Season Preview: Throw off the shackles!

Bring back the body warmer or not? That is the key tactical question facing Neil Critchley this season

This is an odd preview to write because I'm really not in Blackpool Football Club mode at the moment - That's down to a combination of things I guess.

Firstly, the EUROs weren't so much a festival of the continental game but more an attritional exercise in relieving the season just gone - lots of worthy possession, a safety first philosophy and falling short at the last. Just as 'bringing Matty Virtue on' became short form for 'for fucks sake Critchley, we need a goal not a plucky midfield battler' it seemed appropriate that England lost the game whilst Gareth prepared Conner 'plucky battler' Gallagher to enter the fray. After an additional month of Critchball, I'm just not in the mood for more... 

Secondly, there's a sense of ennui about the club/fanbase itself. Things just aren't quite right. The owner has taken a combative approach to dealing with critical voices around ticket prices. A balanced view would acknowledge that football economics are insane and the expectation that all clubs are run at a loss can't continue as infinitum but there's something about the way the youngest and the least fiscally able are targeted by unexpected price rises that doesn't seem to add up as good business or PR. Much has been said on this and the club have moved a little bit - but the feeling of being 'in it together' or to use the much spoken buzzword 'in alignment' with the club isn't where it was in the not too distant past.

Thirdly, there's Critch from off of 'Critchball' fame. I don't want to dwell on the points above as I've written a lot about them of late. I've also written a lot about Neil 'prefers his ham sandwich without mustard' Critchley over the years, but I think we're heading into a season where his approach will define a lot so, on this topic, I will expand.

There's only two Neil Critchleys. One of them is the impish, pugnacious little fella who turns out sides who look prepared, who fight for every ball and pounce on every mistake. The polo shirted Volvo driver who turns into a tactical genius when he crosses the divide between the training pitch and the outside world. The man who remains calm as others flap and flail and whose influence on players is undoubted. He's punching, above his weight and convincing others to do so too.

The other is a stubborn and inflexible fella who uses his bodywarmer as insulation against criticism, who is so risk averse he probably insists his kids use a booster seat in the car and stabilisers on their bikes till they're in their mid-30s. This Critch turns out teams who look restricted, frightened, perhaps even bored. He's silent on the touchline, like a swimming pool attendant who takes his job hyper seriously, his tactical plan a rigid and fun-spoiling list of rules that insist on no bombing and everyone swimming sensibly in lane in a clockwise manner.

No unnecessary shooting or you will be removed from the pool!  

How I characterise him shifts with the winds. I am fickle. I am a football fan. I might have painfully obvious literary pretensions but I never pretend that I'm doing a journalistic service here. This is a blog where I write down how I feel at the time and sometimes Critchley frustrates the living shit out of me and yet... at others, I can't deny his charm, decency and of course, his ability. To paint him as incompetent would be ridiculous. He's blatantly not an idiot. Equally, there's been times since his return when it's been difficult to discern the kind of off beat invention that drove us toward the edge of the championship play offs and to feeling briefly like we'd established ourselves again somewhere around where we want to be.

I've often been critical of the way Critchley speaks. He's a man who keeps his cards close to his chest and prefers to straight bat most questions. At the recent fans forum, he opened up a little and won a fair deal of respect. Whilst the owner and the CEO wrestled uncomfortably with a barage of well made points about pricing structures, Critchley was clear eyed and honest and what he said made a lot of sense.

"Thing about Critchley is, he just won't stop tinkering... he'll never just stick with a formation" (Blackpool fans, sometime around January 2022) 

I admire anyone who has the courage of his convictions and Critchley came across as someone who had thought about the season, thought about how approached it from beginning to end and was prepared to speak honestly about it. His observation that the oft criticised formation was an attempt to engage the players in something new was particularly interesting and his insistence that he wants to play attacking football was welcome, even if it comes with the muttering, grudging aside of 'could have fooled me at times Neil, it looked a bit like what you wanted to do was shoe in Callum bloody Connolly come what may' 

Here's the thing: Familiarity breeds contempt. Critchley has been here an age now and his reputation precedes him for better and worse. Last year, his squad was more or less a group of players he'd managed before. This year, there is a sense that a page has been turned and something fresh will need to be tried.

What I want from this season, most of all, is for us to approach it with a sense that it's 'now or never' and that we're willing to take some risks to achieve our goals. I can forgive us not getting promoted, but I can't forgive us playing cautious and uninventive football, going entire games just probing the halfway line waiting for a mistake and then turning round and going back to Grimmy when one doesn't arrive.

