Although Blackpool narrowly missed out on winning promotion to the Premier League the signs for next season are promising. This is in large part to the two wide players who excelled last season and the prospect of them staying next season gives hope to Blackpool that they will make an even stronger challenge for promotion. Those two wide men are the focus of this article, looking at their qualities and where they still need to develop.

No Doubting Thomas

Ince (20) joined Blackpool from Liverpool around the same time as Gerardo Bruna and the difference in development between the two could not be further apart. Ince has grown with each game and is now one of Blackpool’s key attacking weapons, whilst Bruna mopes around Bloomfield Road like a man who really doesn’t love the game anymore.

First impressions of Ince were of a young player with pace and a trick, but perhaps running too much with his head down, narrowing his field of vision. Taking his place as one of the two wide forwards, normally as an inverted winger on the right, he appears to have developed with the game time he has had. His first touch is solid, but inconsistent, his passing also lacks consistency, both in range and execution.

However, he has good acceleration and sustains his pace well to beat men. His tricks are a little readable and could do with adding more subtlety and disguise to elevate his one v one play. On the evidence of his goals (particularly against Doncaster at home) he can hit powerful shots and allied to that his delivery from wide free kicks and corners can be useful. He could do with developing more variety to his delivery and perhaps developing his pace of delivery and craft to move the ball with more bias towards the end of its flight.

It appears that he is mentally strong and doesn’t appear to lose his composure the closer he gets to the opposition goal. He appears to need to increase his field of vision to appreciate his options earlier which will also help with his decision-making. Overall, his development is on an upward trajectory increasing more than any other Blackpool player and if he keep developing at this rate he will outgrow this Blackpool side should they fail to gain promotion next season. He is assisted by the fact Ian Holloway knows how to develop talent and he suits the system that Blackpool play. In addition to settling in to either wide forward position and has even dropped deeper and centrally at times and realistically he could also be deployed as a very effective attacking left back. However, there’s no reason why over time he couldn’t develop in to a central role, but all the signs are that he is a potentially dangerous attacking wide player.

One area of his game that can be detrimental to his development and the flow of his team is the upon receiving the ball. He has a habit of turning back away from goal in order to protect the ball from the opponent. On the face of it this isn’t necessarily a bad move, however, it appears totally instinctive. What makes it worse is that he does this even when not being marked, leading to attacks slowing down and removing his vision from the field of play that he is being asked to attack. This may well be a consequence of being deployed as an inverted winger and not being comfortable letting the ball run across his body on to his weaker right foot, however, it’s something that he needs to use with more discretion. In doing so, he will become a little more direct in his attacking play and cause even more stress for the opposition.

Where he goes from here will be interesting. He appears ambitious and will want to move on at the earliest opportunity, however, his long-term career may well be best served with at least another season by the seaside under Ian Holloway.

Express Yourself

Phillips (21) started the season being touted as ‘one to watch’ in the Championship and in terms of development appeared to be some way ahead of Ince. He ended the season as a player elected in to the Championship team of the season and being capped by Scotland. However, his development hasn’t been as evident as that of Ince, but that may be more to do with the fact that his skill set was in a more advanced state after an excellent schooling at Wycombe as well as a season in the Premier League behind him.

There’s no point in delaying the key observation about Phillips’ main weakness as it has been, and will be, very critical to where his career path leads. If he conquers it, then there really is no limit to where he can be in three years time, fail to do so and he may sparkle in fits and fade more often. Quite simply it appears that Phillips has issues with confidence or belief in himself which affects his game play from time to time. Whilst not being overly dominant at this stage of his career, it is likely to affect him more and more should he fail to develop the mental side to his game. This emanates less so in his tendency to ‘drop his head’, but more so in the way that he tries to force things in order to prove that he can do the almost impossible. He was surprisingly loaned out to Sheffield United earlier in the season after a poor start to the season, when he was being closely monitored by the opposition and not really getting involved in games. The loan spell served to get him in to a quality League One side where he could flourish in games where he was clearly above the level of the opponent he faced. He scored five goals and came back to Blackpool with complete belief in himself that he could do anything. In the ‘afterburn’ of that loan spell he scored a further twelve goals, before settling in to a greater level of consistency in the end of season run in.

If a team lets Phillips impose himself on a game, then he will, however, he is tested to the limits of his belief when those margins are squeezed. Let him turn and give him five or ten yards and he will hurt most defences in any English league. He can score and create from anywhere in the final third. When he starts, he lines up in the wide left forward position and seeks to cut inside to get his shot away. Very few players will beat him for pace, he is also strong and tricky. His step overs can be a little readable and he does have a tendency to sit back on his heels as he does this, which doesn’t give him a dynamic body position in which to drive forward in to a darting run taking away that vital split second needed in to advanced attacking areas where space is tight.

He can be stopped a little too easily when teams get tight to him, stop him from turning and he has little in his skill set to be able to effectively turn and beat a man. Should he be able to develop attacks when under such close attention then this will form a critical part of his next development stage. This needs to be aided by an improvement in his first touch. To the casual observer his touch may not be questioned, however, he has a noticeable flaw under closer scrutiny. In wanting to keep his head up he doesn’t always watch the ball on to his foot, which in itself isn’t a major issue, top players don’t need to watch the ball on to their foot, but they must use their all round sense and technique to keep the ball under control. Quite often the ball will bounce upwards upon Phillips’ first touch leading to him needed a further touch to full control the ball before executing his next move. This is critical when being closely marked, but also when he gets space it can interrupt his flow. Should he polish up this first touch then defences will need to be on full alert as he will be up to full speed earlier, or getting his powerful shot away earlier. Or as seen in the playoff final delivering a defence splitting through ball from the middle third.

Whilst he is generally deployed as the wide left forward, he can play wide right too, as well as right wing and right back. However, his future may well lie in the central striking role. He hardly occupies that central space at the moment, but when he has he has shown that his hold up play is developing. Again the skills his may seek to develop his wide play may also benefit his future as a central striker.

Good things come….

Blackpool may only need to recruit three players this summer, however, that number may flex if a team comes up with the cash to force a sale for either of these young players. At this stage it is unlikely to happen, although dynamics away from Blackpool are hard to control and agents don’t always act with the players best interests in mind. Starting the new season at Blackpool should be the way to go for these two excellent young players. Do so and it’s highly likely that they’ll be playing Premier League football with Blackpool or some other team.