A season of struggle or reasons to be optimistic?

utmp

utmp

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Pre-season reviewed

Conor Hamilton gives his verdict on whether it’ll be a season of struggle or if there are reasons to be optimistic on the eve of the new season

upthemightypool.co.uk

Opinion: Pre-Season Reviewed

“And you may ask yourself, ‘Well how did I get here?’” Talking Heads – “Once in a lifetime” Two months is a long time in football. At the end of May, Blackpool fans had reasons to…
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This time last season we were heading into the unknown in terms of squad and management.

I would argue that as the squad is now far and away more experienced at competing at this level and Appleton has a significant back catalogue of experience to draw on at all levels we should be set fair to compete effectively.

Much will depend on the side adapting to a different style of play which will place greater onus on the defence being even more resolute with a more expansive style of play and the key to all of it being more productive in the scoring stakes.

The jury is out on whether improved creativity will result in more scored.The season's direction will depend on the outcome.
 
I think Appleton has a tough job on. Possibly a career defining moment. I've no idea which way it will go but I sense uncertainty and I just hope he can ride things if it gets rocky. We know what football fans are like when things aren't going well. It takes a very resilient character to overcome all that stuff.
 
I dont think we know

I think many are underestimating the current squad

Yes we finished the season poorly but comfortably.

My only concern would be losing Bowler and not replacing him with similar. Then I think we will struggle.

We saw on Saturday that he is our main attacking threat as he was last season.
 
I actually think Appleton is a better manager than Critchley

I just hope we manage to keep our better players whilst improving on some of the Critchley shitters
 
Philbfctrois said:
I actually think Appleton is a better manager than Critchley

I just hope we manage to keep our better players whilst improving on some of the Critchley shitters
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I think Appleton and Critchley both have strengths and weaknesses. Critchley was very pragmatic and he got labelled as boring but he did the main thing asked, he got us up and he kept us up comfortably, with players that other championship clubs didn't want. And we played some good stuff at times, Fulham, Bournemouth, Huddersfield, Reading etc. Appleton is in the same boat. Fiorini and Thompson come from L1, Williams didn't get going at Swansea. If Appleton keeps us up comfortably and plays more attractive football then he's a better manager. Time will tell.
 
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In a way if we do lose Bowler then we may find that we don’t lose as many and don’t win as many and we have ironically more chance of staying up comfortably. Playing Bowler will win is some more matches and possibly leave us prone to losing goals and more defeats with a midfield and defence under pressure. And if the balance is more to losing we could end up dragged into a fight for survival with a luxury player not pulling his weight.

I don’t think the money from Bowlers transfer will affect us much this season as it’s only likely to go on more developing younger players for the future as two or three million won’t be spent on one player.

Apples has a right job on his hands IMO
 
clappers said:
In a way if we do lose Bowler then we may find that we don’t lose as many and don’t win as many and we have ironically more chance of staying up comfortably. Playing Bowler will win is some more matches and possibly leave us prone to losing goals and more defeats with a midfield and defence under pressure. And if the balance is more to losing we could end up dragged into a fight for survival with a luxury player not pulling his weight.

I don’t think the money from Bowlers transfer will affect us much this season as it’s only likely to go on more developing younger players for the future as two or three million won’t be spent on one player.

Apples has a right job on his hands IMO
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We must keep Bowler at all costs he's the only player who can create things
 
some good replies. I'm very much on the cautious and a bit worried side. I've really no objection to Appleton being our manager but as said in posts if he is to go with two attacking central midfielders then our defence will need to be more resolute. That is a big factor in how we do. And then to get the best out of rwo attacking midfielders a static Madine is not the answer for me. If he gets that right, if indeed that is a problem then I hope we'll survive and do similar to last season.

But just as worrying for me at this time, is the lack of permanent signings. I really hope that there is nothing amiss behind the scenes as our policy this season is out of kilter with previous seasons..
 
Good write up Conor, I tend to think more optimistically about our chances this year.

I think a lot of people see us finishing 16th last year as a massive overachievement and that the loss of Critchley will see us crash back down the table, but I see things a tad bit differently.

