Blackpool in free-fall as element of surprise fades
Much has been made of Blackpool’s brilliantly entertaining, if somewhat naïve approach to Premier League football this season, as the Tangerines have surpassed all expectations in their first ever Premier League adventure. But with the club sitting pretty in the top half of the table at the turn of the year - with a healthy three games in hand on most teams - they will be at a loss to explain their alarming free-fall since the turn of the year.
So where has it all gone wrong for Holloway’s refreshing Tangerines? Without wanting to take too much away from their superb early season form, it’s easy to see that they did catch a few teams off guard with their adventurous and incisive play. One look through this Blackpool squad and its hard to see how Holloway gets so much out of it, with a large majority of them lower league journeymen. But the players have clearly bought into the manger’s energetic style of football as well as the good feeling and lack of any real pressure around the club.
However, the man that really makes the side tick is undoubtedly Charlie Adam. Without the Scottish pass-master the team struggle to gain a foothold in a game and lack the cutting edge Adam gives them in the final third. His outstanding set-piece delivery offers plenty of opportunities throughout games.
At the start of the season, Adam was allowed time and space to control games from the middle of the park, but in time, teams have realised just how important the former Rangers man is to Holloway’s men. Snuff his threat out, and you blunt a large part of Blackpool’s play. Sunday’s 3-0 reverse at Craven Cottage proved such a conundrum for Holloway. Mark Hughes set his midfield out to not let Adam get into his stride, with Dickson Etuhu, Damien Duff and Clint Dempsey in particular hounding the Scottish playmaker at every turn. It led to a frustrated Adam barely being in the game in the first half, and when things continued in the same pattern in the second period, he was forced to picking the ball up off his defenders’ toes and attempting Hollywood passes.
It’s a far cry from earlier in the season when teams - especially playing at home - would be confident of over-powering Blackpool’s passing philosophy with their own quality, only to be hurt by the Tangerines swift incisiveness with the ball. If yesterday’s game with Fulham had been played at the start of the campaign, Adam would have been allowed far more freedom. Hughes would have been confident his side would have too much for Blackpool if they went toe-to-toe with them at the start of the campaign, but as the likes of Wigan, Newcastle and Liverpool found in the first few months of the season, they would have played into Blackpool’s hands by opening the game up.
Now the blueprint of stopping Adam, while keeping the game compact seems to be the winning formula against Holloway’s side - one the likeable West Country manager needs to overcome if he is to keep the Tangerines in the Premier League.
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