Forshaw didnt make progressive passes though and even simple ones sometimes went astray.

Ones who will be key players either way and/or ones with slight knocks that would play in an important game but could do with a rest might. Its a frustrating pause for all just as the season gets onto the home straight.

I suspect that a number of players will pull out to save themselves for the remainder of the club season. We will beat Albania and Latvia regardless so it doesnt matter either way. Hall is injured.

I definitely have never said that he was a top manager. Did a decent job though overall.

Not even about a high press necessarily. Cantwell and Gueye are regulars and we were particularly passive and flat for much of the game. It felt like a specific tactic/part of the gameplan and I dont think it worked. Shouldnt be fearing Norwich at home.

Still cant see the logic in them actively not wanting something which both financially and in terms of how it may reflect upon them, would be of massive benefit.

I dont think its just about the quality of the players either. I think we all agreed that Eustace was making the team bigger than the sum of its parts. It doesnt mean that he was backed, just like managers before, in fact the lack of backing literally led to him quitting. No reason to think that Ismael will be backed when so many others havent. Unless you think that minimal reinvestment and not always getting the final say to be considered being backed, in which case, yes I am sure some players will be signed under him.

The more passive tactics we did employ still saw them repeatedly get their players on the ball in attacking areas, the number of time one of them picked the ball up on the half turn was ridiculous. Thankfully in the main they didnt do much from there. As the home team we should have played more on the front foot. The triple Ismael sub has been something he has done throughout his career. He has often been criticised for it due to the predictable nature of it. That being said, some managers can go the other way and make changes too late.

Not being backed doesnt mean literally not signing any players. It means at least in my back not being given significant enough resources and of course not having final say also doesnt help. Eustace wasnt backed. Tomasson wasnt backed. And towards the end Mowbray wasnt backed. All displayed frustration in the media and no reason to suggest it wont happen again.

Its hard to judge much after 2 days training with the new manager but I felt like we were a lot more passive and really didnt want to press at all which surprised me. I dont think it worked to be like that. We did also see the multiple subs on the hour mark which is an Ismael trademark. It has been suggested as an area where he is quite inflexible.

@chaddyrovers do you think that Eustace WAS backed then? Wasnt the narrative when he left, so just checking if thats changed.

Not like you to view all of the refereeing decisions Just ignoring the Hyam elbow completely? Debatable Dennis straight red? Is the clear penalty the one on Ohashi? If so, im not even convinced that it was a foul. But if it was, your eyes must be great to see exactly where any contact happened. The ref was shit but it wasnt purely in Norwich's favour.

Im sure youve been living under a rock for 14 or 15 years. Managers dont get backed here, and then leave.

A big thrill to get a late equaliser but ultimately only drawing sees us drop outside the play offs. There is some great character amidst adversity in this side but there are a number of question marks in terms of quality and I would think there is much more of a chance of us falling short. Overall it was a pretty poor performance and a game lacking in quality. Our midfield felt non existent at times especially in the first half with them regularly picking the ball and turning in dangerous areas and also they had 2 big chances. Forshaw struggled and Tronstad needs to start now hes back, Travis was also very shaky and hopefully Tronstad being next to him will help him. Dennis is an idiot and I dont get why our fans give such warm applause when a player is sent off. Some "significant investment." Hyam is also an idiot for leaving one on Gunn and any suspension would really weaken us as him and Carter are 2 good centre backs and Sanderson is massively inferior. Ribeiro is decent and Brittain again right up there with our top performers. Gueye did a few nice things without ever looking like scoring, Dolan was shocking and needs dropping, Cantwell was more involved but in the main poor, Kargbo gives us something different with his pace but often found wanting at the end of his runs with his end product. Still, an upgrade on our other wide options for sure. Weimann really has a knack for scoring goals. From the start hes usually anonymous but great run and header to equalise.

I think we know that like those before him, he wont.

How has Forshaw become a regular all of a sudden? I know Kargbo and Gueye are muslim but I wonder if they will be fasting? Could impact their energy levels over the next month.

Jason Lowe was playing in the Championship, Andrews was clearly a level above him. Akpan was as bad if not worse though.

