Anyone else buying into Critchley’s style of play yet?

20togo said:
said it on another thread. Yes Grimshaw could have released Joseph with a quick throw out but we were winning 2-0 so no need to take any sort of risk. Hold on to the ball, let your players get back in shape and start again. For me he did the right thing.
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..........and also Norburn was waving his hands furiously at Grimmy to hold on to it. .
This again 20’s is an example of how fickle some supporters are (not you mate)
Had Grimmy thrown it out immediately and the ball had got intercepted by one of their players who then went on to score then there would have been uproar on here for him not holding on to the ball
 
Eternaloptimist said:
..........and also Norburn was waving his hands furiously at Grimmy to hold on to it. .
This again 20’s is an example of how fickle some supporters are (not you mate)
Had Grimmy thrown it out immediately and the ball had got intercepted by one of their players who then went on to score then there would have been uproar on here for him not holding on to the ball
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And if we had scored there might have been the excitement similar to CJs goal against the nobbers at home last season……. lot of if’s there isn’t there 😉
 
The most frustrating thing is when we get a free kick in the opposition half, and then instead of sending the bigger players forward and
putting the ball into the box to try and create a chance. We play the ball around the defenders instead and eventually back to Grimshaw who then applies a forward pass that Peter Kay would be proud of straight to their goalkeeper. It is management and coaching without any passion and any kind of risk, and unfortunately, fortune tends to favor the brave and I am afraid this season we will miss out on promotion because of it.
 
I think Critchley has one of the best squads that I've ever seen at Blackpool, and some of the most exciting. I think its impossible that every player is at their very best all the time but Critchley seems to pick players (and brief them) to just do the very minimum to win at home and (still) to not lose away. yesterday, i think you could say 8 of our 10 outfield players are decent on the ball going forward, and yet we insist on going long, pumping balls to players who are 4 foot nothing (Dembele), or really not great in the air, (CJ, Coulson and to some extent Rhodes and Joseph in that target man role). Two or three weeks ago CJ was doing little mathews skips and shoulder drops to compliment his pace but now seems again reluctant to take on his man, (although he didnt have a bad game yesterday), Dembele was off the boil almost as though hes been told to reign in his exuberance. At two nil up with no threat from Exeter was the time to let the dogs loose but we seem very reluctant to really go at a team even when we are comfortable.

I'm starting to think that the reason CC and Norburn get picked regularly, over Marv and Kenny is that they are the restraining points in the team, they can be relied on to be the safety first. Kenny tends to be a driving force (and is better defensively than Norburn, the same could be said of Virtue and Morgan in that central role), and st Jimmy of husband when he's captain tends to be a driving force for the team as well. I noticed yesterday one or two animated conversation between various players and Norburn when an attacking move had broken down as it was played to Norburn and gone back to our own defensive third (i might be reading things into those visuals of course). If the team is going to get promoted or even get into the play-offs it has to be more adventurous.
 
When we show some consistency the fans will wake up, early season it was two steps forward one back. A bit of warm weather will help too at the business end of the season hard to get the blood flowing when it is Baltic in the stands.
 
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Eternaloptimist said:
..........and also Norburn was waving his hands furiously at Grimmy to hold on to it. .
This again 20’s is an example of how fickle some supporters are (not you mate)
Had Grimmy thrown it out immediately and the ball had got intercepted by one of their players who then went on to score then there would have been uproar on here for him not holding on to the ball
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It’s boring safety first football though and that’s the problem. It’s bad enough with this current obsession with possession based football. It’s supposed to be entertaining isn’t it?
 
Long-shanks said:
Yes I am bored with the style of play but happy with the 3 points. It's a hard watch at times though, norburn asking the ball from the back 3 and then playing it straight back to one of the back 3 - and repeat. It's all so slow - kills the atmosphere in the ground
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Totally agree with this, our midfield need to take some responsibility.
They are midfielder's they are the engine room, they are supposed to create.
Too much of our play starts with a long punt upfield either from Grimshaw or one of the defenders, is this what Critchley wants? If it is then yes I am bored with this type of play.
As for yesterday we won despite Connolly, Husband and even Dembele and Rhodes just not at it.
 
