Valerien Ismael has laid the gauntlet down to Todd Cantwell to prove he can be an important player for Blackburn Rovers. 

The marquee summer signing from Rangers has endured an inconsistent debut season at Ewood Park. Having started well, his form since the turn of the year has been disappointing.

Under Ismael, Cantwell has only started one of his five games. For a team lacking creativity, it begs the question as to whether he could be a missing piece of the puzzle.

Ismael says the talented playmaker could be a big player for Rovers but it down to him to turn potential and flashes into match-winning performances.

READ MORE: Blackburn Rovers injury latest as two players suffer major setbacks

"I think that he had this in some years. He trained with consistency so he didn't miss any training sessions. He was involved in all games," Ismael said.

"Now he starts to find his rhythm and we see straight away his attitude, his body language is much more positive. Even after the game last week, the next training session was really good with his attitude. 

"We see that even for him, it was difficult this season to get any rhythm and now it seems that after five weeks from training, he's getting to come back with his strength, to get the feeling with the ball.

"We know that the player is an x-factor. He can do different things. He has different ideas.

"The creativity he has can help the team to win games. He has the potential, the potential is there definitely (to be a big player).

"Now it's up to him to show up on the pitch. My job is to help him get that confidence with the training session, explain what we expected from him. After that is the player.

"Everyone got responsibility. I have my responsibility but the player got the responsibility as well and the responsibility is the performance, the own performance. This is their own responsibility to make sure that they are doing the right thing to perform at their best."

Rovers are looking to address a run of four defeats against Middlesbrough. Each of those displays has followed a similar pattern of the team conceding a soft goal and struggling to break down their opponents.

Boro will be a different test, chasing the top-six. Ismael is hopeful that some '50/50' games will fall in their favour.

"If you see throughout the season, it was so far 50-50 games. So, maybe at the beginning of the season, you won the 50-50 games," he said.

"Maybe you didn't have any chance to score and you scored one goal and you won one goal.

"At the minute, it's exactly the same game, 50-50. It kind of goes in our direction, but it goes in the other direction. So, I think it's the championship will give you that.

"We are closer because it's still a 50-50 game, but we are losing game. So, this is the thing we need to adjust now because we know that the things go quickly in one direction, but it can go in the other direction. So, this is the championship and then Middlesbrough is a perfect example.

"They lose five games in a row and now they're back in the game and we know it can be exactly the same way with us. We know that the next game will be the most important thing to be focused and then give you the confidence."