful to watch crosses and corners go nowhere each and every time.

Rovers fans have been here too many times before. Ismael looks more like Coyle, Appleton, Berg than JDT or Eustace.

Allegedly one of Eustace's reasons for leaving was that they wouldn't extend his contract an extra year, yet they give the new bloke a 3+ year deal. Madness.

[Paul Mellelieu]

VI may turn out to be a mistake, but look at JE's record last season (and some of this TBH).

[Hasta]

10 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

His move to a back 3 was always going to happened after being bullied by Derby on Saturday. Lets be honest. 

We weren’t bullied by Derby. Pears flapped at a cross and conceded, and then a couple of minutes later it was just shit defending. We’d only been playing 15 minutes and then he switched it. It wasn’t long enough for us to “bullied.”

However on the back of that shit 16 minutes defending, he has ripped up the entire defensive structure which Eustace had built which had us in the top 6, and switched to a back 3. Since then we’ve had about 3 shots on target in 170 minutes. 

It’s knee-jerk and has reaped 0 points.

Edited March 13 by Hasta

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, lraC said:

He was on the bench last night, so must have been available.

Right, I didn’t see that. Last I heard he was out until after the international break.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

19 minutes ago, Hasta said:

We weren’t bullied by Derby. Pears flapped at a cross and conceded, and then a couple of minutes later it was just shit defending. We’d only been playing 15 minutes and then he switched it. It wasn’t long enough for us to “bullied.”

However on the back of that shit 16 minutes defending, he has ripped up the entire defensive structure which Eustace had built which had us in the top 6, and switched to a back 3. Since then we’ve had about 3 shots on target in 170 minutes. 

It’s a knee-jerk and has reaped 0 points.

We got bullied throughout the game. Chaddy’s right about that. How many 50/50 balls did we win ? How many times to a Derby player just run through our attempts at “ tackles “.

Edited March 13 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, lraC said:

There is now way, I would have started with either Sanderson or Forshaw and there is a strong argument for leaving Cantwell on the bench too.

I would have gone with Transtad from the start and just see how he went, as I go agree that it would have been a bit of a risk, but given that he came on anyway, I think that would be validated. I would have had JRC in for Cantwell and Buckley in midfield instead of playing 3/5 at the back. 

Tronstad would always come on after 60/70 minutes but we have to managed his time on the pitch after an injury. 

I would be interested seeing what your line up would be

2 hours ago, lraC said:

Have you listened to the Elliott Bennett  podcast, where he states that he was told that Mowbray had to limit his starts, due to finances and have you not heard it from yesteryear with the like of Solgado, Nelson, Etc?

No I haven't. Not aware what you start and I have listened to previous podcast with Elliott Bennett and he never mentioned that then but has chosen to now. Interesting. I will try to get a listen at some point. 

2 hours ago, lraC said:

Would you totally dismiss, the possibility under this regime of a team being picked for financial reasons, rather than the best available to win the game?

I am not saying, I am correct by the way, but the starting lineup twice so far under this manager, have been questionable, in my opinion. 

Not for me, His team selection have been mainly what I expected to be honest. I would be interested to know who you think has been left for these reasons, but I can't see anything in it, in the past probably has, but now currently I can't see it

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

We arent showing any fight for a play off place. But we are where we are because of a now departed manager getting so much out of a limited group and our best performers have predominantly been players already at the club.

We dont know if Kargbo is good quality, hes barely played and is now out for the season. The other 2 have been average and both have suffered long goalless spells.

so the players get no credit given they were the actually one on the pitch. 

I have my opinion on Karbgo, Gueye and Ohashi and if you disagree fine, but I stand by my opinion. 

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

The budget is what it is. A huge reason why we cant ever build a squad capable of sustaining a play off push over a whole season.

We can't stand the pressure of playoff chase. Simple as. Its 3 times in 4 seasons now. Whether its the manager not changing formation when plan A isn't working, or we didn't sign the quality striker we should or this winter when since Boxing day our form dropped off the cliff apart from beating those nob enders and couple others. 

[Hasta]

29 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We got bullied throughout the game. Chaddy’s right about that. How many 50/50 balls did we win ? How many times to a Derby player just run through our attempts at “ tackles “.

By bullied I presume he means physically intimidated (like that Preston game we lost from 2-0 up a few years ago). We weren’t. We just couldn’t tackle, close space and were second to every ball. 

That’s something which we haven’t struggled with so much earlier in the season do to the way we’ve been set up, so I just want to know why changing to 5 at the back would help.

Edited March 13 by Hasta

[rigger]

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Buckley is out with concussion apparently. A strange one.

That was the previous match. If you fail the concussion protocol, you cannot play for a certain length of time.

[simongarnerisgod]

16 minutes ago, rigger said:

That was the previous match. If you fail the concussion protocol, you cannot play for a certain length of time.

how do you get concussed in training?????are they playing rugby now at brockhall