Will we stay up, and what’s your rationale ?

I do not and think the issue started last season when we ended up with a contracted squad of 28?
No room to manouver summer window and Appleton was focussed on who he could send out to trim the budget /squad numbers rather than signings to improve the regular team players.Ultimately none of the Prem loanees worked out.
Injuries, loss, of form and discipline issues exacerbated an already precarious position
Need to be brutal in summer so we do not have similar issue as squad numbers are 22 in L1
 
If I'm honest, I don't think we will. I think we're capable of getting results at home, but to stay up I think we'll need at least one if not a couple of away wins and I just can't see it. To win away from home you need quality on the ball in midfield and we don't have that unfortunately.
It's by no means impossible but I think we've left ourselves with too much to do, which is a shame because the players have given their all in the last few games. Well, all season really.
 
No we won’t stay up, but we should. I have never known two managers pick the wrong players in the wrong formation so many times. We were probably doomed by Christmas - but if MM had taken advice about our squad, or if we’d appointed someone who knew them better - we might have been ok. Simple truth is we have failed to beat too many of the teams around us, and many of those games we could - and should - have won. How a squad with Yates, Bowler, Poveda, Rogers, Madine, Lavery etc cannot score for games on end is beyond me.
 
nope not capable enough of scoring enough goals hence not getting 3 points on enough occasions ... Big Mick for a whole season / a lot earlier might have been enough but now we are adrfit it is all about winning games.... we need 3 points .. draws aint gonna help much now
 
Unless Mick has an epiphany and realises you need to score goals to win matches, then I doubt it very much. It’s good to try to keep clean sheets, but that won’t happen every game, so we will more than likely have to score more than one goal in several games. He hasn’t time to ingrain his defensive mantra before deciding to be a bit less cautious, we need wins now and the only way is to unleash creativity. Let’s not fizzle out with 0-0s please, play Rogers, Bowler, Poveda in their best positions.
 
Each game is becoming a ‘must win‘ and apart from the Stoke game we just can’t!
We are not losing ground on the bottom 3 (Wigan & Hudders) but unfortunately the teams above us are picking up wins here and there! I called it weeks ago that the bottom 3 will be the bottom 3. If theres any chance of escaping then Bristol City away is now another ‘must win’
 
Six points adrift and creating very little in attack with just eleven games to go? Seems highly unlikely on current form we'll stay up, even considering QPR and Brum are also in a wretched run of form too, we have to beat QPR in our next home game to close that gap that's for sure.

Many fans on this MB berated the club for appointing Appleton and clearly the fans were right, ultimately that decision looks like costing us our place in the Championship unless MM can pull off an escape act, and to do that he simply has to set the team up in a more attacking formation in the next eleven games, goal less draws won't keep the team up we need wins.
 
11 games to go and we will more than likely pick up 12 points from that. It only leaves a haul of 44 points so it would need Cardiff or QPR to spectacularly fail from here on in compared to us.

Still mathematically possible but such low % unless great escape wins start happening. That said I was happy with the draw as it was an unstoppable Burnley team
 
Hand on heart I don’t think we will - honestly believe we have had enough in the team this season to stay up , however poor player selection , poor appointments and wrong formations have meant it’s going to be very hard .
That said , yesterday did give me some hope , and wins against Cardiff Wigan and qpr at home would be massive (although we have a tendency not to do well against lower teams )
Either way will be here next season cheering the lads on
 
Guys you have to stand firm with Mick

That‘s a superb point v Burnley and we played ok at Reading (we could have been 3 up before they scored and apart of45 mins we Wertebereich better side

With possible points deduction for Reading (I would rather have McCarthy than Ince as Manager) a little more stability, a win over QPR we can be right back in the mix

If we can remain unbeaten at home and get some points away — we need 2 wins at least you never know

Let’s have a bit of faith in the Manager
 
We're unbeaten in 4 at home. We all know which games we have to win. It's still possible so I believe.

See you at Ashton Gate.
 
Bottled it by not winning against Huddersfield & Rotherham a month ago.
Long term damage was perhaps done by not binning Appleton after Wigan.
Far too much of an upturn in form / points per game needed so I’m in the doom & gloom category & think we will go down.

If we get 6, 7 or 9 points from the next 3 games (with favourable results elsewhere) then I could be swayed to change my mind 😂
 
I think we’re down, but at least with Mick it won’t be as embarrassing as it could have been under Appleton.
 
I think we'll stay up . . but only just.

It's about time we went on a winning run and with very winnable games coming up we should pick up a few points.

Also think we'll beat the Nobbers.

I think QPR will go down with Hudds & Wigan.
 
