Bailey Peacock-Farrell is not one for grand proclamations, but the Blackpool goalkeeper was clear enough when he spoke to BBC Radio Lancashire earlier this week: this is a different side to the one that took the field last season, and the improvement is not merely cosmetic.
"We're a high energy team," Peacock-Farrell said, in comments that point to something more than a buzzword. After a difficult run of results that included defeats to Reading and Barnsley, the assertion carries a degree of significance. It suggests the players, at least, believe there is a coherent identity forming under their management, even if the evidence in the table has not yet been wholly convincing.
That is worth sitting with for a moment. Blackpool's season to this point has had its rough patches. The club recently saw Kouassi depart to Colchester, and the 4-0 thrashing that also brought a Ryan Yates goal on his return was a rare high among some indifferent performances. Four games, or five, or six, is not a sample size that settles arguments. Peacock-Farrell would presumably be the first to acknowledge that.
What it does suggest, though, is that there is something being built at Bloomfield Road. A goalkeeper talking about energy and collective improvement is rarely doing so in a vacuum. These are the kinds of phrases that tend to emerge when a dressing room has bought into a way of playing, when the pre-season work has left a visible trace on how the team presses, transitions and recovers the ball.
Blackpool have had their share of turbulence in recent seasons, and the League One landscape remains as unforgiving as ever. The division is not short of sides with genuine ambitions in both directions, and any team that allows standards to slip through a sticky November will know all about it come March. The early weeks of a campaign are, in one sense, exactly the right time for a squad to be establishing habits; they are also exactly the wrong time to be drawing too many conclusions.
Peacock-Farrell himself brings considerable experience at this level and beyond, and his voice carries weight in a dressing room. A goalkeeper who communicates clearly, organises his back line and sets a physical tone in training tends to embody exactly the kind of high-energy approach he is describing. There is a reason managers value keepers who speak.
The more interesting question is whether the training ground conviction translates into consistent performances across a full League One season. Barnsley's head coach Jordan Stendel pointed to mentality as the decisive factor when his side beat Blackpool. That is the kind of observation a group of players file away, and it would be no surprise if Peacock-Farrell's comments this week are, in part, a public response to precisely that narrative.
Blackpool's fixture list will not wait for a squad to find its feet at its own pace. The third tier rarely does. But if the goalkeeper is right, if the improvement since last season is genuine and the high-energy template is taking hold, then the defeats of recent weeks may yet look like a blip rather than a trend. The table, in time, will decide which reading was correct.
Frequently asked
- What did Bailey Peacock-Farrell say about Blackpool's style of play?
- Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, Peacock-Farrell described Blackpool as a high-energy team and said the squad has improved considerably since last season.
- How are Blackpool doing in League One this season?
- It is early in the campaign, but Blackpool have had mixed results so far, including defeats to Reading and Barnsley as well as a heavy 4-0 win.
- Who is Bailey Peacock-Farrell?
- Bailey Peacock-Farrell is Blackpool's goalkeeper, an experienced shot-stopper who has represented Northern Ireland internationally and is one of the senior figures in the current Blackpool squad.