Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Personally, I think Mark on the Blackburn End Podcast was spot on with his view on the manager. Everything Ismael is currently doing, most managers can probably do too. The key part is that he isn't winning games and perhaps another manager may have got something extra out of them that he clearly can't find. 

Yes he's not had it straight forward. The injuries, the players leaving and the quality of those being signed means that it is a difficult job. Not to mention the owners, who makes running any football club 10 times harder. However, he wasn't particularly brilliant last season and even with the issues mentioned above, there are obvious signs where you can't help but say "what are you doing?; why are you doing that?; when are you going to change it up?". 

I think once he brought out the infamous 'list', that was the time to start looking for a new manager. Once you start pointing fingers externally at others and not internally at the club, the time starts ticking on your job. If we had a CEO or a more experienced owner, he'd have gone by now. I think he's fortunate Rudy is stubborn and lacks experience. 

Who do I think we should bring in? Quite easy really. Anyone who can bring the players together and give them an extra 5%. This doesn't require a long term appointment now. It needs someone to come in urgently and provide that motivation and belief that they can perform better. 

[London blue]

I'd agree with the above.

Also, how many times have we said this year that X weren't great but we were worse? Performance levels in the main are very low.

We've very rarely been blown away my 2 or more goals, and despite the injuries we've dropped a lot of points against teams with comparable first 11s. 

He's a dud, he's always been a dud, and he's now in his longest stint as a manager with us in real danger of relegation.

[Jimmy612]

17 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

The players are still playing for him. I’d be loathe to change horses in mid stream as long as that is the case. Add to that I can’t think of anyone out there that is guaranteed to do better. Can you ?

Strangely enough, I can't think of one manager that Rovers players have ever downed tools for, not even in the last 15 years.  Under Kean, over 12 months after his nonsensical appointment, they managed to pick up 4 points at Anfield/OT to more or less preserve his job. In the March they picked up 7 points from 3 games before a spectacularly awful run in relegated us. In the championship we were what... 3rd, when he was sacked? 

Coyle was similar. He was under tremendous pressure to be sacked, players from that era have since spoken about him being a nice fella but a hopeless manager.  They beat Newcastle in early Jan when the chips were down, and managed 2 wins, 2 draw and 3 defeats in his final 7 games, NOT including that FA cup game vs United in which they played very well.  Subsequetly, they appointed a far better manager than Coyle (TM), and results immediately improved. 

Whether Ismael is the right man, wrong man, or somewhere in between, players visibly 'downing tools' or not playing for the manager is not necessarily the best barometer, especially when the squad is made up of largely his signings (especially when they're plucked from obscure European leagues) and youth players who are grateful of the pathway. 

The fact remains, his record is as poor as Coyle's, who is largely regarded as one of our worst managers in history, and Kean, who is regarded as THE worst manager in the clubs history.  Did you make much of a case for keeping those two on at the time? 

 

[Dreams of 1995]

I would have sacked Val a long time ago. We won’t sack him though. The Venkys - Suhail - will only sack managers if they start to put pressure on ‘the board’

Whilst Val continues to protect the chaos above him and only keep the focus on the football, he will be protected

In this respect, this window is very important. It is an easy out for any head coach here. If he does not get what he wants, all he needs to do is go on camera, name Suhail, blame the business in January for poor performances, and he will find himself a lovely contract pay out and we will be without a head coach

If he loses 10 in a row but doesn’t blame Suhail, he will stay for as long as his contract has time 

[Jimmy612]

18 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Anybody like to name a likely realistic replacement ?

On this, I would never have even thought of Mowbray or JDT at the time of their appointment.  I didn't know JDT was a manager, and I thought TM was on the scrapheap to be perfectly honest after bobbling along in L1 with Coventry and getting sacked. Both of the above I would suggest are better managers than Ismael. 

Eustace was a bit more straight forward, although I was more surprised when he took the job.... maybe that's food for thought in itself...  