I still believe that we are a far better team than what we are seeing since Mick McCarthy became the Blackpool Manager. The way the team is set up is so predictable and how they are being told to play continues to hand the initiative to the opposition. McCarthy has never said “ Little old Blackpool “ but his team selections, formations, tactics and substitutions confirms that is exactly what he thinks. So far we have not got even a point under McCarthy away from home and have failed to score in half of our 8 Championship games. Just one win in 8 Championship games tells its own story. I would love to be proven wrong but under McCarthy I believe we are now one of the worst 3 sides in the Championship and we are not going to stay up purely on being set up to keep clean sheets every game. When I looked at the fixtures for the first 8 games of McCarthy’s period of management I expected us to get 12 points and a minimum of 9 points, Mick has delivered only 6 points from those 8 games and the gap to safety has increased to 7 points taking into account our poor goal difference. There is still no momentum that back to back wins or an undefeated run gives a team. McCarthy needs to take more risks and really go for a win from the 1st minute starting with the 6 pointer against QPR at home.
 
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Unfortunately i just can’t see us getting out the bottom 3 with the way we are playing. We just don’t score enough goals.
 
Seaside Aggro said:
I think we’re down, but at least with Mick it won’t be as embarrassing as it could have been under Appleton.
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By the end of the season McCarthy could deliver the treble — crap football, crap results and a crap outcome all of which will have a negative impact on Blackpool FC next season and potentially for many years to come in terms of season ticket sales, players staying/joining the Club and the number of supporters, especially younger football fans, attending home matches.
 
Unless there’s a great escape, which although looks unlikely, can happen, relegation would imo be a disaster, income from EFL slashed, gates down, best players sold and a mighty struggle to get back up.

Mick, no more being happy with 0-0 please, I’m not suggesting gang ho, throw caution to the wind and attack, attack, attack, just be more positive and trust the players who can make things happen.
 
Our away form has been diabolical, we seem to go away and try to shut up shop and try to get a 0-0 draw but it's all so negative, how about surprising the opposition for a change and really giving it a right go? We have the talented attacking players in the squad so why don't we use them and take it to the opposition?

A stunning away win at Bristol followed by beating a struggling QPR at home on the Tuesday could quite possibly spark the team to stay up, we live in hope.
 
Ball on Fire said:
By the end of the season McCarthy could deliver the treble — crap football, crap results and a crap outcome all of which will have a negative impact on Blackpool FC next season and potentially for many years to come in terms of season ticket sales, players staying/joining the Club and the number of supporters, especially younger football fans, attending home matches.
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Under Appleton we’d have absolutely shipped goals in the last few games. It’ll all depend on the next manager and how serious a promotion push the club wants next season. Get the ticket prices down, get a young, hungry, progressive coach and let’s go again.
 
Although it was a great point on Saturday, and we feel more hopeful, still don't trust McCarthy to be positive enough to get us 5 or 6 wins we need.
 
We've won 1 league game in 19 & now have only 11 games left (5 away, 6 home).
The 2 managers during that run have rotated the squad, in an attempt to win games - it hasn't worked. They've tried tactical changes - that hasn't worked. We've no injured star players about to return to the pitch.
What can MM do to gain approximately 18 points (taking us to 50 & we have a poor goal average)?
We need to win 6 games, or 5 together with 3 or 4 draws.
We're rarely creating chances for our strikers in any games & our set pieces (Mick's historic teams strength) are worse than those taken in the Blackpool Sunday league.
All in all, it will take a minor miracle, but miracles do happen 🧡 It's not over until the maths say it is UTMP
 
We simply have to win the remainder of our home games, we may also need to take something from the Nobber and Brum games. As much as Saturday was a better performance I just can't see this team winning 5 or 6 games.
 
Seaside Aggro said:
Under Appleton we’d have absolutely shipped goals in the last few games. It’ll all depend on the next manager and how serious a promotion push the club wants next season. Get the ticket prices down, get a young, hungry, progressive coach and let’s go again.
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Unfortunately we don’t know what would have happened under Appleton, he would have had 6 new players available to him from the Jan transfer window plus players returning from long term injuries. The one guarantee is that Appleton would have selected a different starting X1 than McCarthy for every one of the 8 Championship games played so far and we would have scored more goals and got some points away from home. With the advantage of hindsight and knowing what we have now seen I don‘t think there is any Blackpool fan who would have been happy replacing Appleton with McCarthy.
 
We’ve had it we just can’t win games anymore kept Appleton far too long.

I see Colby Bishop scored again on Saturday for Portsmouth 13 now for the season.

If only……….

Hardie as well just to rub salt in our wounds. 😫

Anyway we’ll see how good they are next season in league one but doubt we’ll be seeing Hardie as he’ll be heading to the championship. 🙄
 
No, I can't see us getting enough wins to bridge the gap to the teams above us. Keeping Appleton far too long and failing to beat Huddersfield, Wigan and Rotherham have just about done for us.
 
We will beat QPR, Cardiff and Wigan at home. Then beat the Nobbers away. We draw another game amongst that and it goes to the final day where we get a point at Norwich and stay up on 46 points.

One can dream anyway!
 
Ball on Fire said:
Unfortunately we don’t know what would have happened under Appleton, he would have had 6 new players available to him from the Jan transfer window plus players returning from long term injuries. The one guarantee is that Appleton would have selected a different starting X1 than McCarthy for every one of the 8 Championship games played so far and we would have scored more goals and got some points away from home. With the advantage of hindsight and knowing what we have now seen I don‘t think there is any Blackpool fan who would have been happy replacing Appleton with McCarthy.
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That's absolute hypothetical guesswork. With Appleton's set up, we'd be wide open in midfield and conceding for fun. That was the reality of Appleton home or away.

