Valerien Ismael

This review by a QPR fan is bang on and very well written - https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footb.../rangers-run-ragged-by-rampant-tykes-–-report

 

I think people forget the main reason some of the games under Val weren’t pretty was more to do with the opposition & how they set up to throw us off our game, Wayne Rooney pretty much admitted this. How often in our history do we experience that? We’re usually the underdogs, especially in that league in Recent years.

 

I'm not sure I can agree with that. My memory is two tight games with us having more efforts and efforts on target, with quality of finishing making the difference.

 

One of Swansea's goals was offside too if I remember correctly..? Linesman missed it, imagine my shock..

 

Completely agree. It was high risk football, we played a high line & pressed teams deep. I found it entertaining for the most part. There were a few games where teams just hoofed it back & made it tedious but the majority of teams tried to play through our press & that’s what made it exciting. With the way some talk you’d think it was basic hoofball.

 

I don’t think it’s that he’s a one trick pony, I just think it’ll only work at certain clubs. I think he’ll always be suited to underdog clubs. It’s hard to get a buy in from the better teams in a division to knock it long & run yourselves into the ground every game.

I could see it working at Cardiff with the types of players & budget they have.

 

That football will see us up in this league

 

I find it odd at the way people dismiss how we played.

Apart from the DW season, and the one from league one when we battered anything that moved the 2nd half the season, it's only the other season I felt confident going into every game we could win it.

Even at Bournemouth, I felt we could do it.

I find the notion of "non football" not something I agree with. Ismail had a tactic. Don't try and **** about in your own half. (And let's be fair here, even our current manager wants to piss about from the keeper, and we've come unstuck) Get the ball in the opposition half. Win the ball, and then play football.

And at times we were unstoppable, and despite some reviews, we did actually play some good stuff.

Opinions, it's all that. But I liked it

 

Read that QPR write up. Val came within two games of getting us into the premier League, fielding freiser, big Victor, styles, Brittany, all of whom have gone on to do nothing since. The game I recall is Chelsea in the cup when we came close to beating them, it took a shed load of tactical half time changes and an off side goal to beat us. That first half was the epitome of effort and organisation. It was like watching a ferret with its jaws round a lion's throat

 

It's all subjective mate but I've never ever enjoyed seeing us win less than under Ismael. I was actively angry in a lot of games. There were some good wins like at Bournemouth and early on we were good to watch with all the effort but once everyone had sussed us out the football was absolutely shocking and not that effective. The late season games against Wednesday, Rotherham, Coventry were just dreadful.
He's got pretty swiftly sacked at two clubs that had the resources to be near the top of their leagues. I'd expect him to do ok at Cardiff and keep him up just as I'd have expected him to keep us up had he stayed but he's lost the value of surprise in his tactics and, unless he's got a team riding high fans won't put up with the football on offer.
Again all subjective but that's my two pennorth.

 

It didn't start out as anti football but when teams worked us out the combined result was. It takes two to tango but it developed into tennis either side of the half way line as each tried to punt it behind the high press of the other. I've quoted games we lost that were bad but the wins against Millwall and Birmingham were shocking. I was actually angry watching them.

 

There were games that should have been more comfortable that weren't as well because Mowatt or Palmer never looked up or forward. Just hook kicked it over his head blind for Morris or Dike to chase or knock down. It became tiresome. Then don't get me started on the Play-Off Semi. Tactics all wrong. Didn't press and just kept banging it long for Dike when you could see the Swansea defence had his number.

 

I long for the days of 45 square balls between centre backs under Poya or Schopp. Who could forget the anaemic performances. How we laid down and died with essentially the same squad as Ismael had. It was stirring stuff. All those games we didn't score. All those apathetic performances. Halcyon days.

Why would I want dynamic, high pressing football with lots of goals and the atmosphere it created. Ismael only led us to our statistically our third best season ever. What is that in the grand scheme of things?

Short memories.

 

Maybe a one trick pony but we’ve had plenty of no trick ponies. He’ll always split opinion with his style of play but it worked phenomenally well for us.

 

A brilliant period in our history that brought joy when there wasn't much kicking about. Lots of context - same with Struber - but he got us to our fourth(?) highest ever position with largely a team that got relegated the following year.

A brilliant, pragmatic manager who should always be remembered fondly.

Knocking someone who got us to the Champ play offs. Crackers.

 

It's rare that you will see a team as well organised as we were under Ismael. The press was set, with all 11 players knowing where to be (once Collins had established the sweeper keeper role). Even now under Duff, we look more susceptible to the counter attack than we ever did under Ismael. He also solved problem after problem, initially getting the team up to the physical demands of the Championship, stopping goals against set pieces, scoring goals from set pieces. All things that have been issues before and since his time.

On the flip side, he did have a number of things go his away. Behind closed doors helped him lead the team from the touchline, 5 subs and he inherited a better senior group of players than Stendel, Schopp, Asbaghi or Duff have, with Solbauer, Helik, James, Mowatt and Woodrow, with Chaplin and Frieser also bringing some character and experience by all accounts. I can also see why he moves from club to club as often as he does, as a second season of playing such an intense press, with so little possession would too much for a lot of players. Only need to see how off the boil Liverpool seem to become every few years, and they do a lot more with the ball.

But for all that, I don't think we'd have been relegated had he been in charge last season, but I also don't think we'd have been near the play offs, so not sure how that style of play and mid-table would've been received in the crowd, having been in the play offs.