[Mattyblue]

Imagine the results if they weren’t ’playing for him’, we may have had one home win all season instead of two, or something.

Edited Monday at 13:33 by Mattyblue

[Jimmy612]

1 hour ago, LeftWinger said:

According to Wiki:

Coyle: P37 W11 D8 L18

Ismael: P37 W11 D9 L17

Scarily similar.

 

We should probably add a bit more context to that, as I believe Ismael's appalling start last season has skewed the figures ever so slightly.  Let's compare exact positions (i.e. 25 games in to the season). It's an important distinction.

Coyle: P25 W6 D6 L13
Ismael: P25 W7 D7 L11

Coyle had a win % of 24%, Ismael 28%.  Both alarmingly poor, but Ismael has accrued an extra 4 points within this season, and as such, we remain outside of the bottom 3. 

Edited Monday at 13:46 by Jimmy612

[wilsdenrover]

21 minutes ago, Jimmy612 said:

We should probably add a bit more context to that, as I believe Ismael's appalling start last season has skewed the figures ever so slightly.  Let's compare exact positions (i.e. 25 games in to the season). It's an important distinction.

Coyle: P25 W6 D6 L13
Ismael: P25 W7 D7 L11

Coyle had a win % of 24%, Ismael 28%.  Both alarmingly poor, but Ismael has accrued an extra 4 points within this season, and as such, we remain outside of the bottom 3. 

But he didn’t take over a struggling team, he took over one vying for the playoffs.

[RevidgeBlue]

4 hours ago, wilsdenrover said:

But he didn’t take over a struggling team, he took over one vying for the playoffs.

Indeed - it was absolutely frightening the speed with which he undid all the good work of Eustace (and to a lesser extent Lowe).

[RevidgeBlue]

4 hours ago, Jimmy612 said:

We should probably add a bit more context to that, as I believe Ismael's appalling start last season has skewed the figures ever so slightly.  Let's compare exact positions (i.e. 25 games in to the season). It's an important distinction.

Coyle: P25 W6 D6 L13
Ismael: P25 W7 D7 L11

Coyle had a win % of 24%, Ismael 28%.  Both alarmingly poor, but Ismael has accrued an extra 4 points within this season, and as such, we remain outside of the bottom 3. 

We're deteriorating at a rate of knots now though, one win in nine is it?

You could argue our position has been "skewed" by an improbably high number of away wins in the first half of the season. All signs are that's come to an end and we still can't win any home games.

It's only going to end one way if he remains in charge. Not that it matters that much to management or owners I dont suppose.

Wonder if the owners know they'll lose £8m in Championship TV money if relegated?

[lraC]

6 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

We're deteriorating at a rate of knots now though, one win in nine is it?

You could argue our position has been "skewed" by an improbably high number of away wins in the first half of the season. All signs are that's come to an end and we still can't win any home games.

It's only going to end one way if he remains in charge. Not that it matters that much to management or owners I dont suppose.

Wonder if the owners know they'll lose £8m in Championship TV money if relegated?

One win in 10 now.

 

Horrendous 

[den]

The ONLY thing that matters at a professional football club is winning games. It doesn’t matter how. Yet still, after 15 years the owners and Pasha really don’t get that. They shouldn’t be involved in sport whatsoever. Stick to what they do know about and it ain’t football.

[Wheelton Blue]

I think the point being made about the players still playing for Ismael is a valid one to a degree.

But that's sort of becoming irrelevant now; football is all about winning games, and this guy just can't do it.

Once the transfer window closes, and should results carry on as they are, then the only thing left which can be changed is the manager. By then though, it will be too late.

[den]

I’ll also help them out in how to win games. Bring in good players. 

[wilsdenrover]

In 37 league matches, he’s managed to have runs of:

0 wins in 7

1 win in 7

1 win in 10

He certainly struggles to turn things around. 

