Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[RevidgeBlue]

9 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

The number of players we have out injured is killing us at the moment.

Who was unavailable tonight apart from Tronstad who might have made a difference?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Nor would he be had the supposedly £2m midfield signing been anything other than atrocious.

Then we had Cantwell, who is normally available for selection, out for what seems like 2 months and he’s not even back up to speed now.  Toth was really looking the part, now we are back with Pears. Montgomery was good for 20 minutes at the end of a game and then we lost him. It’s as soon as we get one player back we lose another one. I don’t normally shy away from criticising the managers at Ewood but I think Ismael is getting a raw deal at the moment. Just putting a competitive team out there is an achievement. If things are as bad when we get some of our better players back that’ll be another story.

Edited 14 hours ago by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Who was unavailable tonight apart from Tronstad who might have made a difference?

Toth, a fit Wharton and Carter, Hedges . With Tronstad that’s basically a whole defence out.

[RevidgeBlue]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Then we had Cantwell, who is normally available for selection, out for what seems like 2 months and he’s not even back up to speed now.  Toth was really looking the part, now we are back with Pears. Montgomery was good for 20 minutes at the end of a game and then we lost him. It’s as soon as we get one player back we lose another one. I don’t normally shy away from criticising the managers at Ewood but I think Ismael is getting a raw deal at the moment. Just putting a competitive team out there is an achievement. If things are as bad when we get some of our better players that’ll be another story.

Montgomery?

[RevidgeBlue]

20 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Toth, a fit Wharton and Carter, Hedges . With Tronstad that’s basically a whole defence out.

All excuses. (Not aimed at you particularly)

The defence weren't the problem tonight. 

Further forward there was only Tronstad and Hedges unavailable and off the top of my head all of the ten players he signed in summer were available.

Edit sorry, minus Forshaw.

Edited 14 hours ago by RevidgeBlue

[chaddyrovers]

36 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

But some of those injures were predictable and we should have taken steps to mitigate against them. Wharton and Carter injured, always going to happen. Forshaw playing 3 games in a week, always going to happen. Hedges has had issues with injuries in the past. Baradji signed injured.

And the main reason we appear so thin is that so many summer signings (and a couple Gestede brought in last year) are nowhere near the level required.

What about the injuries to our 3 key players in Cantwell, Tronstad and Toth? 

Those 3 are massive miss for our team.

Forshaw wouldn't be playing 3 games in a week if Tronstad and Montgomery were fit

[Paul Mellelieu]

Rev thinks our player of the season is crap, so no miss there.

[RevidgeBlue]

1 minute ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

Rev thinks our player of the season is crap, so no miss there.

So did everyone else after ten games of this season.

[M_B]

46 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

All excuses. (Not aimed at you particularly)

The defence weren't the problem tonight. 

Further forward there was only Tronstad and Hedges unavailable and off the top of my head all of the ten players he signed in summer were available.

Edit sorry, minus Forshaw.

Kargbo

[RevidgeBlue]

3 minutes ago, M_B said:

Kargbo

Lol.

You're kidding ........right?

🤔

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Then we had Cantwell, who is normally available for selection, out for what seems like 2 months and he’s not even back up to speed now.  Toth was really looking the part, now we are back with Pears. Montgomery was good for 20 minutes at the end of a game and then we lost him. It’s as soon as we get one player back we lose another one. I don’t normally shy away from criticising the managers at Ewood but I think Ismael is getting a raw deal at the moment. Just putting a competitive team out there is an achievement. If things are as bad when we get some of our better players back that’ll be another story.

But we have loads of summer signings and/or Gestede signings that are simply not good enough. If they were even ordinary, and had we not let Hyam go or at least sufficiently replaced him, then the squad would look far more competitive.

Toth is just unfortunate although Pears has been fine since he came into the team. Tronstad again unfortunate but hes only missed a small number of games, it happens. Cantwell, again unfortunate.

