Neil Critchley drops early Blackpool selection hint for Pompey clash

Neil Critchley admits he could make changes to his Blackpool side against Portsmouth despite winning 4-0 last week.

The Tangerines inflicted a heavy defeat onto Shrewsbury Town at Bloomfield Road last week in one of the performances of the season. Jake Beesley came from out of the cold and scored a brace, whilst Jordan Rhodes and Kyle Joseph were also on target. 

He said: “You know me well enough to know that just because we won 4-0 last week doesn’t mean I’m automatically going to roll out the same team the following week. 

"We pick a team that we think is the right one to take to the field to counteract Portsmouth’s strengths and weaknesses. 

"The team can change but our principles of how we want to play, how we want to attack and how we defend, we want those to be consistent. Last week against Shrewsbury we got the balance right by obviously scoring goals but being hard to beat at the other end."

Saturday's performance last week was as good as it has got this season. Blackpool were in cruise control with a 2-0 lead inside half-an-hour and they were able to finish with a late flurry too with two goals in the last 15 minutes.

Blackpool had the same amount of shots as the Shrews but seven of their eight attempts were on target and they had complete control of the ball. An impressive 661 passes were made to Shrewsbury's 339, and they ended up having 66% of the ball, which is what Critchley hopes his side can emulate in future games.

"It’s the team that I want us to be aiming for every single week," said Critchley.

"Understanding you might not reach it every week and the opposition have something to do with that but I want us to be a dominant team with the ball.

"I want us to have the ball and in possession. If you have 50 or 60% of the ball your chances of scoring or creating goals goes up. You’ve got a better chance of winning the game and it means you’re doing less defending.

"I want us to be that team but when we have to do our defensive duties then we have to have good organisation and make sure we’re hard to beat. When we get both ends right then we’ve shown what we are capable of."