Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[LDRover]

32 minutes ago, JHRover said:

So predictably it seems there is a clique of people out there who are against removing Ismael because 'we wouldn't / couldn't get anyone better' and the usual challenges to people to name options who would realistically come here and do a better job than Ismael in these circumstances.

It's more or less the same rationale people come out with for not calling for Venkys out, because they've convinced themselves that there's no other owner or group in the world who could bring more to the party than Venkys. Suggesting those clamouring for a Regime change should first name who would be interested in buying Rovers (of course that's impossible). 

So presumably then we are just supposed to sit back and enjoy the ride, unable to change anything about the rotten ownership and management of the club because we are the only club in the world that cannot attract new or better ownership or management. It seems part of this is based on prospective managers / owners not going into the media and declaring an interest in Rovers. 

Such a shame that some people are so negative in their view of Rovers and performance of the club that there is such insistence that this is the best we can hope for. Just accept it and get on with your life. 

I almost wish I could have such an attitude but I can't. You see in professional support that sort of attitude is unacceptable. There is always a way to improve and get better and you should never accept failure no matter what the causes. 

That's the irony of it. All those clamouring for change and calling the situation out for what it is are branded 'negative'. Yet those who suggest we can expect no better are, in effect, far more negative about the situation yet think they possess the moral high ground.

[Rover down South]

Terrible manager.

He doesn’t have a clue how to turn this around tactically. Just sticking to the same system week in and week out because he hasn’t a clue how to fix it and making no attempt to.

Of course, we don’t have the best squad in the league, far from it, but it would be nice to see some sort of fight from the players. They look defeated before a ball has been kicked. 

You need your manager to lift you, to get the side fired up, so they have the belief they can go and get a result, but he just comes across so negative and lacks any personality. It didn’t help conceding so early today, but watch his reaction, he doesn’t try to motivate the team, instead just turns his back to the pitch. What message does that send?

Players like Tronstad who have given their all for this club now look beaten and disinterested. A pure reflection of his managers demeanour.

We desperately need a run of good results and that’s not going to happen under VI. Players look at rock bottom.

[roverandout]

3 hours ago, Bohinen1983 said:

There's no rational reason to get rid of Big Val. He's doing a belting job.  Lots of promising signs.

 

[Ghost7]

We lost a lot of players in the summer but not enough to be seeing performances like this for almost the entire season.

Other teams have their injuries too and can handle them. The core of the team is not performing under this manager and he's enabling terrible player recruitment.

He's part of the problem and needs to go.

[JHRover]

Remember it was predominantly garbage last season before the self-inflicted exodus of players and arrival of Rudy's mates. What was Ismael's excuse then, when the players were good enough?

[dallydally]

4 minutes ago, Ghost7 said:

We lost a lot of players in the summer but not enough to be seeing performances like this for almost the entire season.

Other teams have their injuries too and can handle them. The core of the team is not performing under this manager and he's enabling terrible player recruitment.

He's part of the problem and needs to go.

Absolutely 

[Rover down South]

He’s performing slightly worse than Owen Coyle. 

History about to repeat itself.

[OnionBalaji]

Are the owners still under court ordered restrictions? Genuine question as it seems to have gone quiet on that front… 

We should have good space in FFP especially with the clear out and potting Ismael would be the sensible financial decision should we get a suitable replacement and spend the money to get a proper manager. It’ll cost less in the long run than going to L1. 
 

Gestede should be nowhere near a football club, the squad he has assembled will take more than a season to clear out and replace and is a long term issue. We are stuck with the pound land gambles and garbage for now and needs serious investment to turn around. He has done incredible damage with Owen in one summer with the squad revamp and new project. 
 

it’s easy to revamp a squad if you’re spending money and can offload players who take up space - but people need to want to take those players off your hands? Hyam, Travis, etc all had their admirers - it’ll take more than a summer to shift some of these current players

Sadly feeling completely flat about it all, there’s not even hope in the tank left that things will improve or can change.  Pasha needs to go, Gestede needs to go, VI needs to go first thing in the morning and Venkys need to sell. Instead we get gaslit. 
 

