Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[Roverthechimp]

1 hour ago, joey_big_nose said:

I quite like that he has bluntly said Taveres was dropped from the entire squad as he wasn't performing well enough in training and in games..

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/25517874.blackburn-rovers-boss-reveals-reason-tavares-absence/

Was this in response to a question about Tavares or more general about the new signings? 
also who asked the question EJ/LET don’t have direct access anymore… 

[M_B]

On 05/10/2025 at 12:11, Dreams of 1995 said:

Feeling the same.

His football is so negative. I have a few friends who are Baggies and all of them say the same thing - negative and gets found out. I have found it hard viewing this season. He has the potential to take us down 

We could/should have had 5 or 6 on Saturday, hope we're that negative every game. 

Edited Monday at 20:41 by M_B

[47er]

16 minutes ago, M_B said:

We could/should have had 5 or 6 on Saturday, hope we're that negative every game. 

We create chances but we don't take them. Haven't got a Sammi to save us have we?

[M_B]

1 minute ago, 47er said:

We create chances but we don't take them. Haven't got a Sammi to save us have we?

Aye, not difficult to see where the problem was against Stoke,thought some of the build up play was really encouraging. 

[roversfan99]

32 minutes ago, M_B said:

We could/should have had 5 or 6 on Saturday, hope we're that negative every game. 

Thats a bit of an exaggeration. I suppose we could literally in that we had more than 5 or 6 chances. But how many were what you would consider to be big chances? Gudjohnsen and Kargbo aside, mainly half chances.

[M_B]

2 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Thats a bit of an exaggeration. I suppose we could literally in that we had more than 5 or 6 chances. But how many were what you would consider to be big chances? Gudjohnsen and Kargbo aside, mainly half chances.

I said could/should

First half Hedges and Cantwell both had good chances from the left side of the area, and Gudjonson cocked up.

Second half Kargbo could have had 3,Cantwell again shot weakly from a good position, and Ohashi had a great chance through the middle but didn't shoot and got tackled.

That's just the good chances from memory, there could be more. 

[roversfan99]

15 minutes ago, M_B said:

I said could/should

First half Hedges and Cantwell both had good chances from the left side of the area, and Gudjonson cocked up.

Second half Kargbo could have had 3,Cantwell again shot weakly from a good position, and Ohashi had a great chance through the middle but didn't shoot and got tackled.

That's just the good chances from memory, there could be more. 

Most of them chances were just half chances though. The Gudjohnsen one and the Kargbo ones I would say are the good chances that carried a reasonable expectation of a goal.

We created more than we usually do though but certainly our total absence of players that are naturals in front of goal has and will continue to cause us frustration.

[joey_big_nose]

JDT was way put in front in terms of attacking football. Ismael looks quite similar to me to Eustace, Mowbray etc. Pretty cautious, but sometimes offensive. Probaby he has been a bit more throwing the kitchen sink at it when we go behind.

In the Championship where losing the first goal is such a big issue to overcome the vast majority of teams are cautious. JDT was a real outlier.

There is something in being more attacking though.... A win is worth three draws so despite losing as many as we won under JDT the lack of draws kept us in the top six all season.

Edited 3 hours ago by joey_big_nose

[rigger]

3 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

JDT was way put in front in terms of attacking football. Ismael looks quite similar to me to Eustace, Mowbray etc. Pretty cautious, but sometimes offensive. Probaby he has been a bit more throwing the kitchen sink at it when we go behind.

In the Championship where losing the first goal is such a big issue to overcome the vast majority of teams are cautious. JDT was a real outlier.

There is something in being more attacking though.... A win is worth three draws so despite losing as many as we won inder JDT because we never drew it kept us in the top six all season.

Except for the most important time.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

23 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Thats a bit of an exaggeration. I suppose we could literally in that we had more than 5 or 6 chances. But how many were what you would consider to be big chances? Gudjohnsen and Kargbo aside, mainly half chances.

Taking the season as a whole we just don’t make enough clear cut chances. It’s the old chestnut of playing a back four and two holding midfielders that rarely get into the last third of the pitch. We have 7 players who will probably not get more the 7 goals between them all season. It’s asking a lot of the other four players.

Edited 16 hours ago by Tyrone Shoelaces

[roversfan99]

16 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Taking the season as a whole we just don’t make enough clear cut chances. It’s the old chestnut of playing a back four and two holding midfielders that rarely get into the last third of the pitch. We have 7 players who will probably not get more the 7 goals between them all season. It’s asking a lot of the other four players.

And historically the players who make up those 4 attacking spots are far from prolific/clinical.

[RTM08]

15 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

And historically the players who make up those 4 attacking spots are far from prolific/clinical.

The two chances I'd say should have been 100% buried in the last 2 games didn't even result in a shot, and ended up with the ball in our own net in one case. 

Poor chance creation and even poorer finishers is a worrying combination.

[Andy]

On 07/10/2025 at 08:39, joey_big_nose said:

There is something in being more attacking though.... A win is worth three draws so despite losing as many as we won under JDT the lack of draws kept us in the top six all season.

I think this was particularly evident in his first season with us, where we failed a draw a single game in months.

It was boom/bust, win/lose - but we were certainly at the right end of the table, as a result.

All of that said, it led to many games that we completely dominated, but were caught on the counter and lost games that we had no right to lose.
Sunderland at home is a prominent one; we absolutely peppered them and should have won by several.
But they were good on the counter and grabbed a couple of breakaway goals on the rare instances they touched the ball.

[roversfan99]

36 minutes ago, Andy said:

I think this was particularly evident in his first season with us, where we failed a draw a single game in months.

It was boom/bust, win/lose - but we were certainly at the right end of the table, as a result.

All of that said, it led to many games that we completely dominated, but were caught on the counter and lost games that we had no right to lose.
Sunderland at home is a prominent one; we absolutely peppered them and should have won by several.
But they were good on the counter and grabbed a couple of breakaway goals on the rare instances they touched the ball.

I think you are getting seasons confused.

In Tomasson's first season when we had a long early season spell of no draws, we were actually much less expansive.

That Sunderland game was in his second season.