Jon Dahl Tomasson - Sweden coach

[roversfan99]

He was stubborn and clearly trying to prove a point in season 2, but the squad had been ripped apart and filled with crap, and has also become over reliant on sub par academy players or existing rubbish that had to play a more prevalent role.

I suspect the Isak situation has really hindered them so far in qualifying. He did start yesterday but as shown at Liverpool is still unfit.

[BRFC.]

Would have him here (obviously he’ll never come back under this regime) but I’d have him here any day of the week over Ismael. 

[Commondore]

On 11/10/2025 at 18:03, joey_big_nose said:

JDT is - from what I saw at Rovers in his first season - a very good fair weather manager who can build a team and get more than you would expect out of it's constituent parts. But as he is from the Ange Postecoglou school of "lets throw everything into the attack and let the defenders figure it out" he's not great when things start going against you and you need to batten down the hatches, as we saw in season 2.

This has pretty much been his tenure in a nutshell. To be fair, he was given a brief to play attacking football after the usual Swedish approach of hard teamwork and defense had grown very stale, and we've produced a lot of attacking talent in the last few years while there's been a dearth of defenders and defensive midfielders. Still, the result of JDT's tactics have been that those not very good defenders have been badly exposed without the support of the players who are roving forward.

[JHRover]

The time for JDT has been and gone. When he was here we had the foundation of a strong Championship squad and on top of that invested sensibly and effectively in people like Szmodics, Brittain and Hyam. 

The combination of Mowbray's left over squad, those good signings, JDT's impact / ambition and the Adam Wharton emergence - the stars aligned at the right time and we could have done it. 

Some prefer to convince themselves that we will never get promoted or close to it because of crowds, money, excuses but even under these wretched owners we ended up in a position to take that step under JDT. Engaged owners with some ambition would have backed him 'heavily' in his first January - instead they borrowed Sorba Thomas from Huddersfield.

Nowadays it wouldn't work as well - they've gutted the squad of the quality it once had and are ensuring the prospects even of repeating signings like Szmodics and Brittain are remote. 

I think JDT struggled at times here because he was just on a totally different wavelength footballing wise to most of the players who had enjoyed the happy camp under Mowbray for years. Nowadays that would be even more extreme - I doubt any of them are capable of performing in the way he wants.

[chaddyrovers]

Rovers not signing being able to convince Denis Undav to join us in January or even having a Plan B option meant we didn't get the playoff place or even better in JDT's first season. 

Understand think JDT learnt alot about English football but more importantly Rovers 

[roversfan99]

He will have to learnt to not take jobs with dreadful owners.

[chaddyrovers]

He needs to be club management but willing to be more adaptable in tactical 

Edited yesterday at 12:20 by chaddyrovers

[JHRover]

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Rovers not signing being able to convince Denis Undav to join us in January or even having a Plan B option meant we didn't get the playoff place or even better in JDT's first season. 

Understand think JDT learnt alot about English football but more importantly Rovers 

A pattern emerges of not getting business done when needed. 

I very much doubt that's because we 'couldn't convince' a player to join us and is more likely because the owners and their henchman refused to sanction the outlay. In doing so it probably cost them millions and millions.

JDT will have learned one thing from his time at Rovers. Never, ever trust a Venky. 

[chaddyrovers]

11 minutes ago, JHRover said:

A pattern emerges of not getting business done when needed. 

I very much doubt that's because we 'couldn't convince' a player to join us and is more likely because the owners and their henchman refused to sanction the outlay. In doing so it probably cost them millions and millions.

JDT will have learned one thing from his time at Rovers. Never, ever trust a Venky. 

Undav said publicly he turned down to stay and fight for Place at Brighton. 

We already a deal in place with Brighton. JDT and GB couldn't convince him to join us. 

Gregg Broughton's comments on the public record " I think it's on the public record we had an agreement in place with Brighton for Deniz Undav, and at that stage just before it was done, the player decided to stay in-house. "

https://x.com/Rovers/status/1621486156721553410?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1621486156721553410|twgr^87f7e0e8d7a397d4e5e781152c1257c1b972938b|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffootballleagueworld.co.uk%2Fkey-blackburn-rovers-figure-reveals-premier-league-striker-turned-down-january-transfer-move%2F

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

He needs to be club management but willing to be more adaptable in tactical 

Until he left, you was pretty insistent that he was correct to carry on playing as we was at the time.

He was wrong but it seemed to be out of stubborness rather than naivety. He had plans and he had the carpet totally pulled from underneath him, hence why he wanted to resign. His main lesson is to choose his next club based on the owners and board. Dont make the mistake he made here where Venkys totally messed up all of his plans.

