Blackpool will face a stern test whoever plays for West Bromwich Albion

That’s according to head coach Neil Critchley, who leads his side into their third round encounter at Bloomfield Road this afternoon.

West Brom boss and former Pool manager Sam Allardyce has already conceded he will make a number of changes, with Premier League survival his main focus.

Even if that proves to be the case, Critchley knows Blackpool’s opponents will still be able to name a side packed full of top quality.

“I don’t know if he’ll change the whole 11, but I think there will be a significant amount of change within the team,” he said.

“Big Sam has already come out and said that himself and given the situation they’re in, I think he’ll use it as a chance to assess all of his players within his squad.

“There’s no better way to do that than play a game, because you can only do so much in training. You find out a lot more when they play.

“He might use this game on Saturday to have a look at his squad, but you only have to look at their squad and their bench to see it’s full of top quality players.

“Whatever team they put out, it’s going to be an extremely good one and it’s going to provide us with a real test.

“We’re not going to be favourites, West Brom will be, but we’re hopeful we can give a real good account of ourselves and give them a proper game.”

Despite facing a top flight side, Critchley insists the Seasiders will look to take the game to the Baggies.

“We need to be as well prepared as we can be, which is quite difficult because we’re not entirely sure of the team we’re going to face,” he added.

“Instead we’re concentrating very much on ourselves, how we prepare and what we can guarantee to bring into the game.

“Again, not to talk about my previous club too much, but if we want to learn about belief and approaching every game with your identity on the pitch then there’s no better example than Liverpool.

“The belief they have going into every single game, home or away, you know exactly what you’re going to face and that’s what we try to do at Blackpool.

“Home or away, we’ll play a certain way and we’ll make sure we have a certain identity on the pitch.

“That’s what we want to do on Saturday, attack the game, go for it and not take a backwards step.”

Today’s cup tie comes after a rare free week for the Seasiders, who will be looking to get back to winning ways after suffering back-to-back defeats in League One.

There’s also no midweek fixture on Tuesday night, giving Blackpool the rare luxury of a clear week leading into their trip to Hull City next Saturday.

“It helps that we’ve got a free week leading into the game and a free week after the game, which is unusual,” Critchley said.

“We were looking at our schedule before and a lot of the Tuesdays are already taken up and, with the amount of games that are being called off, a lot of the free Tuesdays that are currently there could easily disappear quite quickly.

“We’ve had a free week, we gave the players a little bit of time to recharge and refresh both physically and mentally, because it might be our last chance to do that with the schedule we’re going to face. We’ve also got a free week next week leading into our next league game.

“This is a great competition, we’ve got history in the competition, we’re at home, we’ve got nothing to lose, so we’ll pick our best team and go for it.”

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