Matt Scrafton column: Confident that Blackpool will turn a corner

With four defeats from their first five league games, you might have expected to see some soul-searching and finger-pointing. That hasn’t been the case at all.

Instead, players and management remain encouraged by the displays and feel it’s only a matter of time until the results inevitably follow.

Reading between the lines of what Neil Critchley had to say during Thursday’s pre-match press conference, he isn’t for turning.

While the odd player here and there might change in his starting line-up, the system and approach will remain the same.

In many respects, this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. You don’t prepare all pre-season to play in a 4-3-3 system, then rip all that up after a few bad results.

Last season we saw the pitfalls of chopping and changing systems from one week to the next under Simon Grayson, which ultimately proved to be one of the decisive factors in his sacking.

Rightly or wrongly, it gives the impression you don’t really know what you’re doing and have no masterplan, it’s more of a guessing game.

How long do you leave it? Do you persist stubbornly in the hope your luck will turn? Do you cross your fingers and hope for the best?

I would be a lot more concerned if Blackpool were getting spanked every week, looking completely devoid of ideas with no positives to report – but even the most pessimistic of supporters can’t argue that’s been the case.

Even last week, in the 4-1 drubbing against Ipswich Town, Blackpool produced more shots on goal and enjoyed more possession.

According to recent figures, Blackpool remain among the highest shot creators in League One. Yet they’ve only scored five goals in five games.

Believe it or not, Blackpool are doing a relatively good job of stopping the ball from coming into their box, but sides are scarily clinical when they get near the goal.

Of course, it goes without saying stats don’t tell the whole story – otherwise Blackpool would be up towards the top of the league, not inside the bottom four – but, as I’ve argued before, the Seasiders are still getting a lot right.

It’s just the final details they’re lacking, it just transpires they’re the most important ones.

Is five league games enough of a sample size to determine if an approach is working or not? You’d have to say no, but in the world of social media and short attention spans, time and patience are luxuries managers no longer get.

When you factor in the large turnaround in players this summer, it’s no surprise the Seasiders have hardly hit the ground running.

Of course, the more defeats Blackpool suffer, the quicker these excuses will start to wear thin.

There’s no good trotting out the same rhetoric week after week if the results don’t improve, fans will soon see through it.

The only tonic to all this is a victory at Crewe tomorrow. Three points can make everything feel better.

Elsewhere this week, we saw the birth and death of the ill-fated ‘Project Big Picture’ in a matter of days.

Given the FA, the Premier League and the government all voiced their disapproval, the controversial proposals never really stood a chance of being voted through.

While I thought the plans were nothing more than a cynical power grab by the Premier League elite, you won’t find me celebrating the project’s rapid demise.

A solution to the EFL’s financial woes are badly needed and fast. While some help is required, should clubs willingly sell their souls for a short-term cash fix?

It’s easy for me to say they shouldn’t when I’m not involved in the running of these clubs, many of whom are teetering over the edge.

I must admit, I was surprised at how quickly a lot of EFL clubs pledged their support to the plans without seemingly reading the finer details.

In League One, Accrington Stanley, Lincoln City and AFC Wimbledon were the only clubs to publicly voice their concerns.

Clubs are desperate for cash, a problem that already existed pre-Covid but was only intensified by the pandemic. At what cost?

They need to think further ahead than just a few months. Short-term thinking will only work for exactly that, the short-term.

Have we heard the last of these plans? Probably not.

The Premier League’s so-called ‘top six’ will want more and more control and more and more of the cash split. That will probably never change but we must resist.

I have no interest whatsoever in watching Blackpool take on Manchester United’s B team in League One, while United’s first team inevitably swans off around Europe and further beyond, picking up more and more cash as they go.

This isn’t a fanciful idea, we aren’t being paranoid. These clubs are now openly admitting their desires for how they see the future of the English game.

The football pyramid is no longer sustainable in its current guise, but only widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots will never be the answer.