Blackpool (A)

[Matty]

I've been disappointed with the majority of signings this summer but Booty especially so, I can't work out whether he is the intended Campbell or Spence replacement, but he's not showing any signs of being either. He has looked a good yard or so shy of the level so far, easy to get around when we are defending and doesn't move the ball anywhere near quick enough in possession.

It should never have got to the point where we are this alarmed over an EFL Trophy game, last night should have been a decent spirited effort whilst getting some minutes into returning players.

[Wintergreen]

So to summarise; a back three 'all over the place' a toothless midfield and an anonymous front line. But one swallow doesn't make a summer and as AW said 'The pliers have to own it' So lets hope a more robust set of pliers can get to grips with Crewe on Saturday.

[blue blue boy]

As people have said after listening to AWs interview on radio at least he's honest. I thought his line about some players should be nowhere near the 11 or even the match day squad was quite telling, he clearly doesnt rate a lot of them! I know people have said its 'his team' but is it really a certain Ian Woods more like? As other have said recruitment has been pretty horrendous and whilst clearly having some bad luck with injuries I dont see where the improvement is going to come from.
Mr Wood may be totally on board as the chairman had said, spending the summers at the training centre, mucking in etc but for an ex agent the recruitment has been shocking and not just this summer. Sadly I feel that as much as I rate and like Andy Whing he's been chucked under the bus as regards the tools he has to work with and I can see his tenure coming to an early end as a result leaving us even shorter of cash than we were before!

[bluessupporter]

Must say Whing sounded quite upbeat in his after match interview with Adam.

[Scott5]

Whing looks and sounds like a man who knows he’s out of time. In a week he’s gone from sticking to what we know to trying something different again.
A lack of effort and desire can’t be excused that has to come from players as well but it’s obvious they aren’t listening. We’re conceding repeatedly from the same areas, can’t do the basics in defending and running and even simple passes. Add to that were asking the likes of Whitfield and Barkhuizen two of our better attacking players to play at wingback and then wondering why were conceding from the wide areas.

Defensively no shape or organisation no one wants to get tight or stop the ball going into the net enough, think port vale away last season where everyone put their body on the line. Midfield is powder puff and Smith and Booty only look like half players when we’re losing and the opposition backs off, no bravery in there. Up front we knew would be a struggle but again I’ve seen nothing in Cameron or Walker.

Who was responsible for the signings if you listen to Whing he agrees who does come in and as manager it has to be his responsibility to not sign a right wing back, and he said himself he’s responsible for the results and performances. It was pretty telling last night when Rob Kelly was doing all the shouting in the second half I thought, with Whing and Pead just stood there.

Losing 5-0 is one thing but in that manner can’t be excused and it could easily have been 7 or 8 but for Winterbottom.

[olbarrafancumbak]

Awful watch, if not one of the worst period!!

The players have to take some.flak for that for sure but on the other hand, perhaps it's time to bin the formation we try to play, even with our best 11 and go back to basics with a 442..

No point having a six foot plus striker if we don't put crosses in, get the wingers wingering!!

Current formation we leave ourselves too exposed, we just can't seem to adapt.

Team selection doesn't have any consistency and yeh, we have suffered with injuries but we still don't seem to have that 11 that played week in week out!

On the pitch leadership, caravan has been great for us no question but when the chips are down, I would like to see a real leader out there, vocal, aggressive, strong!

Just hope things change quick before we go down a season of gloom!

[olbarrafancumbak]

Whing looks and sounds like a man who knows he’s out of time. In a week he’s gone from sticking to what we know to trying something different again.
A lack of effort and desire can’t be excused that has to come from players as well but it’s obvious they aren’t listening. We’re conceding repeatedly from the same areas, can’t do the basics in defending and running and even simple passes. Add to that were asking the likes of Whitfield and Barkhuizen two of our better attacking players to play at wingback and then wondering why were conceding from the wide areas.