[den]

10 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

In 37 league matches, he’s managed to have runs of:

0 wins in 7

1 win in 7

1 win in 10

He certainly struggles to turn things around. 

He hasn’t got the players. 

[wilsdenrover]

3 minutes ago, den said:

He hasn’t got the players. 

For his entire time in charge?

[Tomphil2]

4 hours ago, den said:

The ONLY thing that matters at a professional football club is winning games. It doesn’t matter how. Yet still, after 15 years the owners and Pasha really don’t get that. They shouldn’t be involved in sport whatsoever. Stick to what they do know about and it ain’t football.

They know that but aren't bothered because they much prefer the wheeling and dealing side of things, it's in their DNA.

People are in the middle making big wages and percentages out of all that and are no doubt very big influences on the owners.

[den]

37 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

For his entire time in charge?

For much of that time.

Just to be clear I’m not supporting him, far from it. I’d like an entire clear out of owners, Pasha, Ismael, Gestede and the first team squad. None of them will turn the current situation around.

[Mike E]

January 23/24/25 we had a very good shout of promotion/playoffs. The administration of our club ensured we fucked it.

January 26, we’re hovering above the relegation zone, and have an even more appalling bunch of dickheds running the club.

I have no hope we’ll stay up.

[MarkBRFC]

6 hours ago, Mike E said:

I have no hope we’ll stay up.

I think we will.

When Toth and Gudjohnsen are back in the side, with Baradji getting better every game and still potentially having Tronstad and Cantwell in the side, I think we have just enough.

Oxford and Charlton I think will go down with Wednesday, although it will be close and won't be a pretty second half of the season to watch, thats for sure.

[Wheelton Blue]

Even with injured players coming back, the vain hope that we'll signing anyone half decent in January, and not withstanding the likelihood that further injuries will occur, our achilles heel is the manager.

He's only won 7 games all season, so expecting this to sufficiently improve is wishful thinking IMO.

Edited yesterday at 10:49 by Wheelton Blue

[roverblue]

His tactics mean we don't score enough goals. This is the main reason we don't win more games and have more points.

A team of defenders and defensive minded midfield players leave our 1-2 attacking players isolated and without any real service.

After going 2 nil down at home to Charlton and Wrexham he doesn't have the nous to change tactics and throw on another striker/winger/attacker (*admittedly these would be academy lads given the squad issues we have but beats playing people out of position like Henrikson).

His view is that he needs better players rather than he needs to be a better manager.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

45 minutes ago, roverblue said:

His tactics mean we don't score enough goals. This is the main reason we don't win more games and have more points.

A team of defenders and defensive minded midfield players leave our 1-2 attacking players isolated and without any real service.

After going 2 nil down at home to Charlton and Wrexham he doesn't have the nous to change tactics and throw on another striker/winger/attacker (*admittedly these would be academy lads given the squad issues we have but beats playing people out of position like Henrikson).

His view is that he needs better players rather than he needs to be a better manager.

I wouldn’t exactly describe Baradji as “ defensive minded. “ The problem is we’ve had to wait whilst now to get him on the park. I’d say playing Travis and Tronstad in centre midfield was more defensive minded.  Who are these striker/winger/attackers we need to throw on ? There’s only Joseph as far as I can see that might be worth a go but you need to be careful blooding kids in a struggling team. We ruined James Beattie as far as Rovers were concerned doing that.

[Miller11]

10 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

There’s only Joseph as far as I can see that might be worth a go but you need to be careful blooding kids in a struggling team. We ruined James Beattie as far as Rovers were concerned doing that.

Ismael won’t care about that. He is targeted and earns bonuses based on giving academy players debuts and minutes.

I’m actually surprised he seemed a bit reluctant in the earlier part of the season. Perhaps he’s now twigged that expectations and standards are virtually zero, and that the accumulation of points isn’t that important to his bosses. I expect we will see at least half a dozen more academy players debut by the end of the season.