Crewe Alexandra Match Discussion Thread

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:02:03:07:31:49 by Deadly Submarine.

I'm hoping we can finally get a win away from home although my Prediction League entry suggests otherwise.

There is talk that around 1,000 of us could be there today and to be fair there aren't many people I know who aren't going today!

Well, well, well.
Terrible performance, tactics we're awful playing a long ball up to shuker against the giant dennis lawrence was never going to work.

Credit to Jennings who was a class apart from anyone but Crewe just looked so comfortable.
I mean how can we be so bad away from home especially with the support we brought today which was phenomenal and so good at home?

We never looked like breaking them down and when we had the chances (sonko header and when it fell to kay at top of box) we didn't take the chances.
Goodison as casual as he was and as dodgy as his clearances where was solid with chorley and when he went off we went to pot at the back. Shotton was being turned to easily throughout the day but played well as did taylor but when he moved to CB I don't think it helped.

There was no urgency at all which was most worrying coming up against a side who had conceded 9 goals in 2 games to go there and produce that performance just isn't good enough after carlisle and stockport.
Story of our League One tenure in general, lose a few then bounce back but when we look like were on a roll towards play-offs we get a nose bleed.

With Lawrence and Broomes at CB Savage should have started and tbh looked decent and held the ball up well when he came on.

The rest i cba talkin about i just feel robbed payin £19 to watch that.
Sayin that I bet come tues against Posh we snot them 3-0 and play great. Typical.

Savage should not of started - it should of been the same team as last week, Kay should never of got his place back. What kind of message does it send out - if your Moore's favourite player you'll always start - he was dire too!

Just because Lawrence is 6 foot whatever, if we'd of played like we had last two games we would of walked all over them.

totally agree with that.

I agree Mikey. You shouldn't change a winning side and although he got the goal, Kay was terrible otherwise and should not have been started over Edds anyway.

When Goodison went off I really would have moved Kay back and played Edds in the middle of midfield given his current form so that was two errors I felt Ronnie made.

Zola was good for them when he came on but I thought apart from the first ten minutes of the first half we were the better side and deserved our lead at the break.

Second half though we were nowhere really but to lose wasn't deserved either.

Onto Cheltenham in midweek which should be interesting but I'm looking forward to it already!

Quote:

Savage should not of started

He didn't though Mikey.

Sonko was awful thats all i can say, and we can't win without Goody, no matter how bad he plays.

We might have won without him if he'd moved Kay back I felt rather than shifting Shotton to CB but I guess we will never know!

Luke Waterfall could of came on.

Yeah that was another option I half expected I have to say!

If the useless Sonko had scored from 5 yards that would have been 2-0 and their heads down, but he missed and from then on we were awful. Its no good winning at home then losing away, we will get nowhere, I hope Ronnie can do a bit of business on Monday, a left winger or something becasue we need it. Still if we can win on tuesday it puts us in a good position, were only 6 points off with two games on hand, just fustrating today, that was a big chance missed.

That performance was not worthy of the support that was there today, Im sure they dont care but the players should be ashamed of the way they played.

Totally agree with that Ming, we didn't look up for it from the first whistle and got what we deserved in the end from a poor side who in truth we should be beating.

To be honest I thought the effort was there on the whole but Crewe were up for it more from the start!

As has been said, wasted chances haven't helped yet again along woth bad tactical decisions.

I couldn't believe the support today to be fair, we were awesome (support not the way we played). I can't believe Ronnie's decision making at times, I think he really cost us today to be honest, firstly, as has already been mentioned, Kay shouldn't have started, Edds should have done. When Goodison went off, then Kay should have come on (had he not have started obviously) but as that couldn't happen there were still options to be made, why move Shotton to CB - he'd already been booked so it was obvious he couldn't make committal challenges and as a result Crewe began to cut through our defence like a knife through butter. We had a centre back already on the pitch in Kay but if it is insisted he carries on in midfield, we had Waterfall on the bench but we didn't use him, sorry but I can't understand that. Even with Ronnie's horrendous decision making today, we still weren't really 'up for it' I didn't feel. We only win when we have to it seems, as Roger says, we start a run and then no matter who we play, we balls it up for some reason. I think it's a matter of urgency that we sign a left winger, if we're playing with wingers, we need people who can run, dribble and cross. To me it seems Sonko can't do any of those, he gets lucky with his shooting occasionally and only his positioning really saves him from being an awful player from what I've seen but he simply can't defend at all and we really lack that balance when Sonko plays because he is so unpredictable. When we face a team up for a battle, we're really not up to it, as already mentioned, I thought Jennings played quite well but I saw quite clearly today why he is only seen as an average league 1 player rather than a top player at this level or the leagues above, his passing is 'safe', he doesn't pass forward he passes it square across the middle into space to the full backs. This is good for retaining posession but it means that by the time the winger receives the ball from the full back, they're already marked and the free space is gone. If you watch freely attacking teams, they play the ball forward far more often than we do and as a result create chances. This is a key reason I feel we're losing away games, we don't create enough chances to score. If you have a top striker you only need to create 2 or 3 chances in a game to win, we need to create 10 to score 1 goal and that's never going to happen away from home. We need 2 players to keep the promotion push going I feel, a winger and a striker. Sorry to say but obviously Gornell isn't good enough yet, Savage isn't good enough to score regularly enough for a promotion chasing team, Curran isn't fit and will take at least a couple of weeks to get match fit and ready to start and I think the wheels are starting to fall off this promotion chase. Sorry for such a negative post but we were dire today against a very poor Crewe team, Crewe were terribl e but somehow we were even worse.

