West Bromwich Albion journalist Joe Masi has been sharing his thoughts on newly-appointed Baggies manager Valerien Ismael and what the team could look like under his leadership.
This comes after Masi co-hosted a recent episode of West Brom-themed podcast Baggies Broadcast, where he spoke about a range of topics concerning the Midlands club.
On the subject of Valerien, who joined the Baggies last month from fellow Championship side Barnsley, Masi had this to say about the style of play the manager could instil at the club.
He said: “What I would say is, unless anyone listening to this podcast watched 10, 15 games for Barnsley last season, we don’t really know, we haven’t really got used to the style yet, so we’re going to have to watch these games and learn as we go, really, and then almost determine if we like it or not.
“But by the sounds of it, Barnsley fans loved it, Alex Mowatt says we’re going to love it. If we’re winning, we’re going to love it.
“I think it’s exciting, it’s going to be an intriguing season, and this is really a bit silly looking even further ahead, but I think if Ismael was to get Albion up, I think the following year, his system will cause a hell of a lot of problems in the Premier League.”
As well as Barnsley, Ismael has had spells in charge of clubs such as LASK, Wolfsburg, Apollon Smyrnis and FC Nuremberg.
During his time at Barnsley, the 45-year-old took charge of 44 games in which they won 25, drew six and lost 13 in the process (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Joe Masi’s comments on Ismael…
Given how in a recent report from the Express & Star it was claimed that Ismael is likely to bring a “very distinct style of play” with him to The Hawthorns in the form of counter-pressing, which they described as a “high-intensity tactic that sees you put the opposition under relentless pressure whenever they have the ball,” it’s easy to see why Masi thinks this could result in an exciting season ahead for the Baggies.
Are you excited for next season under Ismael?
Yes
No
In our view, while it’s all well and good bigging up Ismael’s preferred style of football that he likes his team to play, he will have to make sure this will end up with West Brom picking up enough points on a weekly basis that will see them in the running for promotion by the end of the campaign, as the club’s chief executive Xu Ke spoke about in a recent club statement.
In other news: ‘It’s still possible for the dream’, ‘Be a great signing’ – Some WBA fans buzz as rumour emerges