[JCRovers]

JDT is an idealist, not a very pragmatic coach or tactician who can adapt his approach during games. Would probably have gotten us into playoffs had he been backed during his first season. Second season was a disaster because he wanted out early and he refused to change tactics when it was obviously not working given the squad at hand. But you kinda see in his way of approaching games that he used to play as a striker - Sweden showed some great attacking moves against Switzerland the other day (Bergvall somewhat unlucky not to score twice) but he gets exposed for his lack of defensive thinking / tactical knowledge / experience when he's facing teams playing on the counter (e.g. the defeat vs Kosovo away). Which could also explain the strange pattern of rarely ever drawing a game when he was coaching us.

Think he will be successful in the future if he finds an assistant coach that complements him a bit better than what Reijnierse does at the moment.

[joey_big_nose]

3 hours ago, JCRovers said:

JDT is an idealist, not a very pragmatic coach or tactician who can adapt his approach during games. Would probably have gotten us into playoffs had he been backed during his first season. Second season was a disaster because he wanted out early and he refused to change tactics when it was obviously not working given the squad at hand. But you kinda see in his way of approaching games that he used to play as a striker - Sweden showed some great attacking moves against Switzerland the other day (Bergvall somewhat unlucky not to score twice) but he gets exposed for his lack of defensive thinking / tactical knowledge / experience when he's facing teams playing on the counter (e.g. the defeat vs Kosovo away). Which could also explain the strange pattern of rarely ever drawing a game when he was coaching us.

Think he will be successful in the future if he finds an assistant coach that complements him a bit better than what Reijnierse does at the moment.

Just lost to Kosovo at home tonight too....

Probably going to get sacked shortly I would imagine.

[davulsukur]

9 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

Just lost to Kosovo at home tonight too....

Probably going to get sacked shortly I would imagine.

Unlikely that they will qualify for the world cup now. Booed by the crowd and banners telling him to resign, yeah it's not going to end well for him.

Kosovo beat them 2-0 a month ago as well.

Expectations were raised a lot i think, following Isak and Gyokere's big money moves in the summer.

Assume once it's mathematically impossible to qualify, he'll get the bullet pretty swiftly.

[frosty]

They’ve already got a play-off spot through winning their Nations League group, but they’ll obviously have to improve a lot to stand a chance in that.

[TheKitGuy]

Very England mid 2000's esque in the way that they have had a bit of a golden generation but don't have a system to fit all the players in coherently. Strikers these days cannot work in a 2 every formation is centered around 1 lone striker. I'd imagine both Gyokeres and Isak feel incredibly uncomfortable playing with each other and also don't know how to play with each other. 4-4-2 doesn't particularly work in the modern game and their squad lacks a solid defence and keeper for a 3-5-2 but they play this way as it's 'modern' but it just leaves them wide open, just to shoe horn in 2 strikers (who have been nothing short of sporadic this season)

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, TheKitGuy said:

Very England mid 2000's esque in the way that they have had a bit of a golden generation but don't have a system to fit all the players in coherently. Strikers these days cannot work in a 2 every formation is centered around 1 lone striker. I'd imagine both Gyokeres and Isak feel incredibly uncomfortable playing with each other and also don't know how to play with each other. 4-4-2 doesn't particularly work in the modern game and their squad lacks a solid defence and keeper for a 3-5-2 but they play this way as it's 'modern' but it just leaves them wide open, just to shoe horn in 2 strikers (who have been nothing short of sporadic this season)

Back in the day Wales had three really good centre forwards. John Toshack, Ron Davies and Wyn Davies. Because the fans were agitating to play all of them the Welsh coach at the time did it - once. It just didn’t work.

[Tomphil2]

Such a strange manager there are so many good things about him but obviously he has a massive issue with flexibility and adapting to different opposition.

[davulsukur]

3 hours ago, frosty said:

They’ve already got a play-off spot through winning their Nations League group, but they’ll obviously have to improve a lot to stand a chance in that.

Ah I didn't realise that. It wasn't guaranteed for them by the looks, as only 4 of the group winners go into the playoffs and Sweden were the 10th best but it looks like they've got a place due to the better ranked teams qualifying for the world cup already.

[Hasta]

2 hours ago, Tomphil2 said:

Such a strange manager there are so many good things about him but obviously he has a massive issue with flexibility and adapting to different opposition.

With the right recruitment team around him recruiting to his philosophy he will do well.

However he tries to play the same way with players who aren't suitable. At Rovers, the cheapies we got weren't good enough to play that way. Internationally, again you are limited in your pool of players you can pick from. 

If everything isn't aligned then his methods will fall down quite badly. And he doesn't want to adapt.

 

[Herbie6590]

https://www.football365.com/news/isak-crisis-demands-change-manager-sack-newcastle-star-sweary-outburst

[JCRovers]

Swedish media now reporting that he's been sacked.

His stats for the Swedish national team were: 9 wins, 2 draws, 7 losses. Eerily similar to what he had with us in terms of not getting many draws:

Season 1: 20 wins, 9 draws, 17 losses

Season 2: 10 wins, 4 draws, 16 losses

Some of the main issues with his style of play when coaching the Swedish national team has been:

- Pressing with a very high defensive line even though the three at the back aren't very quick.

