Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[metalrover]

JDT's style of play towards the end of his era clearly didn't work, but he persisted with it. We very nearly paid a heavy price for his stubbornness.

The passing out from the back gave me heart attacks, we clearly didn't have the players for such style of play.

[MarkBRFC]

7 hours ago, metalrover said:

JDT's style of play towards the end of his era clearly didn't work, but he persisted with it. We very nearly paid a heavy price for his stubbornness.

The passing out from the back gave me heart attacks, we clearly didn't have the players for such style of play.

In his first season it very much worked, and probably would have secured a top 6 finish if he had been backed by a couple of quality players in January.

The mistake was continuing to play that way at points in the following season when our side was weaker and we had various injuries etc.

[DE.]

Always felt like JDT's attitude was 'this is what I told you I would do, this is the project you said you'd support. If you choose not to do so, the consequences are on you, and I'm not changing my ways to compromise."

Some of that would have been fuelled by the fact he offered to leave in the summer and was forced to stay. He was essentially telling them this won't work, but the geniuses in charge decided to keep on going anyway. 

[roverblue]

JDT was out his depth in the championship, massively naive and just tried to outscore the opposition regardless of their quality. Made for some entertaining performances but also some total disasters. Unless he was given two incredible centre backs the quality of Van Dijk it was never going to work.

Ismael I still think will be gone once we get a few injuries and bad results pile up with our squad depth so poor. He seems a bit too fiery and mental to just stand in an interview and keep his mouth shut. Selling Hyam I imagine massively pissed him off.

[roversfan99]

JDT certainly had flaws but he clearly wasnt "out of his depth."

[Andy]

Yeah, JDT's 'flaw' was not having the quality of players to work with, who could execute his style of play.

That said, a few players developed hugely under him.
And a few others spoke very highly of his coaching ability and tactics (Szmodics, Wharton, etc).

Had he been backed in the transfer window (Undav / O'Brien), we'd have returned to the Prem.

[frosty]

16 hours ago, roverblue said:

JDT was out his depth in the championship, massively naive and just tried to outscore the opposition regardless of their quality. Made for some entertaining performances but also some total disasters. Unless he was given two incredible centre backs the quality of Van Dijk it was never going to work.

We finished 7th in his only full season - nobody has done better in 13 years - and were 7th in mid-December of his second before a nightmare, er, 10 games just before he left. 

Scoring 52 and conceding 54 across a 46-game season also doesn't scream 'just trying to outscore the opposition regardless of their quality'. To be honest a lot of games that season involved very few clear chances for either team. We only had one period of doing that IMO, towards the start of his second season (before he left we were just a bad team full stop as he'd given up and we had Garrett, Moran, Telalovic etc starting). 

Edited 5 hours ago by frosty

[Tomphil2]

As already pointed out to make the most of his style he needed an entire back line of quality and a really good box to box midfielder to put next to Sonny.

With reasonable backing he would probably have built that, O'Brian was to be another cog in that wheel.

[Blow-in]

I said at the time, in season 2 I think he had completely lost interest and was forcing their hand to either fire him or agree to release him.

Not particularly professional but he was dealing with Arseholes so probably didn't feel like being Mr. Honourable.

[B16Rover]

Season two JDT was malicious compliance.  If you want to play the kids, increase their value and pad their 'transfer stats' like playing out the back.  Here it is, to the nth degree.  

If you don't like it, let me go, as I asked for in Summer when you pulled the rug.

[Mattyblue]

Out of his depth, ridiculous statement as his first season showed.

The only folk out of their depth were the no marks in club ties JDT had to deal with on a daily basis.

[Tomphil2]

1 hour ago, B16Rover said:

Season two JDT was malicious compliance.  If you want to play the kids, increase their value and pad their 'transfer stats' like playing out the back.  Here it is, to the nth degree.  

If you don't like it, let me go, as I asked for in Summer when you pulled the rug.

Bullseye.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, B16Rover said:

Season two JDT was malicious compliance.  If you want to play the kids, increase their value and pad their 'transfer stats' like playing out the back.  Here it is, to the nth degree.  

If you don't like it, let me go, as I asked for in Summer when you pulled the rug.

It certainly looked that way. I can’t say as I blame him.