Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[philipl]

9 hours ago, bobbybrfc said:

Doesn't have the same playing career but I do think VI has shades of Souness in terms of character and how he comes across in his interviews

Not a legendary player in the Souness mold but looking at his Wiki entry, not too shabby either- 

 A centre-back, Ismaël played for Strasbourg, Crystal Palace, Lens, Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich and Hannover 96. As a player, he won the Coupe de France, the Coupe de la Ligue twice, the Bundesliga twice, as well as the DFB-Pokal on two occasions. 

[Ossydave]

There's been some very disjointed performances this season, heads have been down and I'll openly admit I've questioned if the players liked VI or indeed understood what he's trying to do. Otherwise happy looking players have looked miserable as sin.

In hindsight maybe they just care and don't like losing though?

He doesn't really come across as a likeable person, but you don't always have to be to be a successful manager. Yesterday they looked like they were playing for him for sure, hopefully a couple of wins breeds more confidence. I have to say though, our last 2 opponents have looked like teams with managers on their way out, so it's no surprise Still has been binned off tonight. Like us, Bristol appear to have played struggling teams at the right time recently but came a right cropper at weekend so it'll be interesting to see how it pans out on Tuesday. 

 

[RevidgeBlue]

Feast or famine with this fella.

Seven points from ten games then nine points from three.

Im still far from convinced but odd how he's now managed to pull out a consecutive run of victories twice when the situation looked absolutely untenable on both occasions.

[DE.]

Might be a streaky manager rather than a particularly good or bad one, but considering he's been given a team of mostly cheap replacements this season it's difficult to fault him too much at present. Can't help but think we'd be up there in the top six at the moment if we'd kept Eustace and renewed the contracts he'd wanted renewed, though. With the parachute clubs struggling to get to grips with the league, it's wide open this season. 

Ah who am I kidding, with Venky's at the helm they'd have found a way to torpedo our chances regardless. Maybe with the usual January special. 

[StHelensRover]

I'm still unconvinced by him.

As pleased as I am with 3 wins in a row, they still haven't passed the eye test for the long term. We were very lucky against Southampton and we snuck in front at Leicester and it then got very toxic which really helped us. Tonight was a shite game of football and I'm glad we managed to just about shithouse it. To a neutral who hasn't watched any of our games, it will sound like we're flying, I think we can see we're not. Let's just get to 50 points however we do it.

[47er]

I was as critical as most at Ismael early on but we can't deny that the lads are playing for him.

Whether he has the resources for a whole season is a different matter. The games come thick and fast in this League.