Ian Holloway wants Blackpool to play like world champions Spain

It was courageous and it was cutting edge but, above all, it was clever. Blackpool's perfectly executed game plan served as a masterclass, demonstrating how devastatingly effective genuinely attacking versions of 4-3-3 can be.

Ian Holloway had asked his unfancied, heavily patronised charges to make a challenging formation, requiring considerable positional interchanging and much attendant trust, work.
Admittedly they endured some hairy second-half moments and their goalkeeper, Matthew Gilks, shone but few would argue that Blackpool did not deserve to pull it off. Even more refreshingly their shock win had as much to do with Holloway's broad football philosophy as his chosen configuration.

"You've got to look at Tiki-Taka, you've got to look at Spain," he said. "How they pass the ball, how they keep the ball. They are little guys who run around passing and they are quite brilliant."
So much so that Holloway has adopted the World Cup winners as role models. "What's wrong with us, why can't we do it? I want my team to be more like Spain."

On Saturday this wish was granted. "I've got to be careful I don't burst with pride. These boys are amazing, they're getting better all the time."

Blackpool's £10,000‑a‑week wage ceiling dictates that Holloway cannot shop for the game's perceived elite. Indeed, handed a comparable budget, many of his peers would merely restrict their recruits to specific, regimented, duties within rigid, safety-first formations.

Refusing to bow to such convention, the Bristolian has instead asked players such as the impressive David Vaughan, Charlie Adam and Luke Varney to raise their personal technical bars. On Tyneside he reaped surprisingly rich rewards...Read More...