But you will get injuries. The primary reason we look so stretched is because of failings in the summer. The main area we are stretched is in defence and that is because we came into a season with 3 natural centre backs, 2 of whom have terrible injury records.

It might not be directly Ismael's fault but it is the fault of those above him.

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

What about the injuries to our 3 key players in Cantwell, Tronstad and Toth? 

Those 3 are massive miss for our team.

Forshaw wouldn't be playing 3 games in a week if Tronstad and Montgomery were fit

Montgomery has not shown that he is capable at this level, how many games has he started for us? Not having him as a major loss.

We have had 3 midfielders on the bench in the 3 games that Forshaw started. Tavares, Henriksson and Baradji. All summer signings. The first 2 are awful, Baradji we signed knowing he wouldnt be fit for ages. So we cant complain on that one. 

No sympathy in midfield, we are short because of a mixture of signing awful and injury prone players. No sympathy in defence for the reasons I mentioned above. 

The main reason for our lack of depth and imbalanced and poor squad is not just hard luck. Its poor recruitment. Dont let them fool you otherwise.

[StHelensRover]

I wish people would stop making excuses for this manager. He is complicit in the shite and wafer thin squad that we have. Every team gets injuries and suspensions, he doesn't get a pass because of it.

If the recruitment and turnover in players was below his expectations and worse than what he originally agreed to, he'd walk out, like most managers (see our last two). He's still here and has never said a word about it, so stop feeling sorry for him. 

We looked tactically clueless last night. Alebiosu tearing down the wing and putting in (mostly) good quality deliveries to no one. The other key tactic was to hoof the ball down the middle of the park to Ohashi and Gudjohnsen, who are short, slow and not overly physical. As the game drifted on the 'tactics' went out of the window and we looked clueless. That's all VI's fault.

Edited 6 hours ago by StHelensRover

[JHRover]

Any other League club with one home win going into Christmas the manager would be under immense pressure and scrutiny.

Not here though, the robots just carry on, groundhog day, nothing happening here.

The ever diminishing numbers turning up, totally understandable given the behaviour of the club and product on offer (see the insulting statement about the pitch yesterday for another recent example) yet nobody bats an eyelid.

Sometimes I wonder if 0 people turned up, or even just a few thousand, would they just carry on, like robots, same routine and story, not bat an eyelid.

Nobody down there appears to have any interest or pressure on them to reverse the decline on or off the pitch. Just shrug shoulders and carry on collecting wages.

[Upside Down]

5 minutes ago, StHelensRover said:

I wish people would stop making excuses for this manager. He is complicit in the shite and wafer thin squad that we have. Every team gets injuries and suspensions, he doesn't get a pass because of it.

If the recruitment and turnover in players was below his expectations and worse than what he originally agreed to, he'd walk out, like most managers (see our last two). He's still here and has never said a word about it, so stop feeling sorry for him. 

We looked tactically clueless last night. Alebiosu tearing down the wing and putting in (mostly) good quality deliveries to no one. The other key tactic was to hoof the ball down the middle of the park to Ohashi and Gudjohnsen, who are short, slow and not overly physical. As the game drifted on the 'tactics' went out of the window and we looked clueless. That's all VI's fault.

He's a shite manager who's been given the worst squad of my lifetime, possibly ever (I wasn't around in the 70s so I can't say whether that squad was worse than this current one).

This squad will also be worse come next season when anyone who can kick a football will be sold.

[M_B]

7 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Lol.

You're kidding ........right?

🤔

About what ?

You missed him off your list. 

[philipl]

We could have been lumbered with far worse.

Some of his judgement calls have cost us big time but others have worked where most of us wouldn't have chosen them.

[roverblue]

Regardless of the shite squad and injuries, ultimately the way the manager sets us up means we don't score enough goals.

If we don't score goals we won't win games, as on display at Ewood in every game this season and last under his management.

