Blackpool boss wants Bloomfield Road colleagues to share their opinions

The club recently announced the appointment of Iain Brunskill as assistant head coach to join Critchley and Mike Garrity.

The 45-year-old, who takes up the position left vacant by Stuart McCall’s departure in November, makes the move to Bloomfield Road from Norwich City, where he held the role of senior development coach.

On the books of Liverpool as a player, Brunskill began his coaching career at Anfield in 1998 as assistant academy technical director, a role he held for 10 years.

He would later move to Blackburn Rovers to become reserve team manager and first-team coach.

In a coaching career that has spanned more than 20 years, Brunskill – who also played for Bury – has worked overseas in Malta, Norway, Jordan and China.

When asked how important it was to appoint someone with whom Critchley had never worked before, Pool’s head coach said: “I think that’s really important. I like to have someone from the outside.

“I’ve known of Brunny, but I’ve never worked with him. I know people speak very highly of him as a person and as a coach, and he’s got a really good football brain.

“He won’t be afraid to give his opinion, which is crucial. That’s what I want.

“I want to create an environment here where people feel comfortable offering their opinion to me, whether we agree or disagree.

“I’m sure they won’t always agree with everything I do, which is fine. As long as we’re here for the benefit of the club and the players, then we’ll be stronger as a group.”

Critchley added: “We put a lot of time and thought into where we want to go as a club and we’ve got players in our squad who are not the finished article.

“Those players need some individual attention, some coaching, and you see it more and more in the game now with position-specific coaching.

“It allows us to do more individual coaching and more unit coaching, and I think that’s going to be really important for this club and the development of our players in the future.

“I’ve got my thoughts but that’s why I have a staff as well – to gather their opinion and thoughts. Then we’ll decide what the working week looks like and how we want to work with the players, both on an individual basis and as a team as well.”

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