Martonmosser said:
I’m not personally, it bores me senseless but I’m more than happy with the 3 points again.
Thought Exeter were absolutely awful but I suppose you can only beat what’s in front of you.
Hopefully we haven’t left things too late and can carry on making ground on the top 6 as in my opinion not making the playoffs would be a massive failure…… let’s wait and see hey?
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Let’s get real we have the players & squad to easy get out of this league , But it was a hard watch yesterday against another poor team .. however if we beat Bristol Rovers and Leyton Orient away we will close up the gap a bit .. if not our season is done Critch tactics have left us too far behind ..
 
Critchleys style of play is basically “frit”

I imagine we might at some point get back to the championship under him and be competent enough to stay up there. It will take a lot longer than last time he was here and we will have to endure a lot of safe displays in the next few seasons.

There would never be any prospect of him being capable of taking a team from the Championship to the Premier League.
 
TheLuker said:
I honestly don't know what some of our fans want.

We were in control for pretty much the entire match, scoring two cracking goals and could've easily had more.

The long balls over the top were because their CB's were pushing up and on a different day a CJ, Dembele or Joseph would've latched on to one of them and made something of it. What the long balls did though was make their CB's have to sit back a bit, creating room in midfield that Morgan ultimately exploited.

You can see match by match that the team are getting better and better at playing the way that Critchley wants them to and I think we'll have a strong finish. I'm really enjoying this season and can see that like in 20/21 Critchley has us moving in the right direction.

What I don't get is why there seems to be such a pervasive dissatisfaction around. I'm not sure what people want. I think there is this vague notion of wanting more excitement without anyone being able to define what it is they actually want.
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We want Championship Football ! We have a Multimillionaire Owner .. it shouldn’t be a problem 😇
 
Eternaloptimist said:
..........and also Norburn was waving his hands furiously at Grimmy to hold on to it. .
This again 20’s is an example of how fickle some supporters are (not you mate)
Had Grimmy thrown it out immediately and the ball had got intercepted by one of their players who then went on to score then there would have been uproar on here for him not holding on to the ball
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Yes but if Grimmy had thrown it quickly to Joseph we had a chance to outnumber them and break and possibly score. Wait until everyone is back and it’s 11 v 11 again. Numerical advantage needs to be utilised whenever possible.
 
Blackpool-rocks said:
Yes but if Grimmy had thrown it quickly to Joseph we had a chance to outnumber them and break and possibly score. Wait until everyone is back and it’s 11 v 11 again. Numerical advantage needs to be utilised whenever possible.
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Joseph was breaking forward but was anybody else? From where he was, still in his own half, he wasn't gonna go thru on his own.
 
20togo said:
said it on another thread. Yes Grimshaw could have released Joseph with a quick throw out but we were winning 2-0 so no need to take any sort of risk. Hold on to the ball, let your players get back in shape and start again. For me he did the right thing.
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.....and if we break and make it 3-0 it’s game over. As we all know 2-0 is a dangerous score. I’d hardly call it a risk releasing a ball to a player near the half way line when we still would have 8 or 9 players in our own half.
 
The poor atmosphere is just the reality of league 1.

No big derby games besides Bolton.

I think if you were to describe fan feelings towards the majority of clubs that visit Bloomfield road this season it would be ambivalent. None of us really care about Exeter City or Bristol Rovers or Northampton Town. I don’t mean that in a snobbish way either. They probably don’t care about Blackpool. I just don’t think anyone is ever going to be excited for those fixtures.

When you compare it to the previous two seasons where we were playing Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and then big championship teams who would bring large followings it’s no surprise the atmosphere has flattened.

Of course, there does seem to be this constant negativity around that doesn’t seem to be going away despite 7 straight home wins. The football is always labelled as flat and boring but only 5 teams have scored more goals than us this season and, as highlighted, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

Maybe if the form continues to improve and we find ourselves in the top 6 come March we might finally see it start to pick up. It doesn’t help that we’re perpetually 8th in the table.
 