Yes, losing Critchley will hurt us and I don't see us really kicking on and greatly improving on our 60 points tally, but I still think we will have a decent season, maybe somewhere between 18th-14th.

Yes, last year was an overachievement in relative terms to how promoted League 1 teams, but as a team, I tend to think that we underachieved in some aspects.

For the majority of the season we were around 12th place and only during the last few games did we slip up, in reality we should have finished much higher than where we did.

I think under Appleton, it will take some time to adjust, especially with the new style of play, but he is still ultimately working with a squad that has plenty of quality Championship players (Grimshaw, Gabriel, Bowler, Keshi) and plenty of Championship squad players.

I think if we start the season with a win on Saturday, our outlook will look much more positive.
 
I don't get this over achievement stuff last season

We were knocking at the play offs for half the season and it was only a poor finish once Critchley couldn't be arsed that saw us shoot down the table

This season will be harder due to the league being stronger and the fact we have a new manager with a different style, it also looks like Appleton hasn't been afforded the same benefits that Critchley got when he first came in

Mid table if we keep Bowler and Marv

Top half if we manage to get a couple of good wide men in as well as keeping Bowler and Marv

Relegation with a whimper if we don't do either
 
voyeur said:
I think Appleton has a tough job on. Possibly a career defining moment. I've no idea which way it will go but I sense uncertainty and I just hope he can ride things if it gets rocky. We know what football fans are like when things aren't going well. It takes a very resilient character to overcome all that stuff.
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After suffering some setbacks in his professional,and particularly personal life, I don’t think anyone could question his resilience.👍
 
Yeah absolutely. He's clearly a tough character. Its not long since his cancer experience though and you wouldn't blame him for putting his health first if things got heavy.
 
20togo said:
some good replies. I'm very much on the cautious and a bit worried side. I've really no objection to Appleton being our manager but as said in posts if he is to go with two attacking central midfielders then our defence will need to be more resolute. That is a big factor in how we do. And then to get the best out of rwo attacking midfielders a static Madine is not the answer for me. If he gets that right, if indeed that is a problem then I hope we'll survive and do similar to last season.

But just as worrying for me at this time, is the lack of permanent signings. I really hope that there is nothing amiss behind the scenes as our policy this season is out of kilter with previous seasons..
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Although I am a staunch Big Gaz man, I don’t think he will play as often this season. If we don’t get another striker in I think Beesley could be the man, just as useful as Madine but far more mobile.
 
Goforgoal said:
Although I am a staunch Big Gaz man, I don’t think he will play as often this season. If we don’t get another striker in I think Beesley could be the man, just as useful as Madine but far more mobile.
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yep, Beesley has mobility, he just has to be ggod enough. I'm a Madine fan too, but just not in this system. He's very static and probably iis now best used as a plan B substitute where his type of skillset is required.
 
voyeur said:
This rings true for me. Some good results will help a lot, to steady the ship. I hope the players are really up for it.


Weve only lost Sterling and weve gained Williams and Fiorini so 60 points is the bench mark i think.
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Only if we keep our better players

And you could argue Wintle and Sterling are better players than Williams and Fiorini
 
Philbfctrois said:
Only if we keep our better players

And you could argue Wintle and Sterling are better players than Williams and Fiorini
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Could make an argument for Sterling and Williams.

Wintle and Fiorini are completely different players, so would be an unfair comparison.
 
If the team plays for 90 minutes rather than 45 hours m sure BFC will smash the championship league to a top ten finish
 
However, we haven’t added significant quality to compete higher up the table and – in a season where no relegation rivals are facing points deductions – stagnation may not be enough to ensure survival.
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That's an interesting line as, are we as a club now aiming for stagnation or do we still have aspirations to compete.
I think any club that is in a league to survive is always in danger of doing the opposite,
 
So many variables; new manager, new preferred formation and probably 4 or 5 new faces by the time the window closes. I would say I'm in the cautiously optimistic camp. If Fiorini can flourish and we can get Jerry firing we could surprise quite a few again.
 
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