John Eustace - our head coach

[rigger]

9 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yes the academy is our one success story. How long for is in the lap of the gods.

I wouldn't call our owners, gods. 

[Upside Down]

36 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yes the academy is our one success story. How long for is in the lap of the gods.

The academy has gone backwards from where it was before this virus infected us.

[Paul Mani]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

Bloody hell Paul if we get a post as downbeat as that from you then we really are heading for the abyss. 😔

It’s sad, takes a lot for me to subscribe to any type of doom but the facts are stark mate.

Once you see it, you can’t ‘un-see it’ right? 😞

[roversfan99]

7 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I have explained my opinion and reasons. Got nothing more to add to that. 

Surprised by that

Fair enough

I ain't desperate at all. I have posted my reasons why the Stoke game win is him. Nothing more to add

A more pragmatic means less open, more defensively so it is going to boring(if that's your opinion)

I think we witness the best 4 games with of them being after international break when we got more time on the training ground. Plus the Boro away game 

Agreed

What do you think would be well enough? How many points? Goals scored? Clean sheets? Goal conceded? 

Yes

See below. He sums it well. Plus the other parts I've mentioned in recent weeks about Eustace not trusting or faith in the squad players outside 14 or 15 players. 

I agree with yours post. We stopped goals going in and keep some clean sheets which is what fans wanted. A more pragmatic approach. 

Weve got 8 points from 7 post international break so any improvement has been marginal.

Ultimately people just want results, they dont want to play more pragmatic football, they just would accept it if it meant better results. Which isnt the case under Eustace.

I dont know how many points exactly would quantify him a success. I just know that less than a point a game certainly doesnt give me any hope. And I dont even see green shoots. We dont play like a side that is coached at all in how it should attack.

6 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

This is no more Eustace’s fault than it is Ten Hag’s fault at United. Both clubs are rotten.

Rovers are in a process of ‘managed decline’. The budget gets cut every year, and it shows…in the stadium, around the ground and on the pitch. I saw a table this week showing that only Rotherham had a smaller wage budget than us this season.

Eustace has a good name within football. He’s well regarded by some of the old pros I know and you will struggle to find a fan of Birmingham or Kidderminster who have a bad word to say about him.

I’m not advocating him and the jury is still out for me but, Blackburn Rovers make it hard for any manager on the planet to succeed. Look at the January window for example. We had won one game since November and they loan out the club captain, sell the most prestigious talent we’ve had in recent history and then buy no one and ‘forget’ to press send on the American Striker we wanted to sign. Add this to last Summers clusterfuck, the O’brien fuck up the January before then and the Rothwell for Dembele and Jed Wallace the January before that, and you’d be forgiven for thinking someone at the club actually wants us to go down. They haven’t made it easy for any manager…that’s for sure.

Im relaxed-ish about today. Because honestly, the curve we’re on means even if we survive, it’s only a matter of time before we go down.

Hope change is around the corner. 

The club is rotten and Eustace clearly isnt THE problem. The problem is, has been and always will be the owners. (Who never refuse to sign off a cheque) So you are right about that.

But it doesnt mean that we cant judge Eustace at the same time, as long as you acknowledge those difficulties. Doesnt really matter how supposedly well regarded he is in the game, or what the mighty Kiddiminster Harriers fans think of him. His results now over a reasonable period even considering those difficulties is shocking. We dont play like a side that is coached or has a game plan in how to attack. We continue to waste every attacking set piece. Weve not won a single home game over him. 

As an aside, I dont think you can compare United to us. They certainly arent rotten like we are, and Ten Hag has had the luxury of a number of signings for huge fees that he has worked with before, so he has no excuse for underperforming.

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, martonrover said:

I don't see Eustace as fawning and smug. He's just not very media savvy and doesn't come across very well, so his interviews are uncomfortable.

He doesn't strike the right balance between reality and positivity, and always strays too far towards the latter.

He comes across as a bit thick, but I know a guy who was one of his school teachers and he described him as "bright".

It's on the pitch where it matters, and for sure it has been a difficult watch, but if he keeps us up it will be job done for him this season, and he will have earned another shot next season.

Any average manager from any division, (and probably any decent ones too), would struggle at this version of Blackburn Rovers.