Even with hindsight I'd take McCarthy over Appleton. I'd take @Trammo over Appleton.

Whether McCarthy was the right man is a different question altogether.

By the way, the players returning from long term injuries still haven't come back. Why would they be available to Appleton and not McCarthy?
 
I think there's a chance, I've attempted to predict all the remaining games without Tangerine tinted glasses and compared to others our run-in isn't as bad as it could be.

Giving us tight wins versus QPR, Coventry, Cardiff, Wigan and Millwall and a point at Deepdale we'll end on 48 points. The prediction would relegate Huddersfield, Wigan and Rotherham, followed by QPR in 21st and ourselves in 20th.

We're clearly more solid and on the basis of Saturday, more time on the training ground may not have been a throwaway excuse. Let's hope TC getting a tune out of the strikers wasn't either, that's the missing piece to survival.
 
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Heart says we get the wins required other teams forms will dip as well we'll finish the season strong and in form. Reality is unfortunately not, just too much to make up now and we are struggling creating opportunities let alone scoring goals.
 
Too many "must win games" have come and gone for me to think we will stay up
And to be honest sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward
Let's be honest ,
If we survive are any of us confident that our transfer dealings will make us a mid table championship team next season?
Currently for whatever reason we just can't or won't compete with teams of similar size in regards to transfer fees or wages
Would we want another season of this crap or a rebuild in a league we might actually compete in
Might sound defeatist but there is a logic to it
 
williamsa16 said:
I think there's a chance, I've attempted to predict all the remaining games without Tangerine tinted glasses and compared to others our run-in isn't as bad as it could be.

Giving us tight wins versus QPR, Coventry, Cardiff, Wigan and Millwall and a point at Deepdale we'll end on 48 points. The prediction would relegate Huddersfield, Wigan and Rotherham, followed by QPR in 21st and ourselves in 20th.

We're clearly more solid and on the basis of Saturday, more time on the training ground may not have been a throwaway excuse. Let's hope TC getting a tune out of the strikers wasn't even, that's the missing piece to survival.
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Playing 9 outfield players behind the ball is always going to make us more solid and reduce the number of goals conceded, the trade off is we don‘t score many goals at the other end and we don’t win many games. 3 points for a win is worth going for.
 
Going to be very very difficult. When you look at the Burnley game, that should have been a real bonus and a confidence lifter, instead it was a game where we lost ground.

Not that it matters at the moment tbh.
 
He’s just made us hard to beat to start with but will target the home games mentioned above as the major games to get 3 points. Rotherham and hudds were the other ones that we should of took advantage off .
 
Wizaard said:
That's absolute hypothetical guesswork. With Appleton's set up, we'd be wide open in midfield and conceding for fun. That was the reality of Appleton home or away.

Even with hindsight I'd take McCarthy over Appleton. I'd take @Trammo over Appleton.

Whether McCarthy was the right man is a different question altogether.

By the way, the players returning from long term injuries still haven't come back. Why would they be available to Appleton and not McCarthy?
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The players I was referring to who have returned from long term injuries since Appleton left are Gabriel and Fiorini. Ekpiteta can’t be far away now and maybe Bridcutt as well.

I did a quick comparison of Appleton‘s Championship results this season competed to McCarthy‘s Championship results in his first 8 games. Let’s have a look at some facts.

1. 28 goals scored in 27 games for MA, 5 goals scored in 8 games for MM. A goal a game for MA and a goal every 2 games for MM.
2. 40 goals conceded in 27 games for MA, 11 goals conceded in 8 games for MM, No difference 1.5 goals conceded per game by both MA and MM.
3. 26 points from 27 games for MA, 6 points from 8 games for MM.
4. 14 points from 14 away games for MA, 0 points from 4 away games from MM. MA’s team conceded 21 goals in 14 away games, MM‘s team has already conceded 9 goals in only 4 away games despite playing a very defensive formation. MA‘s team scored 14 goals in 14 away games, MM’s team has managed just 2 goals in 4 away games.
5. MA won 6 Championship games out of 27 (22%), MM has won 1 game out of 8 (12.5%).
6. MA lost 13 of his 27 games games, MM has lost 4 of his 8 games, both MA and MM have lost 50% of their games.
7. MA drew 8 of his 27 games, MM has already drawn 3 of his 8 games. MA converted more draws to wins than MM.

My conclusions are that Blackpool scored a lot more goals under MA, had a lot more wins and averaged a point a game away from home. Under McCarthy the lack of goals scored, especially at home (only 3 goals scored in 4 games and in 2 of those home games we failed to score a goal) and the complete lack of any points away are going to take us down this season.

I am not a fan of Appleton or McCarthy but I still believe Appleton would have delivered more points and goals than what McCarthy has delivered in his first 8 games. I hope McCarthy proves me wrong, we are now on a “ Wing and a Prayer “ hopefully Bowler starts on the Wing.
 
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