I am not buying into the Critchley style of play but the truth is that whilst it is getting results then he can get away with it. If we have another poor run of results then people wont accept the boring tippy tappy shite we play. Sideways backwards possession stats are meaningless and I remember playing Swansea under Russell Martin at home in successive seasons. We beat them 1-0 once and lost the other 1-0 and they were both awful games. They stifled the game with meaningless possession and I said at the time I would hate to watch that every week. I am sorry but that is what we seem to be getting and if we start losing or drawing 0-0 again then it will be an unacceptable watch.
 
TheDoctor said:
Let’s get real we have the players & squad to easy get out of this league , But it was a hard watch yesterday against another poor team .. however if we beat Bristol Rovers and Leyton Orient away we will close up the gap a bit .. if not our season is done Critch tactics have left us too far behind ..
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If we beat Bristol and Orient, we will close the gap. Providing Bolton, Oxford, Portsmouth, Peterborough etc. lose. Otherwise it’s as you were.
 
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Eternaloptimist said:
..........and also Norburn was waving his hands furiously at Grimmy to hold on to it. .
This again 20’s is an example of how fickle some supporters are (not you mate)
Had Grimmy thrown it out immediately and the ball had got intercepted by one of their players who then went on to score then there would have been uproar on here for him not holding on to the ball
Click to expand...
Norburn in slow it all down shock!! Who’d have guessed
 
A lot of our chants and atmosphere have been boosted by the kind of manager based chanting in games that keeps things going. No one is chanting Critchleys Tangerine Army with real belief and enthusiasm. He’s the coaching equivalent of John Majors Spitting Image puppet.
 
Shiggy said:
The poor atmosphere is just the reality of league 1.

No big derby games besides Bolton.

I think if you were to describe fan feelings towards the majority of clubs that visit Bloomfield road this season it would be ambivalent. None of us really care about Exeter City or Bristol Rovers or Northampton Town. I don’t mean that in a snobbish way either. They probably don’t care about Blackpool. I just don’t think anyone is ever going to be excited for those fixtures.

When you compare it to the previous two seasons where we were playing Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and then big championship teams who would bring large followings it’s no surprise the atmosphere has flattened.

Of course, there does seem to be this constant negativity around that doesn’t seem to be going away despite 7 straight home wins. The football is always labelled as flat and boring but only 5 teams have scored more goals than us this season and, as highlighted, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

Maybe if the form continues to improve and we find ourselves in the top 6 come March we might finally see it start to pick up. It doesn’t help that we’re perpetually 8th in the table.
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there's a reason away fans are now singing "football in a library" and it's not because of the away end not being filled. It's because the football is slow and laboured and doesn't generate any excitement with no sustained pressure.
 
Blackpool-rocks said:
.....and if we break and make it 3-0 it’s game over. As we all know 2-0 is a dangerous score. I’d hardly call it a risk releasing a ball to a player near the half way line when we still would have 8 or 9 players in our own half.
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And IF Rhodes has scored and Dembele's corner hadn't gone out of play, the game isn't about if's and buts its about facts.
 
20togo said:
there's a reason away fans are now singing "football in a library" and it's not because of the away end not being filled. It's because the football is slow and laboured and doesn't generate any excitement with no sustained pressure.
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I just don’t think that’s the case.

We’ve got the best home record in the division. Every time I watch the players I see total application and commitment. We’ve won pretty comfortably at home a number of times.

The poor atmosphere is a combination of things like I said but mainly the clubs we’re playing against and the fact that we’re expected to win a lot of those games. In the championship we were underdogs a bit.

We’re winning and scoring good goals and not giving teams a sniff and if that’s not enough for people then I don’t know what is.
 
Shiggy said:
I just don’t think that’s the case.

We’ve got the best home record in the division. Every time I watch the players I see total application and commitment. We’ve won pretty comfortably at home a number of times.

The poor atmosphere is a combination of things like I said but mainly the clubs we’re playing against and the fact that we’re expected to win a lot of those games. In the championship we were underdogs a bit.