Defensively no shape or organisation no one wants to get tight or stop the ball going into the net enough, think port vale away last season where everyone put their body on the line. Midfield is powder puff and Smith and Booty only look like half players when we’re losing and the opposition backs off, no bravery in there. Up front we knew would be a struggle but again I’ve seen nothing in Cameron or Walker.

Who was responsible for the signings if you listen to Whing he agrees who does come in and as manager it has to be his responsibility to not sign a right wing back, and he said himself he’s responsible for the results and performances. It was pretty telling last night when Rob Kelly was doing all the shouting in the second half I thought, with Whing and Pead just stood there.

Losing 5-0 is one thing but in that manner can’t be excused and it could easily have been 7 or 8 but for Winterbottom.

Absolutely agree with all of the above.. yesterday we were lacking a backbone from the players through to the management.. wasn't great at all!

[Pedro]

Whing looks and sounds like a man who knows he’s out of time. In a week he’s gone from sticking to what we know to trying something different again.
A lack of effort and desire can’t be excused that has to come from players as well but it’s obvious they aren’t listening. We’re conceding repeatedly from the same areas, can’t do the basics in defending and running and even simple passes. Add to that were asking the likes of Whitfield and Barkhuizen two of our better attacking players to play at wingback and then wondering why were conceding from the wide areas.

Defensively no shape or organisation no one wants to get tight or stop the ball going into the net enough, think port vale away last season where everyone put their body on the line. Midfield is powder puff and Smith and Booty only look like half players when we’re losing and the opposition backs off, no bravery in there. Up front we knew would be a struggle but again I’ve seen nothing in Cameron or Walker.

Who was responsible for the signings if you listen to Whing he agrees who does come in and as manager it has to be his responsibility to not sign a right wing back, and he said himself he’s responsible for the results and performances. It was pretty telling last night when Rob Kelly was doing all the shouting in the second half I thought, with Whing and Pead just stood there.

Losing 5-0 is one thing but in that manner can’t be excused and it could easily have been 7 or 8 but for Winterbottom.

Absolutely agree with all of the above.. yesterday we were lacking a backbone from the players through to the management.. wasn't great at all!

Think the writing was on the wall
We know we have needed a centre forward and midfield player to dictate the play we have neither.
We struggled against higher league teams in the pre season and lack of goal scorers was obvious.

We have a Director of Football who was responsible for recruitment and that includes Whing and it's been abysmal.
Being a former football agent does not mean you have ability ,the fact it was rumoured he was going to Carlisle made the Board make him a Director a double bluff move often used in big companies.
We've taken a gamble and it's increasingly looking it's going wrong.
There is nothing to suggest this is a blip ,rather than our players look like they are playing a training match .

I think Rob Kelly was brought in because Jason Taylor has gone and if Whing is sacked he will be interim Manager.

Kelly last time was on the pitch giving the players encouragement.
In the role he has now he looked isolated at Bristol and could not be effective because Whing was on the touch line giving instructions.

I hope we can turn this around but we see no embers of change.

[HenneysKnee]

The players have to take some.flak for that for sure but on the other hand, perhaps it's time to bin the formation we try to play, even with our best 11 and go back to basics with a 442..

No point having a six foot plus striker if we don't put crosses in, get the wingers wingering!!

I wouldn’t mind going old school and seeing Whitfield and Barky putting crosses in for Cameron and Gordon…..but (and you might have seen this mentioned once or twice) we don’t have a right back

[Rushy]

Absolutely agree with all of the above.. yesterday we were lacking a backbone from the players through to the management.. wasn't great at all!

Think the writing was on the wall
We know we have needed a centre forward and midfield player to dictate the play we have neither.
We struggled against higher league teams in the pre season and lack of goal scorers was obvious.