I totally agree, he isn't media savvy like JDT and he doesn't look comfortable during media interview. 

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

He did, ‘Well, I’ve heard he wanted a job in the Middle East’ he kept banging on about.

Sam Allardyce didn't want to be at Rovers after that summer and asked John Williams to leave Rovers for a job in Middle East. The job offer in the Middle East was real. If you had read Big Sam Autobiography like I have, he mentions it his book

[chaddyrovers]

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Weve got 8 points from 7 post international break so any improvement has been marginal.

I mentioned 4 games which we looked good and better after time on the training ground which we got 5 points from 4 games and 2 clean sheets

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Ultimately people just want results, they dont want to play more pragmatic football, they just would accept it if it meant better results. Which isnt the case under Eustace.

plenty of people wanted a more pragmatic approach, less wide open attacking football 

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I dont know how many points exactly would quantify him a success. I just know that less than a point a game certainly doesnt give me any hope. And I dont even see green shoots. We dont play like a side that is coached at all in how it should attack.

Maybe outside those 4/5 attacking players he has little faith in players like Moran or Markanday

 

[Mattyblue]

So like roverandout said you were happy for him to leave, mid season, with the team doing perfectly fine… worked out well since, hasn’t it.

Edited May 4 by Mattyblue

[chaddyrovers]

5 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

So like roverandout said you were happy for him to leave… worked out well since, hasn’t it.

looking back no but at the time I thought they would go Bilic or Holloway a his replacement

[roversfan99]

4 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

I mentioned 4 games which we looked good and better after time on the training ground which we got 5 points from 4 games and 2 clean sheets

plenty of people wanted a more pragmatic approach, less wide open attacking football 

Maybe outside those 4/5 attacking players he has little faith in players like Moran or Markanday

 

Nobody would prefer specifically to play really defensive and negative tactics. Youve confused that with people being willing to play that or thinking that we would be better off playing like that in order to get better RESULTS.

And playing like that HASNT led to good results, the results have been terrible.

Even if he "only has faith" in 4 or 5 attacking players. We dont play in a way where it looks like the team has been coached in how to attack, everything is aimless. We do often play direct but its not even a case of him playing off Gallagher, its often just punt the ball forward to no one in particular and lose it. I dont see any patterns of play at all.

I think its pretty desperate clinging onto a run of 1 win, 2 draws and a defeat back to back where we saw slightly better performances, especially when that was 4 or 5 games back.

Youve still not said what green shoots you have seen whereby you still have total faith in him and would even if we went down. Aside from keeping a few clean sheets. I think its a case where you know he WILL be here so cant possibly accept that he might not be the man to take us forward.

[tomphil]

6 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

This is no more Eustace’s fault than it is Ten Hag’s fault at United. Both clubs are rotten.

Rovers are in a process of ‘managed decline’. The budget gets cut every year, and it shows…in the stadium, around the ground and on the pitch. I saw a table this week showing that only Rotherham had a smaller wage budget than us this season.

Eustace has a good name within football. He’s well regarded by some of the old pros I know and you will struggle to find a fan of Birmingham or Kidderminster who have a bad word to say about him.

I’m not advocating him and the jury is still out for me but, Blackburn Rovers make it hard for any manager on the planet to succeed. Look at the January window for example. We had won one game since November and they loan out the club captain, sell the most prestigious talent we’ve had in recent history and then buy no one and ‘forget’ to press send on the American Striker we wanted to sign. Add this to last Summers clusterfuck, the O’brien fuck up the January before then and the Rothwell for Dembele and Jed Wallace the January before that, and you’d be forgiven for thinking someone at the club actually wants us to go down. They haven’t made it easy for any manager…that’s for sure.

Im relaxed-ish about today. Because honestly, the curve we’re on means even if we survive, it’s only a matter of time before we go down.

Hope change is around the corner. 

Not sure it's the owners they don't give a toss either way but inside the club some seem quite happy to put the gun to the head in terms of relegation.

That's very odd as was the refusal to back two different managers in consecutive seasons with the team in the top spots at the Jan window.

We aren't talking millions to try and get up OR stave off being a bottom 3 club but a bit of help was desperately needed and no one there was interested in really pushing it.  A real board of directors should be going all out as far as they can on both scenarios and demanding the owners do something.

