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.