This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Blackpool were put in a difficult position back in the summer when head coach Neil Critchley opted to depart Bloomfield Road to become Steven Gerrard's right-hand man at Aston Villa.

Critchley had only been in charge for two seasons on the Fylde coast but had led the Seasiders to League One play-off success in his debut campaign, then consolidated the club back in the Championship with a 16th-placed finish the following year.

The allure of working with Gerrard and for a Premier League club - even as a number two - was clearly too much of a pull though, and off Critchley went - to be replaced by an individual Blackpool fans already knew in Michael Appleton.

 

 

 

 

Appleton had already been manager of the Tangerines back in 2012, but he moved across to Blackburn Rovers after managing just 11 league games and being in charge for 64 days.

Nine years later though and Appleton returned, this time to work under Simon Sadler and not the Oyston family, but results haven't exactly gone as planned or expected.

Plenty of young players were brought in over the summer, both permanently and on loan from the Premier League, sprinkled with a bit of experience too, but despite some early promising results, Blackpool went into the break for the FIFA World Cup sitting in 23rd position in the table off the back of a four-match losing streak.

It has left plenty calling for Appleton's sacking in recent weeks, and FLW's Blackpool fan pundit Joe Atherton has acknowledged that it may be the right thing if changes aren't made - but also believes that Appleton has been dealt a bad hand in certain ways.

"I’m not sure if Michael Appleton has lost the dressing room but the reaction from the away end at full time after the 2-1 defeat at Wigan suggests a large percentage of the fans have certainly had enough - being down to 10 men for 74 minutes and making zero substitutions was criminal." Joe said.

"Blackpool have lost 4 games in a row now - this coming off the back of a 4-2 win against arch rivals Preston and a 2-1 away win over Coventry, two teams in good form themselves and both with play-off aspirations.

"It’s hard to put your finger on what’s going wrong.

"We’ve had injury to key players all season - currently we are without James Husband, Jordan Gabriel, Kevin Stewart, Liam Bridcutt, Keshi Anderson, Lewis Fiorini - players that all walk into our match day squad.

"We’ve also had an illness in the squad that affected us for the West Brom and Middlesbrough games, where we were missing 12-14 players through illness or injury.

"Appleton has been dealt a bad hand with injuries, and the illness in the camp didn’t help things either - I also felt he could’ve been backed better in the summer.

"We only have one right back at the club (Gabriel) - he’s out until January and midfielder Callum Connolly has to play there. We’re well short in midfield with all our injuries there too.

"A poor summer window and hideous luck with injuries sees us sit second bottom, but when our squad is fully fit we’re a decent team - away draws at Burnley and Sheffield United and wins against good teams like Watford, Coventry and QPR prove that.

"Our main two issues are squad depth and the manager.

"A lot of fans never wanted Appleton with his PNE connections.

"Losing four games in a row, seemingly having his favourite players (won’t play fan favourite keeper Dan Grimshaw over Chris Maxwell, who doesn’t command his area very well), and failure to be reactive substitution wise when it’s blatantly obvious things need changing up could mean the board may need to be asking questions soon whether to stick or twist."

The Verdict

Looking at the position Blackpool are in now, it certainly shows how good of a job Neil Critchley did last season with arguably a weaker squad.

The Seasiders have lost the momentum that they created in 2021-22, but also seeing their key player in Josh Bowler leave for Nottingham Forest on transfer deadline day in September also couldn't have helped.

Lots of young players arrived but when so many are signed, the chemistry sometimes isn't there - they have had good performances in isolation but there has been no consistency and that is why they are in 23rd position.

If the poor form continues when the Championship resumes in less-than two weeks time, then Appleton will surely have to be replaced in the dugout.