Here we have NO real board just a couple of gravy train yes men and i think that is the issue rather than skullduggery, they don't care either way and keep their cushy numbers whatever happens.

[RTM08]

32 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

The academy has gone backwards from where it was before this virus infected us.

The academy has been a huge factor in our constant downsizing. It is used to highlight the owners "continued investment" as well as the main way of generating new players for the first team, which means we keep pulling young players into the squad who are either much too raw or will never be good enough at this level.

Any normal club loans them out to lower league clubs to get an idea of where they stand before trying them at a higher level, we throw them in at the deep end and hope for the best because we refuse to use the transfer market properly.

[ABBEY]

55 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

The academy has gone backwards from where it was before this virus infected us.

Exactly.. if it were that good we would've never needed to bring other teams academy lads in ...

It would be better if money went on permanent signings instead of lining the dark loads pockets

[wilsdenrover]

21 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Nobody would prefer specifically to play really defensive and negative tactics. Youve confused that with people being willing to play that or thinking that we would be better off playing like that in order to get better RESULTS.

And playing like that HASNT led to good results, the results have been terrible.

Even if he "only has faith" in 4 or 5 attacking players. We dont play in a way where it looks like the team has been coached in how to attack, everything is aimless. We do often play direct but its not even a case of him playing off Gallagher, its often just punt the ball forward to no one in particular and lose it. I dont see any patterns of play at all.

I think its pretty desperate clinging onto a run of 1 win, 2 draws and a defeat back to back where we saw slightly better performances, especially when that was 4 or 5 games back.

Youve still not said what green shoots you have seen whereby you still have total faith in him and would even if we went down. Aside from keeping a few clean sheets. I think its a case where you know he WILL be here so cant possibly accept that he might not be the man to take us forward.

That’s 3/4 more than I have faith in.

[chaddyrovers]

15 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Nobody would prefer specifically to play really defensive and negative tactics. Youve confused that with people being willing to play that or thinking that we would be better off playing like that in order to get better RESULTS.

And playing like that HASNT led to good results, the results have been terrible.

Exactly what I meant 99. We have kept more clean sheets under Eustace and we need starting from the summer we need to decide what type of team we want to be formation and tactical. 

15 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Even if he "only has faith" in 4 or 5 attacking players. We dont play in a way where it looks like the team has been coached in how to attack, everything is aimless. We do often play direct but its not even a case of him playing off Gallagher, its often just punt the ball forward to no one in particular and lose it. I dont see any patterns of play at all.

well its a point made by Elliott Jackson and its fair point if you asked me 

Patterns of play will happen in pre season and trying to change too many things isn't going to happened. Eustace knew we were shipping far too goals and needed to be better defensively which we have seen

15 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I think its pretty desperate clinging onto a run of 1 win, 2 draws and a defeat back to back where we saw slightly better performances, especially when that was 4 or 5 games back.

The performances were better by alot. When he first come in he had very little time on the training ground and little time to improve the team both ends of the pitch 

15 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Youve still not said what green shoots you have seen whereby you still have total faith in him and would even if we went down. Aside from keeping a few clean sheets. I think its a case where you know he WILL be here so cant possibly accept that he might not be the man to take us forward.

So I did mentioned what he has improved since coming. Plus he did very well at Birmingham City where he improved them massively over a couple of seasons and their football develop better. 

I never said I am total faith in him did I? putting in words never used. You can't have total faith when people above the football structure can't do their jobs properly

I wouldn't change head coach whether we stay up or not. We need to be active early this summer with signings and sort out what type of team we want to be

[ABBEY]

Totally ignoring the 5 at Bristol..3 v weds 

Hail hail

[roversfan99]

20 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Exactly what I meant 99. We have kept more clean sheets under Eustace and we need starting from the summer we need to decide what type of team we want to be formation and tactical. 

well its a point made by Elliott Jackson and its fair point if you asked me 

Patterns of play will happen in pre season and trying to change too many things isn't going to happened. Eustace knew we were shipping far too goals and needed to be better defensively which we have seen

The performances were better by alot. When he first come in he had very little time on the training ground and little time to improve the team both ends of the pitch 

So I did mentioned what he has improved since coming. Plus he did very well at Birmingham City where he improved them massively over a couple of seasons and their football develop better. 

