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...

Superb Blackpool beat Newcastle!

Newcastle Utd 0 v 2 BLACKPOOL.

Charlie Adam and DJ Campbell burst Newcastle's bubble as Blackpool banked another three precious Barclays Premier League points on the road. The midfielder calmly slotted a 45th-minute penalty past keeper Steve Harper and immediately dedicated it to youth team coach Gary Parkinson, who is critically ill in hospital. Adam then produced the pass from which DJ Campbell sealed the win at the death, but only after keeper Matt Gilks had produced a string of superb saves to deny Newcastle an equaliser. Gilks, who had kept out Kevin Nolan's first-half effort, frustrated Joey Barton, substitute Peter Lovenkrands and Andy Carroll as the Magpies staged a committed fightback in front of a crowd of 49,597. The defeat, Newcastle's first on their own turf in 27 attempts, served as a reminder to the Chris Hughton's men, if they needed one, that their 6-0 victory over Aston Villa in the last fixture at St James' Park, was a start and nothing more. Five months ago, Blackpool had arrived on Tyneside as one of the few sides to have beaten the Magpies in the Championship, and left on the wrong end of a 4-1 beating which was every bit as comprehensive as the scoreline suggests. They returned to the north-east knowing that Villa had also been sent packing as Newcastle romped to a stunning victory 24 hours after they had lost by the same score at Arsenal. But there was a determination about Ian Holloway's men from the off that they would not be blown away, and when referee Lee Mason sounded the half-time whistle, few inside St James' could have argued they were value for their 1-0 lead...READ MORE ...