How Steve Bruce’s latest comments were reminiscent of ex-Blackpool boss’ costly words
Blackpool have endured a disappointing start to the new season.
Blackpool’s tough start to the new campaign continued with a 1-0 defeat to Northampton Town at the weekend.
The Seasiders headed into the contest at Sixfields on the back of an international break with the vast majority of the squad available for selection.
At times this season, head coach Steve Bruce has been forced to try different formations or to use people out of position. While this shouldn’t act as a complete explanation behind the poor results, it can be accepted as a mitigating factor.
Nonetheless, even with a rich squad to choose from, the same old problems emerged for Blackpool against the Cobblers - with Cameron McGeehan’s late goal proving to be the difference between the two teams.
A defensive lapse once again proved costly, while going forward there were only half chances to choose from.
The latest loss has created the largest amount of disharmony among the Seasiders fan base this season, but Bruce stated after the game he saw enough to suggest his side are close to turning a corner.
“I saw a very good team today, apart from the first five minutes, I thought we were excellent,” he said.
“I saw the makings of a very good side. We’ve spent the last two weeks on the training ground, and you can see how we worked. We were a threat going forward, but gave a bad goal away, and that’s something you can’t coach - it’s a couple of individual errors.
“We’re really frustrated because we were the better team by far. If you were a neutral then you’d think we were going to win the game all day long - that’s the way I felt.”
Verdict on Bruce’s comments
In some respects Bruce was correct. The performance was an improvement on some of what had come before, but the bar was very low.
Hopefully the encouraging signs he saw in the display does offer a base to build off, but from an outside eye it was hard to see.
While Blackpool did improve in the second half, after a drab opening 45 minutes, they still weren’t necessarily knocking on the door, and you can’t forget that Northampton came close a number of times before eventually scoring themselves.
In some ways Bruce’s defence of the game was reminiscent of Neil Critchley’s words after a defeat away to Crawley Town on the opening day of last season.
“They were clinical, and we weren’t - that’s what decided it,” the former boss said.
“It’s one game, there’s 45 to go. I was encouraged by long periods of what we produced. I know we’ll improve and get fitter.
“In the second half we were excellent, we dominated the game. I felt we deserved the goal, and we deserved to get something.”
There are similarities in the two reflections, with the Seasiders underperforming in both games despite the managers seeing positive signs.
Critchley’s reaction somewhat proved costly for him, as he found himself parting ways with the club less than a fortnight later.
Bruce up until this point has been very honest in his assessment of things, and hopefully his words of positivity can come to fruition.
The future
There’s a lot of questions circling around asking whether it’s time to part ways with the current boss.
At the moment there’s little that can be defended in the performances, but Blackpool tried an early change last season, and it simply didn’t prove to be beneficial in the context of where they finished.
We’re still only one game on from the closure of the transfer window - a window where Bruce was heavily backed.
While he’s certainly not un-sackable, it will be illogical to throw out a full summer’s worth of work for a second year running.
Things do have to rapidly improve, but the squad on paper is good, better than good, so the current coaching staff still deserve that time to get a tune out of it.
The calibre of player that was signed does increase the pressure on Bruce, but the fact that he was a key part in getting those deals over the line means he should be given sufficient period to work with them.
It’s hard to see when things change on the pitch at the moment, but hopefully a positive result matched with a strong performance will be enough to shift the entire direction of the season.
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