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 3 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 3 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.