We’re winning and scoring good goals and not giving teams a sniff and if that’s not enough for people then I don’t know what is.
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nope, we are winning games so you can't blame the atmosphere for that on the fans. So if it was simply down to that then the atmosphere would be a lot better. It really is down to the fact that on the pitch there is nothing to really get excited about. No fast flowing football, no sustained pressure and everything that goes with excitement about the team. It was flat yesterday pretty much straight from kick off.

Of course we've won plenty of home games pretty comfortably and that's great but c'mon just read this msb and witness it for yourself. The atmosphere is as flat as a pancake and it 's because of the slow laboured sate possession football in our own half of the field. I'll take it because we are winning. But consider this, by all accounts our away support is very good yet our results are terrible. Do you want to blame the fans for that or is it a case once again our football is again all about slow laboured possession football. Critchley for want of a better expression is getting away with it at home because of results and I'm glad about that but jeez we should be beating most of these poor teams anyway.
 
20togo said:
nope, we are winning games so you can't blame the atmosphere for that on the fans. So if it was simply down to that then the atmosphere would be a lot better. It really is down to the fact that on the pitch there is nothing to really get excited about. No fast flowing football, no sustained pressure and everything that goes with excitement about the team. It was flat yesterday pretty much straight from kick off.

Of course we've won plenty of home games pretty comfortably and that's great but c'mon just read this msb and witness it for yourself. The atmosphere is as flat as a pancake and it 's because of the slow laboured sate possession football in our own half of the field. I'll take it because we are winning. But consider this, by all accounts our away support is very good yet our results are terrible. Do you want to blame the fans for that or is it a case once again our football is again all about slow laboured possession football. Critchley for want of a better expression is getting away with it at home because of results and I'm glad about that but jeez we should be beating most of these poor teams anyway.
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I’m not exactly blaming the fans because I understand that things just aren’t as exciting this season.

But I think your point at the end is one of the reasons the atmosphere has been flat at home. We’re expected to win and we are (at the moment). It all feels very routine.
 
Our home record is excellent. Unfortunately, we don't play all our games at home and our away form is poor.

I think people would be far more accepting of the dull football if we didn't have the attacking quality we have in the squad.

Hopefully the home form continues and we can improve the away results. We need to get out of this division ASAP for a whole variety of reasons, but bigger clubs than us have found it hard.
 
Shiggy said:
The poor atmosphere is just the reality of league 1.

No big derby games besides Bolton.

I think if you were to describe fan feelings towards the majority of clubs that visit Bloomfield road this season it would be ambivalent. None of us really care about Exeter City or Bristol Rovers or Northampton Town. I don’t mean that in a snobbish way either. They probably don’t care about Blackpool. I just don’t think anyone is ever going to be excited for those fixtures.

When you compare it to the previous two seasons where we were playing Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and then big championship teams who would bring large followings it’s no surprise the atmosphere has flattened.

Of course, there does seem to be this constant negativity around that doesn’t seem to be going away despite 7 straight home wins. The football is always labelled as flat and boring but only 5 teams have scored more goals than us this season and, as highlighted, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

Maybe if the form continues to improve and we find ourselves in the top 6 come March we might finally see it start to pick up. It doesn’t help that we’re perpetually 8th in the table.
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Agree spot on.
 
td53 said:
I think the one game I've really enjoyed in person in a kind of 'that really got my heart rate going and I felt something more intense than everyday life' was Fleetwood away.

We seem to either win or lose quite comfortably. There's not been any great drama. Wigan at home I suppose was another.

Obviously, I enjoy winning but it's lacking in that real tension. It's possession football innit. It's not very exciting. It's not just Critchley, it's what football is increasingly. We're quite good at the 'get ball, keep ball, kill game for a while' thing. It would probably be more exciting at home if we weren't.

I don't know why it is we're so crap away so often though.



We do everything like that slowly. Get throw. Wait for designated throw taker to run 40 yards. Wait another 5 seconds. Throw. It's got to be deliberate. I've almost never seen us take a quick throw this year, bar a few times when chasing a game in last 5 mins. Irc Grimmy took a throw in dying seconds of a game which was exciting.