I never said I am total faith in him did I? putting in words never used. You can't have total faith when people above the football structure can't do their jobs properly

I wouldn't change head coach whether we stay up or not. We need to be active early this summer with signings and sort out what type of team we want to be

But his pragmatic football has not led to an improvement in results.

You cant just dismiss a third of the season as not the time to work on how to attack. You would think we by now should clearly be able to see how he wants to attack and then that could be refined going forward. But nothing. Just the defenders and at times central midfielders just aimlessly twatting the ball forward to no one in particular. You wouldnt be able to tell me what style he is trying to play and if you did, its not a style that shows signs of working from an attacking sense. Weve scored 2 in our last 5.

I dont think he did VERY well at Birmingham either. 

I just cant fathom what you have seen to suggest that he deserves a summer to bring in his own players etc. But I suspect its just because you know he will get the summer so may aswell pretend that its going in the right direction.

 

[wilsdenrover]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

But his pragmatic football has not led to an improvement in results.

You cant just dismiss a third of the season as not the time to work on how to attack. You would think we by now should clearly be able to see how he wants to attack and then that could be refined going forward. But nothing. Just the defenders and at times central midfielders just aimlessly twatting the ball forward to no one in particular. You wouldnt be able to tell me what style he is trying to play and if you did, its not a style that shows signs of working from an attacking sense. Weve scored 2 in our last 5.

I dont think he did VERY well at Birmingham either. 

I just cant fathom what you have seen to suggest that he deserves a summer to bring in his own players etc. But I suspect its just because you know he will get the summer so may aswell pretend that its going in the right direction.

 

Nail on head 

[chaddyrovers]

9 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

But his pragmatic football has not led to an improvement in results.

We have kept more clean sheets and if we had better attacking options like a striker option who know how to score goals then we might be much better off. a lack of quality striker signing in January has cost us massively  

9 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

You cant just dismiss a third of the season as not the time to work on how to attack. You would think we by now should clearly be able to see how he wants to attack and then that could be refined going forward. But nothing. Just the defenders and at times central midfielders just aimlessly twatting the ball forward to no one in particular. You wouldnt be able to tell me what style he is trying to play and if you did, its not a style that shows signs of working from an attacking sense. Weve scored 2 in our last 5.

but 3 clean sheets in those 5 games. We are missing Hedges who is big miss for me

9 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I dont think he did VERY well at Birmingham either. 

Well I do think he did. Birmingham fans was very happy with him

9 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I just cant fathom what you have seen to suggest that he deserves a summer to bring in his own players etc. But I suspect its just because you know he will get the summer so may aswell pretend that its going in the right direction.

I have explained more than once to you. It is nothing to do because you think he will. Just lazy thinking from yourself here

[Upside Down]

Whatever happens today I am not going to change my opinion. This guy is shit. He doesn't know what he's doing.

[martonrover]

53 points and safety achieved .

Eustace has done his job.

[RoversClitheroe]

2 minutes ago, martonrover said:

53 points and safety achieved .

Eustace has done his job.

Yeah and now he can fuck off.

[Upside Down]

We stayed up.

Thanks Sammie & thanks JDT.

[martonrover]

3 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Yeah and now he can fuck off.

Come on, who would they  appoint even if we did pot him?
 

It’s not been pretty, especially at home, but three excellent away wins and a number of clean sheets.

It’s further up the food chain that we need change.

 

[chaddyrovers]

8 minutes ago, martonrover said:

53 points and safety achieved .

Eustace has done his job.

agreed there. 

Now Eustace need some financial backing and good transfer budget this summer to improve the squad and bring in his own players so we can play his style of football and get up that table

1 minute ago, martonrover said:

It’s further up the food chain that we need change.

A new CEO and Commercial head is deffo needed 

[Mashed Potatoes]

8 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

We stayed up.

Thanks Sammie & thanks JDT.

No reason to pick out JDT. In his tenure as manager we took 33 points from 29 games - 1.14 a match. After he left we got 20 points from 17 games - 1.17 a match.