Gaslit by a manager who always has an excuse ready - “it was the ref”, “injuries”, “results this month not important til players come back from injury” (how does that motivate the current fit players!)

 

Gaslit from owners with dodgy figures including never to be met add ons as proof “significant investment”, “an ambitious £3.5m signing” - WHERE IS THE £? Wharton.. Szmodics.. Hyam.. Travis.. even money was made with fucking Gueye somehow?!

Lindsay T who calls fans drug addicts and deflects 

And worst of all - Pasha just ghosts the fans. 
 

Fans Forum meetings are a joke along with our pitch, our Blues Bar with no Sky Sports (at a professional sports club) 

it’s a horrid joke 

[47er]

5 hours ago, AndyB said:

Will Elliott Jackson and the LT have the balls to call for him to be sacked?

 

Well they can't ban him!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Why was this fool not sacked last night?

1  win in 12.

[Bohinen1983]

11 hours ago, Bohinen1983 said:

I've had a one or two beverages and have come to conclusion that Ismael is on the right tracks. Whilst results are going against us we've been very unlucky, we're dominating games and have a clear style and pattern to our play. Whilst some of our signings haven't yet 'clicked', they've shown enough to make me believe that we'll not only be safe, but next season mount a serious challenge. 

Wasn't being tongue in cheek at all... 

[Ferrit]

He keeps picking Henrikson, if that doesn’t tell you enough about how clueless this joker is I don’t know what will. Give him a couple more weeks and he will be rivalling Kean and ince’s record.

it was a pitiful appointment, he’s a bad manager, always has been. Ah well only 2.5 years left.

Edited 3 hours ago by Ferrit

[Ossydave]

Genuinely may as well play with 10 rather than shove Henriksson up top time and time again. It's actually unfair on the player too now because he's just beating the little confidence he must have right out of him, he cannot play there and a blind man could see it. He's still fairly young, he needs time out the first team and coaching properly in his preferred position. One thing that's glaringly obvious is that VI is stubborn, if he thinks he can make something work he will stick to it, even when it's badly failing. Even Mowbray realised the Bradley Johnson false 9 idea was wrong and binned it off.

When the chips are down you need a motivational coach, not a stubborn clown.

He has to go.

[Jimmy612]

10 hours ago, JHRover said:

So predictably it seems there is a clique of people out there who are against removing Ismael because 'we wouldn't / couldn't get anyone better' and the usual challenges to people to name options who would realistically come here and do a better job than Ismael in these circumstances.

It's more or less the same rationale people come out with for not calling for Venkys out.

This would surely be an argument packed full of contradictions… Venkys are the best we can possibly hope for, but due to the current state of the club (after 15 years of their ownership) we couldn’t possibly hope to improve on statistically the worst performing manager the club has ever seen? 
 

All those people need to do is ask themselves why they see modern day Rovers as such a poisoned chalice that we couldn’t do better than a manager with a win rate of 28%.  Or would they just tell us we’re a league one club in waiting and that’s the natural order of things? 

[Jimmy612]

1 hour ago, Ferrit said:

He keeps picking Henrikson, if that doesn’t tell you enough about how clueless this joker is I don’t know what will. Give him a couple more weeks and he will be rivalling Kean and ince’s record.

it was a pitiful appointment, he’s a bad manager, always has been. Ah well only 2.5 years left.

I might be mistaken, but I think he has a worse record than Kean, doesn’t he? 
 

EDIT: Just checked, he actually has a lower win % than either of them.

Edited 2 hours ago by Jimmy612

[DanielMB]

They say there on a row telling us that the squad they assembled in the summer was better than the squad we had before the summer. I am still waiting on any argument that will convince me that that is even remotely true. 

[47er]

1 hour ago, Jimmy612 said:

This would surely be an argument packed full of contradictions… Venkys are the best we can possibly hope for, but due to the current state of the club (after 15 years of their ownership) we couldn’t possibly hope to improve on statistically the worst performing manager the club has ever seen? 
 

All those people need to do is ask themselves why they see modern day Rovers as such a poisoned chalice that we couldn’t do better than a manager with a win rate of 28%.  Or would they just tell us we’re a league one club in waiting and that’s the natural order of things? 

