None of these points hold any truth really.
Barnsley two years ago took yet another mad pressing German manager in the hope of doing a Norwich. He failed and they barely survived relegation. Played intense football but didn't have the quality to do much despite dominating huge chunks of games against everybody in the league (ourselves included)
Ismael took over early last season after he **** off to MLS and got them playing a mad style of football. Shithouse football turned up to 20.
Every pass is aimed at the front line and while the ball is moving forward the entire midfield rushes for second balls so even if you win the first 50/50 you're not winning the second. Centre backs pass long with minimum touches/time wasted and mids only pass back if they have no other options and it's immediately hoofed and chased again.
The ball spends most of its time in the air, the midfield are passengers but its a brilliant watch. Their season was saved by Dike in part on loan last year since he was the dream target man for that league/playstyle but Barnsley were in general a league 1 squad and favourites to go down beginning of the season.
All of that means Ismael did a really, really good job and I think his refusal to play pretty passing football would have got him further than people think in the prem had they got promoted. They were awful to play against, every game turns into playing prime Stoke but now they press like mad and attack like its the 90th minute, for 90 minutes.
Tl;dr; he did a brilliant job at Barnsley but WBA will have to work towards what he wants. A Bilic team won't be able to play his way.