The view from the Tower — Column Monday, 12th Dec 2022 19:50 by Clive Whittingham QPR’s new manager Neil Critchley left Blackpool in similarly acrimonious circumstances to his mate Mick Beale’s departure from Loftus Road, but despite his bitterness towards that decision Seasider’s blogger Mitch Cook’s Left Foot still gives their former boss a warm report card. Overall assessment of his time at Blackpool… It’s impossible to conclude that Critchley was anything other than a success. The manner of his departure (more on that shortly) has soured many towards him and left us wanting to talk down what he did but ultimately, as a football manager, he came into a club seriously lacking direction and left it a division higher and with a reputation for hard working professionalism. Initial impressions weren’t great. At first he tried to play a bad photocopy of Liverpool’s style with players who couldn’t do it. We couldn’t score, we couldn’t defend and the football was robotic. He looked like a someone who’d had an ill-advised mid-career shift from accountancy to PE teaching - increasingly worried and ever less in control of the chaos that unfolded in front of him Things shifted on the appointment of an experienced number two and going to a much simpler style. For all his much vaunted coaching prowess, it was 442 and direct play off Gary Madine that really lit the fuse on his reign. For most of the time thereafter we were built on a very solid defence and an ability to hit anyone who attacked us. We struggled generally, even in League One, to break down sides that sat deep. We beat sides who were theoretically better than us. The Championship season last year was fantastic. He added the mercurial Josh Bowler to a very solid and hard working side and for a while we dared to dream of even greater things than midtable. The atmosphere was outstanding and barring a few out of character showings, the bond between players, staff and fans was strong, built on the respect for the work ethic we (almost always) showed. The season tailed off a bit in the end. Things were starting to look a bit stale, and it was clear we needed a bit of a refresh, but I think most of us expected Critchley to be with us for a decent while longer. He seemed totally sold on ‘the project’ and to genuinely appreciate the adulation he was showered with by fans home and away. Then… he just… well… left. For a fucking assistant manager job. Without saying a word. Not one word. No ‘thanks’, no ‘I’ll remember the club forever’. Not even a platitude. Nothing. He’s still never addressed Blackpool fans once. I understand how Beale going angers QPR fans - but Critchley has angered us in a similar way. He made such a play of understanding the notion of ‘a working class football club’ and how ‘special’ we were and in the end, he walked out without a word. Bitter? Me? Yes. Very much so. It’s not that he left - it’s the utterly classless way he did it.
Strengths and weaknesses… He’s tactically excellent when his back is against the wall. A seemingly terminal Injury crisis will turn into the best run of form for the season. He will have your side absolutely drilled with no question as to what their role is. He is also a clear communicator who will rarely, if ever, lose his cool in an interview. He’s deceptively competitive. He’s very amenable and polite, but he’s obviously got a very hard edge to him. Players seem to respect him and those who don’t will likely find themselves elsewhere pretty quickly. He struggles to let players loose and his teams can look so drilled that they can’t think for themselves. I dread to think how we’d have done without the freeform Josh Bowler last year. His football can be dull and he can get ideas into his head about players that will see them ostracised for no obvious reason. Our best two players this year (Jerry Yates and Jordan Thorniley) both experienced the Critch cold shoulder and it’s not really clear why. It’s really hard to say - He played just about every variation you can think of for us - he’s remarkably adept at coaching a change of formation in a short space of time. One thing he seems to be scared of is creative midfielders. He loves a hard working midfield engine and any flair he permits is almost invariably out wide. He will accommodate flair, but only so much and only in particular areas of the pitch. He tried to coach us into a short passing side initially but then by the time he left ‘Grimshaw (GK) to Madine (big lad)’ was statistically the most frequent long ball in the championship. I’d imagine that latter style was borne of pragmatism and if I was to sum him up in a sentence it would be ‘arrived as an idealist and left as a pragmatist’ Sartorially speaking, he owns ten white polo shirts, a pair of New Balance trainers and ten pairs of blue jogging bottoms. He will accessorise those with either a club body warmer or club coat. There is no variation from this model. Ever.
Who are the assistants? Mike Garrity is good at shouting. Critch is quite measured so Garrity bellows things to players and carries a notebook. By all accounts he’s excellent on the training ground. He’s a coach first and foremost and seems to be a very good one. Ian Brunskill is hard to analyse. I always felt he had the manner of someone on the run from the authorities living under a nom-de-plume in Argentina and wearing a big hat - but that might just be me. Critchley had two ‘proper football men’ as his assistant for the best runs he had at ‘Pool - the balance of his more cerebral approach and someone who could speak to the players as one of them seemed to work. Brunskill appeared towards the end of Critchley’s reign and is (like Garrity and Critchley) someone with little or no on field experience. It’s hard to say if he was a positive or not as we meandered to the end of the year. If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures — Action Images The Twitter @loftforwords, @CooksLeft Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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