I love football and I love that it can be played in different ways, but this is now Critchball season 4 and it's time for a change of gear.

I want to see Rob Apter given the same chance that other players have had. I know he might take time, but I also know he's got a rare ability and things like seeing that tested at this level are what I watch football for. We're not a team of limitless resources, we need to take a chance from time to time on players who *could* be good. Buying proven quality is nice, but watching quality prove itself is thrilling and deeply satisfying. 

I want us to approach away games fearlessly and trust ourselves to be the better side. I want to see us risk conceding in order to score and I definitely don't want to see us conceding because we've sat deep and invited the other team on or because we've high pressed a long ball team and then run out of steam and ideas.

If all else fails, get Tashan back... 

Between the sticks, Grimmy is a good as you get at this level. Yes, he would be a better keeper if he was 6ft 8, dominated the box AND as good with angles and as agile as he is, but then, if he were, Jordan Pickford wouldn't be England's no1 and Grimmy would be worth 100 million. 

At the back, it's encouraging to see some quality width to add to the left wing back position. In the middle, there are questions about whether we've got the dominant quality that Marvin at his best could bring. Hubby and Casey both do good jobs in their own way, but neither will dominate against a brutal lump of a forward. 

On the right, we have, in theory, a strong hand, but there's big questions about whether actually, it's the correct blend of players. CJ is much maligned and doubtless has some qualities we will find useful - whether he should be first choice pick week in week out in a position that generally demands a level of technical ability is a different matter. Jordan Gabriel is much loved but is a more effective all action full back than an out and our wingback and Andy Lyons isn't fit till Christmas.

In the middle of the park, I think Albie Morgan was probably the player who most improved over the season. There's a potentially a truly excellent footballer if he can find the form he showed for a decent spell once he'd settled into the team and keep it up over the majority of the season. He's energetic, imaginative and has proper quality. 

I don't need to remind readers of this blog that I fucking love Sonny Carey and I want to see him used wisely and treasured for his ability to float, prompt and hit it on target from all sorts of angles. Again, Sonny had a good spell last season where he looked confident, wanted the ball all the time and tried to make things happen and a season of that surrounded by the right players (others who can move and move the ball quickly) will lead to significant impact.

Sonny Carey in action

There's hope that Lee Evans will add annoying slapstick comedy height and know-how and that he's more Dougall than Stewart in terms of 'signing players on the back of an injury lay off,' (though ideally without the 'fucking off in the middle of the season just as it's starting to work' bit thrown in.) He's able to play both a central and defensive role in midfield, to pass and win his share of tackles and headers. We've missed a genuine all round midfielder since Wintle went back to Cardiff... 

No pressure there then Lee.. 

There's the mystery figure of Finnegan (see also Dan Sassi) who has experience at this level and who I really can't claim to reasonably have a view about but who surely can't just sit around doing nothing much all year. 

Is he any good? No one knows... 

Then there's Ollie Norburn... I don't know quite what to say here. He had the occasional excellent game for us, where he looked fierce, powerful and distributed the ball really well. He has a lot of games where he looked a little bit behind the play and to distribute the ball incredibly conservatively.

For me, the prior season, we desperately needed a Norburn. The lack of a midfield disrupter was painful as Championship sides dominated us. This year, we've dominated other teams fairly regularly and as both Byers and Dougall showed, we could do that without always needing a real deep lying sitting midfielder. We looked (and both Morgan and Carey) looked at our best with more fluid midfield where the deeper player also brought movement and attacking potential to the table.

Up front we've got a new lad who looks massive and doesn't score goals. I'm reserving judgement on whether he's my new cult hero or not. Time will tell. To add to fake Gaz we've still got YTS Gaz and unlike some, I think Beesley has a place because he is both mobile and strong. He's never going to world class but with the right partner he'll do twice his share of dirty work and others will reap the reward. Then there's the best Kylian in world football and it is really quite apparent we've got a lot of big lads...

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! (also known as ffs Bees but we love him really and if you don't you should because Bees is us and we are Bees) 

Where we might be lacking however, is pace. Kyle Joseph (who isn't exactly diminutive either) has some and also not an insignificant amount of skill. The problem is, he is definitely not a fox in the box type. He looks, to me, to be born to play on one side of a fluid front three - which is not something he's had the opportunity to do so whilst at Blackpool. I like Joseph a lot - but it's an odd thing how the player who is probably on paper, the single biggest investment of the post Oyston era, so clearly doesn't quite fit with the structure that was so clearly defined last season.