Br fair though, the Club is doing its best to  ensure the boycott is a success.

Edited 55 minutes ago by 47er

[Waggy76]

2 hours ago, Ferrit said:

He keeps picking Henrikson, if that doesn’t tell you enough about how clueless this joker is I don’t know what will. Give him a couple more weeks and he will be rivalling Kean and ince’s record.

it was a pitiful appointment, he’s a bad manager, always has been. Ah well only 2.5 years left.

Not only Henriksson  he picks De Neve as well . playing with 9 !

[Tomphil2]

2 hours ago, Ferrit said:

He keeps picking Henrikson, if that doesn’t tell you enough about how clueless this joker is I don’t know what will. Give him a couple more weeks and he will be rivalling Kean and ince’s record.

it was a pitiful appointment, he’s a bad manager, always has been. Ah well only 2.5 years left.

He's picking these players and shoehorning them in because his job is give them Championship mins and create value.

That trumps EVERYTHING at Blackburn Rovers.

[Tomphil2]

10 hours ago, Rover down South said:

He’s performing slightly worse than Owen Coyle. 

History about to repeat itself.

Last time they sold the two best defenders and ultra reliable goalscorer who combined had kept our heads above water regardless of managers and tactics we ended up relegated.

So history is repeating itself even before this dud is factored in.

[BankEnd Rover]

1 hour ago, Ossydave said:

Genuinely may as well play with 10 rather than shove Henriksson up top time and time again. It's actually unfair on the player too now because he's just beating the little confidence he must have right out of him, he cannot play there and a blind man could see it. He's still fairly young, he needs time out the first team and coaching properly in his preferred position. One thing that's glaringly obvious is that VI is stubborn, if he thinks he can make something work he will stick to it, even when it's badly failing. Even Mowbray realised the Bradley Johnson false 9 idea was wrong and binned it off.

When the chips are down you need a motivational coach, not a stubborn clown.

He has to go.

Probably the first fair assessment on Henriksson I've seen - He's getting fed to the wolves. 

[Hasta]

1 hour ago, Jimmy612 said:

I might be mistaken, but I think he has a worse record than Kean, doesn’t he? 
 

EDIT: Just checked, he actually has a lower win % than either of them.

Imagine how'd his record would be if he hadn't won those 4 on the bounce at the end of last season. There influence him and Gestede have, the worse we get.

[Gamst]

25 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

Probably the first fair assessment on Henriksson I've seen - He's getting fed to the wolves. 

I think he could so with a loan spell in League 1 until the end of the season. There might be a player in there somewhere. His record in Sweden was decent albeit its a lower standard. Currently he is shot of confidence and being played in a position he's completely unsuitable for. His effort is always excellent so he deserves a chance and I think dropping down a division could be his best bet. 

[Dreams of 1995]

People can analysis to the nth degree his tactical nous, points per game or whatever but I think it is clear as day that he is not good enough to get a tune out of these players

We are becoming progressively worse. It is the complete inability to hold on to the ball and attack that tells me what I need to know. Anyone can set a team up to be hard to beat - although we are failing at that now - but it takes tactical knowledge to understand an opponents weaknesses and attack them. At no point during Vals reign have I ever thought he has one over on the opposing manager and that he has set his team up to exploit the weaknesses of the opposition. It has been a one-trick pony - and if the starting plan does not work then we simply struggle through the 90 minutes and hope a moment of individuality pulls us through

Val has to go. At any normal club, a team that almost got promotion last season who now sits where we are would sack the manager and go again. We are told the team has improved - has it? And if it has then why is our manager allowed to achieve so little?

All of this talk of “who do we get after” is more contrarian nonsense with a lack of ambition - a sense of doom, that we aren’t worth a chance, when the reality is we have been a top half club for 4 years now and any coach would give that a go. The circus on the side though, maybe that is cutting through in the football world, and maybe this is now the depths we inhabit because Rudy has found “our natural place”

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Even The LT positive mob seem to have lost patience or are at last chance saloon with him.