You have to take your thrills where you can get them I guess.
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Definitely acting on instruction with the constant slowing up and the slow and steady initial build up. In answer to Mosser's OP my answer is that this is one of the dullest seasons I can remember so far in nearly 50 years of following the Pool. Any momemts of excitement have been spurred by individual players having great moments, like Albie's two great strikes yesterday Will it be successful? Let's see.
 
Wizaard said:
We won very comfortably despite a fair few having an off day. Rhodes just couldn't get into it, Dembele's final ball was terrible, CJ was diffident at best, while we squandered a number of great opportunities.

Other teams are told that's what good teams do. Win when not playing well.

Keep it up.
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Not Dembele's best game. Probably cold hands. Nice little pass for Morgan's first goal though, so that'll do for me.
 
Eternaloptimist said:
Good post Chunky and I agree 100%, especially the dislike of Critch. I’ve said many times that there are a few on here who have an unhealthy dislike of Critch, no doubt fuelled by his departure first time around.
They need let it go because I do understand why, after a win, some posters still want to pick holes in the performance
If we had won 4 -0 yesterday then people would be saying it should have been 6.
Enjoy the wins ffs
He’s back and doing a good job as far as I am concerned and you are spot on about the majority of teams playing possession football.
We are not a Premiership team so we shouldn’t expect to see Premiership football from this squad of players.
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my thoughts summed up very well. just love gerting to the game whenever i can. this is a competive league. WE are exactly about right at the moment. No doubt teams above will drop points as we will. I will be there on Wednesday. My son is coming over. He just likes getting away to spend time with his dad. I certainly do not share this critchley out . And if we fall short then its planning for 24.25. How many teams have spent quite a time in this league. a lot.
 
Shiggy said:
I’m not exactly blaming the fans because I understand that things just aren’t as exciting this season.

But I think your point at the end is one of the reasons the atmosphere has been flat at home. We’re expected to win and we are (at the moment). It all feels very routine.
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yes but if we are expected to win at home against the so called lesser teams then why can't we do it with more entertaining football? Because it's that that will create the better atmosphere.
 
Really don't get why some fans state the displeasure is down to Critchley leaving. Do they conveniently ignore the fact we are absolutely rubbish away from home and look miles away from winning.
 
20togo said:
yes but if we are expected to win at home against the so called lesser teams then why can't we do it with more entertaining football? Because it's that that will create the better atmosphere.
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Can you explain how the football should be more entertaining? As in what changes would you make? Would you change the system? What exactly does that mean?
 
Wizaard said:
People moaning about winning very comfortably is a little churlish, don't you think?

Especially from someone who says it's all about the result frequently.
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not moaning about winning very comfortably at all so don't deflect. I'll take a 1-0 winning poorly every day of the week. But read my posts and realise my points are about why the atmosphere is so flat.
 
Do we want a professional/job done performance? Or do we want exciting/we might lose this…..football?

I’m talking home games obviously. Away is more of a lottery. And frustrating in a different way.
 
I
Martonmosser said:
I’m not personally, it bores me senseless but I’m more than happy with the 3 points again.
Thought Exeter were absolutely awful but I suppose you can only beat what’s in front of you.
Hopefully we haven’t left things too late and can carry on making ground on the top 6 as in my opinion not making the playoffs would be a massive failure…… let’s wait and see hey?
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I can't see us getting anywhere near the play offs with performances like that . We won the game ,but that only plasters over the poor performance that we played . Our passing wasn't great ,we played the same long ball to CJ throughout the game and even Rhodes had a bit of a mare . We need to improve.
 
A_Tense_Grin said:
Really don't get why some fans state the displeasure is down to Critchley leaving. Do they conveniently ignore the fact we are absolutely rubbish away from home and look miles away from winning.
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Miles away? That's where you are when we're playing away.

Port Vale is the only game where we've never been in the game even when we've lost. In no other game have we been outplayed.
 
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