I’m 30 so hopefully I still just about fit into the ‘junior’ demographic!
I’ve grown up watching a relatively successful Blackpool FC team, firstly under McMahon, then under Grayson and then the brilliance of the Holloway teams.
I’ve seen us play some of the very worst football (Hendry, McDonald, Grayson 2.0) and also some of the best (McMahon, Grayson 1.0 and of course Holloway).
This season we undoubtedly have a squad of players who are, as individuals, as good as any group of players we’ve had at this level. As a team though they’re yet to hit their stride. We’ve played some incredible stuff at times but I don’t think we’ve once done it for a sustained 90+ minutes. We’ve also played some absolute garbage and the first half of the Burton game was about as bad as I can EVER remember seeing from a Blackpool squad.
I can’t remember a squad having such a constant injury plagued season.
I can’t think of a team I’ve watched in tangerine which has so much potential and promise without ever actually showing what they’re capable of.
I keep expecting us to catch fire and play the high tempo high press of pre season and put a team to the sword with 5 or 6 goals. I know we beat Wigan 5-0 but I don’t think it was a 5-0 performance.
I’m incredibly impressed with the strides we’ve made as a defensive unit and the improvement Marvin has made over the course of the season is phenomenal. Turton, Yates, Dougal, Husband and Stewart (as well as Ballard and Gabriel) are as good as any player in their position in this division. Madine on his day can be unplayable and really does a hell of a lot more for the squad than score goals.
The attacking element of our midfield and our ‘wingers’ (Virtue, Ward, Anderson, Sarkic, Woodburn (when he was here), Kai Kai, Lubala Mitchell and to a slightly lesser extent CJ) have been the biggest disappointments for me this season. They all have or were supposed to have a lot of quality but have largely been impotent. I expected these players to push on and play with the freedom similar to that of the Holloway era and for at least a couple of them to step up and provide the goals and assists which we desperately need.
There’s still time for them, even this season, and during the last 45 minutes against Burton and for short periods throughout the season these players have shown what they’re capable of.
Our season now hinges on whether these players can hit form and find some consistency. If they can then goals will flow and we should find ourselves in the play offs.
If they don’t we finish relatively comfortable in mid table.
If it’s the latter we move into next season with a solid GK in Maxwell and a very solid backline of Turton, Epiketa, Grettarson and Husband with Stewart and/or Dougall sat in front of them. With Yates and Madine up top we have the basis of a very strong first XI.
We need to find the magic and creativity in midfield and on the wings.
I don’t blame Critchley or anyone at the club for assembling the team we currently have. Kai Kai, CJ, Virtue etc on paper should be able to provide what we’re missing. At the start of the season they looked as if they would and we were only really asking questions about the defence and the strikers.
It’s really been a bizzare season but I am hopeful for the future. Critchley is improving players young and old. We are playing a style of football which has proven to be effective at times and whilst we took a step back from the attacking to shore up the defence that did in fact work. I think we’re 1 or 2 players away (combined with some consistency from those we currently have) from being serious promotion contenders. Those game changing players are out there and available to us too. Accrington, Crewe and Lincoln have chanced upon them this season with much smaller budgets. With our developing backroom team and identify I expect we will eventually find our next game changing player - a Hoolahan and Adam made their way here under the Oystons so I imagine under Sadler we’ve a better chance of unearthing the next real player of high quality.