Finally, Jordan Rhodes (also, as it happens, decent in the air.) It's impossible not to be pleased to have a player of such undoubted quality and positive influence in the squad. All of our strikers played better with him than without him last season. The concern, however is twofold - firstly, he ties us to particular formations, there's no way that Rhodes can lead the line alone and secondly, relying on a player of his age week in and week out is a risky business. He *wants* to play every minute but last season showed that whilst he's clearly very fit, even before his injury, 3 games a week was taking a toll.

---

We need more that we have right now. I've already identified the need for a dominant centre back and we will get bullied by teams in this league if we don't find someone. Perhaps the assistant head coach could do a turn or two if required? Feed him some energy tablets and squirt some WD40 into his knees and roll back the years...

How do you replace the irreplaceable? 

Creativity is a big question. I'm absolutely a believer in Rob Apter but we've got a minimum of 51 games to get through and whilst Sonny has creativity, he's more the player who moves into the pockets of space that someone else creates than the one who makes it. I don't see how, if (and when) Apter is marked out of a game, off form, injured or rested, we're going to unlock teams.

Pace up front is another issue. I maintain that had Shayne Lavery's flames not been doused by his repeated niggling injuries then we'd have finished comfortably better off than we did last season. Pace down the middle is vital, especially when we frequently come up against centre backs who don't really have it. I think the front 5 we have needs some thought. Rhodes looked good whether he was played with a big lad or a nippy character. We don't have the nippy character that would bring that variety.

Additional (quality) width is also a requirement in my view. I might be insane to hope Critchley is more flexible this season (I don't think I am though), but I can see in this squad, the potential to play with 4 at the back and either a 451, 442, 4231 or 433 style. In order for the first two to work, we absolutely need another quality wide player (and possibly for the third and fourth choices, that player to be able to play the wide forward role too, though Joseph would fit perfectly despite not really being 'a winger'). Apter has just played a blinder from wide right at Tranmere so he's definitely a candidate, Coulson is hard working and might suit a defensive 451 but isn't really a pure winger in an attacking set up. CJ is CJ and can do the more attacking roles very well against the right defence. I therefore think having one more out and out winger would give us a real flexibility and also, logically, with all of our forwards being over 6 ft something (for the time being at least), then it's a way to serve them. 

Ultimately, we can't expect to win week in and week out with a big slow forward line that also doesn't receive quality delivery from wide. The physical strength up front could certainly be useful in bringing the strength of our attacking midfielders into play, more than one of who has an eye for goal - but that's got to be only one way we go about our business, because good sides (and I have no doubt Critchley want's us to be a genuinely good side) can do it more than one way. 

To loop back to the opening - we know Critchley once had it in him to take each match as it comes and to serve up something different on a game by game basis. We know also that there's a new dynamic in the dugout and Crazy Uncle Richard brings at very least, the hard earned experience of the ex pro to add to Critchley's studious textbook learning and Mikey G's shouting skills. It might be optimistic but it's not without a basis of logic to think that next season won't be an exact carbon copy of the last. 

We also know that positive vibes aren't at their highest ebb and therefore, there's likely not going to be endless patience if football that looks a bit like a training ground exercise is what is served up.

Critchley isn't stupid and neither are supporters. If he can provide attacking football more often than not and show he's really trying everything to win every game then people will back him on the whole. If we can evolve into a side that aren't go to die wondering, then (though I've nothing tangible to provide as evidence) I think players will back him as well. Too often last year, they looked stymied, not liberated by 'the ethos' and if it's more of the exact same, then it's probably not going to be a fun time for anyone. No one is stupid and expecting every game to be 5-4 but we fell short last year precisely because we did die wondering on quite a few occasions. 

The phrase 'front foot football' has been bandied about a lot over the last year.

Let's see it. For better or worse. It's now or never for Critch and I want him to grasp the nettle, savour the stinging feeling, grit his teeth, show his worth, his mettle, his courage and shut daft blogger cunts like me up. He could define the rest of his career this year, marking himself down as a resilient and flexible manager who, if given time can produce flair and style on a relative shoestring or he could fizzle out in a whimper of sideways possession.

I think almost everyone would much prefer the former option. 

Onward!

He's going to make it all ok again... Maybe. 

If you want to waste your money supporting a football blog who asks if you'd like to pay cash in return for quite literally absolutely nothing you wouldn't get for free anyway, you can do so here. 

Tweet 

You can follow MCLF on facebook or Twitter or use Follow.it to get posts sent to your email If you appreciate the blog and judge it worth 1p or more, then a donation to one of the causes below which help kids and families in Blackpool would be grand. 

Home-Start Blackpool Food Bank