We have a Director of Football who was responsible for recruitment and that includes Whing and it's been abysmal.
Being a former football agent does not mean you have ability ,the fact it was rumoured he was going to Carlisle made the Board make him a Director a double bluff move often used in big companies.
We've taken a gamble and it's increasingly looking it's going wrong.
There is nothing to suggest this is a blip ,rather than our players look like they are playing a training match .

I think Rob Kelly was brought in because Jason Taylor has gone and if Whing is sacked he will be interim Manager.

Kelly last time was on the pitch giving the players encouragement.
In the role he has now he looked isolated at Bristol and could not be effective because Whing was on the touch line giving instructions.

I hope we can turn this around but we see no embers of change.

Even if Whing is sacked the problem of a failed recruitment policy still remain.
It was obviously a BOD lead policy partly due to the financial constraints of the owners but also input from DOF.
If Whing goes then so should the DOF. If Whing stays the DOF should still go.

[Cromwell58]

Hopefully this is a bad as it will get, team was so disorganised and lack lustre someone in that team needs to get a grip and get them motivative early days yet but change must come and will.

[Hitthebar22]

Awful watch, if not one of the worst period!!

The players have to take some.flak for that for sure but on the other hand, perhaps it's time to bin the formation we try to play, even with our best 11 and go back to basics with a 442..

No point having a six foot plus striker if we don't put crosses in, get the wingers wingering!!

Current formation we leave ourselves too exposed, we just can't seem to adapt.

Team selection doesn't have any consistency and yeh, we have suffered with injuries but we still don't seem to have that 11 that played week in week out!

On the pitch leadership, caravan has been great for us no question but when the chips are down, I would like to see a real leader out there, vocal, aggressive, strong!

Just hope things change quick before we go down a season of gloom!

We played 442 in the first half against Swindon, and got minced, and reverted to 532/541.
442 only works if you have exceptional central midfielders, particularly defensively.
Smith and Booty are not good enough.
I don’t enjoy criticising individual players, but currently they are both poor.
All the other close season signings (not including the ones we haven’t seen enough of because of injury) are at best only average with the exceptions of Barkhuizen and Winterbottom.
It’s not all Wood’s fault, Whing would undoubtedly have had an input.

[FanzoneFan]

I was sat with my Blackpool supporting mate in the home end. He couldn’t believe how easily we were being torn apart. We’ve got to change our system. Keep it simple for the next few weeks and see how it goes. Crewe and Crawley are now massive games. It’s time we kick started our season.

[Jonty]

For me, formation and tactics is a bit further down the list of current concerns. Go and have a look at the reaction and body language after each goal. Heads down and back to the centre circle for the restart. Think of previous players like Mcnulty and Jones and they gave it everything. Where’s that sort of fight in this team.

[Barrow afc 2018]

Whing looks and sounds like a man who knows he’s out of time. In a week he’s gone from sticking to what we know to trying something different again.
A lack of effort and desire can’t be excused that has to come from players as well but it’s obvious they aren’t listening. We’re conceding repeatedly from the same areas, can’t do the basics in defending and running and even simple passes. Add to that were asking the likes of Whitfield and Barkhuizen two of our better attacking players to play at wingback and then wondering why were conceding from the wide areas.

Defensively no shape or organisation no one wants to get tight or stop the ball going into the net enough, think port vale away last season where everyone put their body on the line. Midfield is powder puff and Smith and Booty only look like half players when we’re losing and the opposition backs off, no bravery in there. Up front we knew would be a struggle but again I’ve seen nothing in Cameron or Walker.

Who was responsible for the signings if you listen to Whing he agrees who does come in and as manager it has to be his responsibility to not sign a right wing back, and he said himself he’s responsible for the results and performances. It was pretty telling last night when Rob Kelly was doing all the shouting in the second half I thought, with Whing and Pead just stood there.

Losing 5-0 is one thing but in that manner can’t be excused and it could easily have been 7 or 8 but for Winterbottom.

Really good post that Scott 100% agree.