And hes English so he cant be overrated.

The overreaction to peoples reactions about the letter are as bizarre as the overreactions themselves. Although I think to some it is a trigger to the boards incompetencr rather than an issue with anything Ismael has said. Probably didnt write it, even if he did, full of typical manager speak. Im sure he never has given 2 thoughts to our title win, and the rest is just standard manager speak like they all give. Not worth thinking about.

Cantwell doesnt scream an Ismael player at all. Ball usually in the air, and a strict discipinarian might see a repeat of his Rangers situation.

I know that you cant possibly fathom that there are any risks or any red flags associated with him as a manager so there is little point debating. There are potentially encouraging signs from his past and potential concerns from his past but you as ever can only comprehend the former. One result shouldnt have sped the process up either way, assuming it did. Because they should have already been doing the thorough process as urgently as they could. So either they wasnt, or they panicked upon the loss at the weekend and rushed. Ive no doubt that youll be unable to comprehend that and will miss the point and say something like they were getting the right man which I am aware of. My point is, no individual match either way should have changed the speed of the process, whether that be a win slowing them down or a loss speeding them up. As that would be an incredibly reactive way of doing things.

A regular criticism seems to be that he doesnt really have a plan B so I am not sure how adaptable he is. He moved away from his blood and thunder long ball style somewhat at Watford and that was his least successful spell in English football. Not being in a relegation battle doesnt mean that his time at West Brom or Watford wasnt unsuccsssful. Man City arent in a relegation scrap but they are still having a bad season. Lets hope we get more of Barnsley Ismael than West Brom or in particular Watford Ismael. The key is to accept that this prior evidence that he can do well at this level and also there is evidence that there are chinks in his armoury and he can underachieve. Anyone shooting down any possible criticisms and suggesting that there are no concerns or equally anyone saying outright that its a terrible appointment are IMO lacking any semblence of balance. I dont understand the idea of the Plymouth result speeding up the process. That suggests that either they didnt have any urgency or proactivity to begin with, quite likely, and/or they then rushed following a loss.

He really didnt have a period of time where we played hoofball to Armstrong. I suspect that such is your bizarre dislike of him where your hatred of him randomly spews out when he hasnt been previously mentioned, his time here has become an absolute disaster in your mind when all in he did a good job. For what its worth, every manager (and player) is here for the packet. In his last season, he publically showed his frustration at not getting funds either that summer or in January when he wasnt able to trade freely. On the topic of player treatment, all the players seemed to love Mowbray. Not the case with Tomasson (who I liked as a manager, again did a good yet flawed job in a different way) who seemed to be tactically ahead but lacking on the man management side. Coming back on topic, Ismael seems to also have history with man management question marks. Lets hope they dont happen here and he can get the players playing to their maximum.

Does your seat at Ewood face the pitch? Mowbray certainly had faults but he didnt play hoof ball to Armstrong. When he was up front, we tried to dominate the ball and it didnt work, so quite the opposite. Im sure Mowbray must have done something to you personally as your hatred isnt normal.

Not the most exciting appointment, and lots of red flags. Doesnt stay at places long, questions about his man management and also his ability to sustain his very direct style of football especially when teams learn how to deal with it. But equally it could have been worse and he did a very good job at Barnsley and although he underperformed in his subsequent 2 jobs, it certainly wasnt disastrous. A big shower of comments about getting behind him, giving him a chance and to stop being negative all on page 1. People do realise that being critical in any way of the appointment or raising any concerns doesnt equate to him coming out to a chorus of boos on Saturday? People will be behind him like they always are. But if they arent totally happy with the appointment, let them say so. Lets hope he has learnt from his mistakes and becomes less predictable in terms of his style of play, and also lets hope he fits our club similar to how he did at Barnsley. The likes of Karanka, Boateng and Boa Morte would have been the ones to avoid. Certainly much more to cling on to with Ismael in a positive way. But ultimately the shit show of how we screwed Eustace over and the underlying mess that remains made this a very difficult appointment, and its hard to just brush off losing a very talented manager in that way.