Cant find any tactical videos on his style unfortunately - at least it won’t be McInnes which is a relief
Not a video but this should help:
https://theathletic.com/2374435/2021/02/10/barnsley-valerien-ismael-pressing?source=user-shared-article“The project is first to play a high press and to stay that way. Second, to develop young players. It was a topic of our conversation: can I work and play with young players?, because it’s a philosophy of the board to sell players. I accept that. I have worked with young players and this suited me. We are on the same page.â€
On the same page is a phrase Ismael repeats during the conversation. He likes this, the unity of vision from the boardroom to the training ground. He uses the word “vertical†in another context but it applies here, too.
When it comes to assessing his own style, Ismael uses another short phrase: “Direct with purpose.†This is where the unpleasantness comes in. He means unpleasant as in uncomfortable, and it all begins with those pressing drills on the training ground.
But, The Athletic asks, is the term “pressing†not in danger of becoming meaningless due to overuse?
“For sure, pressing is a superficial term now, everybody knows what press means,†Ismael says. “But we have a different approach to pressing. If the opponent has a back four or back three, you have a lot of build-up possibilities and a lot of rotation. We have solutions for this. Whether it’s Press One or Press Two, Three or Four, every player here knows now our press and we just have to say one number. We’re on the same page and everybody knows how to work.â€
He points to a poster on the wall.
“You can see on the board there – ‘Principles of Play’, ‘in possession and out of possession’. These are all topics in our way to play. Now you can ask all my players and staff what ‘On the Jump’ means and they all know. If I say ‘Defend forward’, everybody knows. You have to work together a lot for this – explain, repetition, learn, make mistakes, improve, do it again in the next game. You will get better and better and better.
“I can’t tell all the secrets. But the first principle is intensity. Without intensity, we’ve no chance. That’s why we need intensity first. If you want to dominate – we don’t have Premier League quality – but we can dominate with our intensity. You have to show the players where we want to win the ball and what happens after. When you win the ball, you have a short time when the opponent is not organised. So you have to stay vertical, play direct with purpose. That’s a big difference from playing direct. Direct with purpose can be in behind, diagonal, quickly – use this short window to hurt the opponent. The other thing it does is keep the opponent away from our goal.