Blackpool coach shares plan for extended break after recent slump

Blackpool will need to reset over the international break following their recent slump.

Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat to Wigan Athletic in the EFL Trophy leaves the Seasiders winless in their last five outings in all competitions.

The season had started well for Ian Evatt’s side, with seven points coming from their opening three League One games, but things have taken a drastic dip across the last few weeks, with a controversial defeat away to Barnsley seeing familiar frailties creep back in.

There’s been issues in defence in particular, with the recent game at the Brick Community Stadium highlighting that again.

Blackpool are next in action on October 6 at home to Crewe in the cup, while a trip to Cambridge comes a few days after (October 10) in the league, following the completion of the international period.

Assistant coach Stephen Crainey admits a lot of work will take place behind-the-scenes to help resolve the current issues at Bloomfield Road.

“We’ll take it day-by-day,” he said.

“We’ll rest up after tonight’s game. We’ll evaluate the last two or three weeks, and we’ll even evaluate the ones we won at the start to see if we can get back to those levels; I’m sure we can.

“Football is all about learning from your mistakes and the things you do really well at to try and maintain those standards.”

“Regardless of the fixture, we treat every game the same. We’ve got a philosophy of how we want the players to play, and we go out and try to implement that. We tried to do that tonight, and coming out from a 3-2 defeat, we’ll learn from it and get better.

“I don’t think there was much in it. I thought a lot of the game was in the middle of the pitch. In those defensive moments, we need to be better.

“We need to stop crosses and pick players up in the box. Players score goals; space doesn’t. It’s a full team collective, not just the defensive players.”