Neil Critchley outlines tactical reasons behind Jerry Yates being dropped for Blackpool's frustrating goalless draw against Oxford

Gary Madine was preferred up front as the Seasiders reverted to a 4-3-3 system, with Ben Woodburn coming into the side in Yates’ place.

Yates was a surprise absentee for many, given the striker’s recent form which has seen him net five times in his last eight games.

“It was purely tactical,” Critchley said, when asked why Yates was named among the substitutes.

“We thought they would play 4-3-3 and we thought they would play out from the back, so we wanted to press them.

“I thought we did that well, we won the ball back a lot of times in the first-half but we didn’t turn those moments into meaningful opportunities. That’s probably a criticism we can look at ourselves.

“We changed it in the second-half when the game opened up, that was always going to happen if we were looking to go and win the game.

“When the game opened up, we thought Keshi (Anderson) and Jerry would give them some problems (off the bench) but it didn’t quite happen for us how we thought it might.”

Having been held to a frustrating goalless draw, despite dominating the game, the Seasiders must now turn their attention to Tuesday night’s game against table-topping Hull City.

It continues a tough run of games which has seen Pool take on the likes of Peterborough United, Portsmouth, Doncaster Rovers and Fleetwood Town.

“We’ve had some really good games recently, some tough games. We’ve only lost one of them but I’ll say it again, we shouldn’t have lost it,” Critchley added.

“Oxford in my opinion are a top 10 team and we’ve got a little run of games coming up now with Hull, Accrington and Sunderland - another tough batch of fixtures.

“It would have been nice to go into the Hull game on the back of a victory, but we’re at home and we’re looking forward to what should be a good game on Tuesday.”

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