'Times have changed' - Blackpool boss Neil Critchley makes team selection admission ahead of Charlton Athletic trip

His side head to the Valley on Saturday afternoon to take on Charlton Athletic, who are managed by former Seasiders boss Michael Appleton.

Across his two spells at Bloomfield Road, Critchley hasn’t been afraid to rotate his team.

"Times have changed from when you would see the same 11 on the pitch every week,” he said.

"If you look right across football, sides have a couple of changes for most games.

"When you do that people assume the manager doesn’t know his best starting 11 - which isn’t always the truth.

"You have to pick your best 11 for particular games, and sometimes that can change.

"When you’re playing three games in a week, I’ve got full belief in our squad of players to know whoever is on the pitch is capable of putting in a good performance.

"That’s no different from my first time here. Someone gave me a stat that I only picked the same team on a handful of occasions in 80 games.

"Maybe I didn’t know my best side in my first spell here, people would say that, but we did okay then, so let’s hope it carries on the same this time.

"I don’t believe in the saying of ‘never change a winning team,’ because that means you’re basically waiting to lose a game.”

Critchley states there is good competition in training at Blackpool as a number of players fight for their place in the starting XI.

"So far this season our injury has been good,” he added.

"We’ve got a relatively clean bill of health which means I’ve got a selection dilemma every week.

"There’s competition for places, and the players know that.

"They know they have to train and play well if they want to keep their place.

"We put a big emphasis on giving the players an opportunity to stake a claim in training.

"It’s something they need to get used to when they’re at a club like Blackpool and we’re trying to get where we want to be.

"There’s always going to be competition- that’s part of sport and being in a team environment.

“You have to take everything into consideration.”