'Stupid' to say Rovers squad has regressed - Ismael

It is "stupid" to suggest Blackburn Rovers' squad is weaker than last season, according to boss Valerien Ismael.

Rovers head into Saturday's Championship match at home to Southampton (15:00 BST) with just one point from their past five outings and sitting second from bottom of the table, after finishing seventh last season.

"This is stupid analysis. We didn't lose any quality (in the squad) we reduced the age, we took younger players so we have players who need to adapt to the Championship and the new environment," Ismael told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"It is something the club wanted to do to create assets for the club and when you go through that it will be a bumpy road."

The Frenchman says he has been encouraged by recent performances and it is too early to judge his side.

"The season is not over in October, it is over in May so we have a lot of time to adjust everything," he said.

"At the minute the performance is consistent and at some point we will get the rewards.

"There are two things to assess a team, how many points you get and how the team performs - at the minute we don't have enough points as we expected - we should have more which is a good feeling."

Ismael has confirmed captain Todd Cantwell has returned to training, but will not be ready to face Southampton.