- Team often gets exposed on the counter-attack/transition as a direct result of the high defensive line when counter-pressing fails. Defensively, they've been very naive at times.

- Team selection has been questionable, often benching good players like Anthony Elanga and Hugo Larsson (Frankfurt) and using players from the lower-ranked domestic league (Allsvenskan) instead. 

- This generation of Swedish players are described by many as a 'golden' one having players like Kulusevski, Isak, Gyökeres, Elanga, Bergvall, Ayari and Hugo Larsson. More than capable of qualifying into big tournaments and challenge some of the bigger nations on a good day. JDT has failed to make the team competitive in that sense.

[Gav]

What a strange thread this is turning into, a man that came to make a difference, was promised the earth, lied to and left? Now we seem to be enjoying his failures elsewhere?

VENKYS OUT - NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

[StHelensRover]

I never really liked JDT that much, found him incredibly smug, cocksure and then increasingly stubborn and one-dimensional once it all went pear-shaped. I wonder whether any other British or top European sides will be back in for him, or whether he'll be managing in Scandinavia again.

He was never backed by our clown board when it mattered, agreed, but I'm not convinced he would have taken us up anyway. I think he only knew one way to play and was eventually found out. We were gung-ho in attack which could be good to watch, but stank the place out defensively. While he hadn't been backed properly in the summer, I'm not having that his second season was anything other than an aberration, I think we would have gone down under him, only Rotherham had conceded more goals when he left and we were the only team not to beat them that season. 

I'm glad he's spoken out to a wider audience about the shambles he faced while at the club, anyone highlighting it is doing us a service, but it was only to save his own blushes, not because of any loyalty.

I'll never forgive him for that performance at B*rnley, it was men against boys, we were bullied, taunted and absolutely buried by them, it was vile, he takes a lot of the blame for that. That must have been what the 5-0 felt like in 2001. Then the 4-1 defeat the following game at home to Preston. That combined was unforgivable and he didn't seem arsed.

Edited 1 hour ago by StHelensRover

[TheKitGuy]

59 minutes ago, JCRovers said:

Swedish media now reporting that he's been sacked.

His stats for the Swedish national team were: 9 wins, 2 draws, 7 losses. Eerily similar to what he had with us in terms of not getting many draws:

Season 1: 20 wins, 9 draws, 17 losses

Season 2: 10 wins, 4 draws, 16 losses

Some of the main issues with his style of play when coaching the Swedish national team has been:

- Pressing with a very high defensive line even though the three at the back aren't very quick.

- Team often gets exposed on the counter-attack/transition as a direct result of the high defensive line when counter-pressing fails. Defensively, they've been very naive at times.

- Team selection has been questionable, often benching good players like Anthony Elanga and Hugo Larsson (Frankfurt) and using players from the lower-ranked domestic league (Allsvenskan) instead. 

- This generation of Swedish players are described by many as a 'golden' one having players like Kulusevski, Isak, Gyökeres, Elanga, Bergvall, Ayari and Hugo Larsson. More than capable of qualifying into big tournaments and challenge some of the bigger nations on a good day. JDT has failed to make the team competitive in that sense.

Golden generation but no golden defenders and that lies the problem! even someone like Jonas Olsson would've been a great fit in that side last night. 

[CheshireRover]

1 hour ago, StHelensRover said:

I never really liked JDT that much, found him incredibly smug, cocksure and then increasingly stubborn and one-dimensional once it all went pear-shaped. I wonder whether any other British or top European sides will be back in for him, or whether he'll be managing in Scandinavia again.

He was never backed by our clown board when it mattered, agreed, but I'm not convinced he would have taken us up anyway. I think he only knew one way to play and was eventually found out. We were gung-ho in attack which could be good to watch, but stank the place out defensively. While he hadn't been backed properly in the summer, I'm not having that his second season was anything other than an aberration, I think we would have gone down under him, only Rotherham had conceded more goals when he left and we were the only team not to beat them that season. 

I'm glad he's spoken out to a wider audience about the shambles he faced while at the club, anyone highlighting it is doing us a service, but it was only to save his own blushes, not because of any loyalty.

I'll never forgive him for that performance at B*rnley, it was men against boys, we were bullied, taunted and absolutely buried by them, it was vile, he takes a lot of the blame for that. That must have been what the 5-0 felt like in 2001. Then the 4-1 defeat the following game at home to Preston. That combined was unforgivable and he didn't seem arsed.

I think there's a lot of managers very much like JDT at the moment, in a similar age bracket, who know nothing beyond "their way". Martin & Amorim fit into this category. Stubbornly only playing "their way", and somehow being proud of not having a plan B, which just makes them look ridiculous.

The reason that Ferguson was the best was he wasn't scared to play 5 in midfield and a lone striker away in Europe, and then on the Sunday play a front 3. He was flexible and did what worked for the players he had/opponents they had coming up. 

Edited 52 minutes ago by CheshireRover