Playing a 5 man defence at home against a bottom feeder like Oxford with a holding midfielder is never going to create a raft of chances. Fine when Leicester or Coventry come along but you have to be more attack minded when the expectation is on the home team.

[philipl]

But we are so limited in our currently available personnel we would ship a load of goals without the 5 men defence. As it was we gifted Oxford a goal and a couple of gilt chances last night.

[DE.]

I don't think Ismael is a particularly good manager, but yeah, for me the issue is and has always been those above the manager. The owners and those they employ to run the club are what is holding us down, not whichever patsy is sitting in the management dugout at any given time. 

[chaddyrovers]

8 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

So did everyone else after ten games of this season.

No we didnt

[MarkBRFC]

19 home games for Ismael, 3 wins.

No home clean sheets since Ismael took over.

Worst points total after 10 home league games in our 150 year history.

What a job this bloke is doing.

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, M_B said:

About what ?

You missed him off your list. 

I dont know whether to dignify that remark with a response. On the rare occasions Kargbo has been available he hasnt shown anything at all.

The point is, in the summer, ismael signed ten players Mclaughlin, De Neve, Miller, Tavares, Baradji, Hickman, Henrikssen, Forshaw, Moreshita and Gudjohnssen.

He would no doubt pretend they're all decent players and can make a difference. Last night all apart from Forshaw were available. All sides will pick up a few injuries and suspensions along the way, to blame the fact we sit in 20th or have one home win two weeks shy on Christmas on injuries is laughable. 

it's the abysmal recruitment and poor management which is to blame. Still a couple of weeks ago it was the atmosphere at Ewood, last week it was the officiating, I suppose injuries can be this week's excuse.

(Rotate as necessary)

 

[chaddyrovers]

8 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Montgomery has not shown that he is capable at this level, how many games has he started for us? Not having him as a major loss.

We have had 3 midfielders on the bench in the 3 games that Forshaw started. Tavares, Henriksson and Baradji. All summer signings. The first 2 are awful, Baradji we signed knowing he wouldnt be fit for ages. So we cant complain on that one. 

No sympathy in midfield, we are short because of a mixture of signing awful and injury prone players. No sympathy in defence for the reasons I mentioned above. 

are any of those really number 6 defensive midfielder? no they aren't so you can't expect them to be. They are more of number 8 box to box midfielder or number 10 players. Forshaw and Montgomery are the back up for Tronstad not them. How can you not see that? 

Baradji is number 8 player and someone who is getting fitter and looks to have something about him

I don't know what you have against Montgomery but you always against young players. 

8 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

The main reason for our lack of depth and imbalanced and poor squad is not just hard luck. Its poor recruitment. Dont let them fool you otherwis

some signings have been good, ok and bad so far. That natural under recruitmen5

8 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Toth is just unfortunate although Pears has been fine since he came into the team. Tronstad again unfortunate but hes only missed a small number of games, it happens. Cantwell, again unfortunate.

Toth is level above Pears and he is different keeper who command his area much better. 

Tronstad not being available is a massive miss as Cantwell and not something we can really afford. 

8 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

But you will get injuries. The primary reason we look so stretched is because of failings in the summer. The main area we are stretched is in defence and that is because we came into a season with 3 natural centre backs, 2 of whom have terrible injury records.

I did call for another centre back before the window closed but Miller is comfortable in back 3 and I don't think he is as bad as you and others said in a centre back pairing

[RevidgeBlue]

5 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

19 home games for Ismael, 3 wins.

No home clean sheets since Ismael took over.

Worst points total after 10 home league games in our 150 year history.

What a job this bloke is doing.

But but but - he's "honest!".

[davulsukur]

6 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

19 home games for Ismael, 3 wins.

No home clean sheets since Ismael took over.

Worst points total after 10 home league games in our 150 year history.

What a job this bloke is doing.

Absolutely shocking stats.

The bloke is a dreadful manager, you couldn't see what the plan was last night against Oxford. Another absolutely horrific first 45mins.

Needs sacking asap.