Former Blackpool boss highlights two big dilemmas facing Michael Appleton ahead of busy festive schedule

The 57-year-old has queried whether the Seasiders should consider altering their formation in a bid to grind out the results they need to get themselves out of the Championship’s relegation zone.

It comes after a change from Appleton’s favoured 4-3-3 system to 4-4-2 paid dividends against Cardiff City on Saturday, as Gary Madine salvaged Pool a point in South Wales with a second-half header.

“Michael has a dilemma, doesn’t he? Does he actually change it?,” McDonald pondered while appearing on BBC Radio Lancashire.

“That might go against his philosophy and the way he wants to play.

“Do they have to go into the front players a bit quicker and get knock downs even though he probably wants to play through the lines? That’s certainly his dilemma now to get a result.

“It wasn’t working (at the weekend) and he’s changed it, so why not stick with that? It might surprise the opposition.

“If it comes from the start it might be something different and might just get them a different result.”

Looking away from the pitch, McDonald also thinks the Seasiders might struggle to recruit the best talent next month when the transfer window opens due to their current position at the wrong end of the table.

“Would a player actually want to come to Blackpool when they’re in the bottom three and they’re struggling? That’s a dilemma they have,” he added.

“Do these appointments on the recruitment side already have lists? Have they already got the contacts where they can say ‘we can go and get this player’?

“They need to win a couple of games because I’m not so sure they will come, which is a dilemma for Michael.

“Does he change his formation and his personnel? That’s something they can do differently.

“When you’ve played half your games teams suss you out, they find where your weaknesses are so it might be time to just change something, either personnel or system to try and get that first goal instead of getting the goal back in a game.

“You can always fall back on what the players are good at, or supposedly good at, to finish the game off.”

Appleton’s men return to action on Boxing Day when they take on relegation rivals Hull City, before back-to-back home games against Sheffield United and Sunderland.

McDonald is predicting a tough six days for Pool, suggesting their points tally from the trio of games could be as low as just one.

“That’s a six-pointer straight away,” he said.

“Fasten your seatbelts though, I can’t see them getting too many points out of those three games. Maybe one win or even one point.

“It’s a very difficult fixture list coming up, that’s for sure. But football is football, sometimes you think you might not get many points out of these games and then you go and win three out of three, so fingers crossed they go and do that.”