Blackburn Rovers winger, Augustus Kargbo. (Image: Blackburn Rovers)
Valerien Ismael was full of praise for Augustus Kargbo’s impact after the winger put forward his claim to start for Blackburn Rovers at West Brom.
Kargbo has been reduced to a super-sub role throughout pre-season with Dion De Neve favoured from the start on the left wing. The new signing has shown flashes without sparkling during pre-season.
However, Rovers’ January addition was a game-changer for them against NEC Nijmegen. Coming on at half-time with his side 2-0 down, Kargbo curled in a fantastic strike to reduce the deficit.
He also set up a big chance for Makhtar Gueye and could’ve had a second himself. His pace and direct running cause a lot of problems for the Dutch defence.
It poses an interesting dilemma ahead of opening day, with Kargbo pushing De Neve all the way for a starting spot.
Ismael insists both players have given him plenty to consider and this battle highlights the competition across the squad.
“It’s exactly why we have different profiles in our squad,” he told The Lancashire Telegraph.
“We have the pace and Dion did a lot of work in the first half. Then AK had more space to show his quality in the second half, more room and space.
“We are always thinking about the team, everyone deserves to play. All the players have worked really hard in these six weeks. I have to judge the performance and I decide which players will play.
“I know I can count on the squad and the depth. We need more additions but we are working on that, they’re in the pipeline, so hopefully they get done.”
Rovers lost their 100% winning record in pre-season in Holland. It was a strange game, with the hosts dominating the first half, though Ismael’s side created a number of promising moments but without capitalising.
In the second half, Blackburn were far better and created multiple big chances. Sadly, they didn’t take them and they were caught on the counter-attack.
“The result doesn’t reflect the game,” Ismael explained.
“We were very good with our press, we won a lot of balls. We created so many chances but we were too sloppy which is something we want to work on.
“Otherwise, it was a good test, another team with good quality on the ball. If you see the first goal we conceded, it summed up the game.
“We won the ball 30 metres from goal and we were sloppy. We lose the ball and in transition, we give away the penalty. It’s something we have to work on.
“It’s the last game before pre-season, we are very pleased with the work we have put in the team. You asked me after Spain how was the training camp and everything was fine but this week has been a tough week.
“One player gone (Brittain), a new player coming in (MIller). Illness, injuries and players who couldn’t train the full week. It was a difficult week to prepare so we said to the players to understand that. Better to happen this week than next week.
“We have no more injuries and we’re taking the positives today because we should’ve scored more goals. The second half was much better, very good.”
“We had more kids on the pitch in the first half so I think that made a difference,” he added.
“We had more experience, more pace and we knew what the opponent wanted to do so we could make the press right.
“We spoke about transitions and when we put more quality in those, we scored a goal. I think we had three big chances, Pape, Trav, Pape again. We needed too many chances to score goals, we need to reduce that to reach the next level.
“We needed too many chances today and scored one goal. Normally, it would be four goals so that’s the game.”
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