Try reading the whole thread Liam, and you'll find Roger89 said he (Savage) should of!

I couldn't get to the game but I find myself unsurprised by this result and the post match commments. Losing vital games like these has become a trade mark of Ronnie Moore's tenure.

Playing Kay in midfield is pointless, yes he comes up with goals, but he's not mobile enough and doesn't posses passing ability to play there. Kay should either be at centre back or centre forward or not on the pitch at all.

Edds should have stayed in the side as although I'm not his biggest fan, in the last 2 games he has scored 2 goals and he's moved the ball around in midfield, nothing spectacular, but he keeps the ball moving which is why the team had looked so menacing with the ball in midfield.

As usual though Ronnie Moore and Tranmere have gone out and shot themselves in the foot, we could have been 3 points outside the play offs with a game in hand. Now were six points off, and back to square one. Although the season is by no means over, I feel we will look back at this game at the end of the season and think what could have been.

We havn't won away from home since we played Orient in OCTOBER, which is pathetic no matter how you try to look at it. We need to keep up our home form, win at least 4 away games, preferably 5! and pick up some draws as well.

Ronnie didn't bring Waterfall on because he's under the age of 22 and he's not on loan from somewhere else.

I've just read Ronnie's comments and they are appaling! He doesn't accept any responsibilty for anything.
He says:
"Defenders weren't doing what they were doing when Goodison was on."

Thats his job to sort out in training!

[i]"There was only one change today and they're the same lads who passed it round against Carlisle and Stockport and played some lovely football.

Perhaps Edds was more instrumental then you think Ronnie!

I don't know what it is about being away from home.


Perhaps we should get a different manager for the away games then!

What Ronnie says may be right, but it's his refusal to accept some responsbilty that bugs me, or the fact that we've heard it all before. Ronnie seems to be great at identifying problems, but hopeless at solving them - like a 2 year old trying to do a sudoko! He knows what he needs to do, he just doesn't know how to!

For once I have to agree that he got it wrong today but he is obviously also doing something right in the longer term.

whats he doing right in the longer term because were gonna stay in league 1 until we get a manger who has some guts to make bold desicions and have a plan B and C not just plan A

I have to say, and I really hate to say it but we're becoming all too predictable really. Ronnie must have been watching a different game to everyone else today, the defending was naive because we had 2 centre backs on yellow cards and instead of moving a centre back to the centre backs position, we moved Shotton who had their winger and full back sussed and put Edds on who although did ok, was new to the game and took a little time to settle and so did Shotton in the centre. Why make forced changes for the sake of things? If Waterfall is on the bench then he's good enough to be used as a CB as a backup in the eventuality Goodison or Chorley became injured. If he isn't good enough then he shouldn't be on the bench. If the squad isn't good enough to have healthy competition then there is a massive problem. The problem I see there is that no matter how well someone performs when in the reserves or even in the first team for example Edds 2 goals in 1 and a half games from midfield and he's out of the team. That baffles me but when Savage has played 30 odd games and only scored 5 where is the logic in that? Different rules for different players and that surely sends out a negative vibe to the fringe players in the squad in that certain players will play week in week out regardless of previous performance. I honestly believe after today Ronnie needs to get some backbone and admit when he makes mistakes like he blatantly did today and start dropping players who are costing us games away from home.

To add some positivity to it all; if we win our games in hand we will be in a play-off posistion - it's not all doom and gloom.

Definitely Mikey and one of those games in hand being at home too albeit against Peterborough!

What a load of ham shank. It was a waste of time and effort by all them great fans that showed up to follow a team that was total crap. Wrong tactics again cost us. We looked like the team on the bottom. They wonder why fans give up on them poor poor Ronnie Moore

Every ball is a white ball............TRFC

thing is mikey we havnt been able to beat peterborough this season and the other game is away from home against colchester and were awful away from home so your looking at maybe 3 points from those 2 games in hand

The Ronnie Moore that inspired to two recent home wins and some excellent football.

Yes the results in those games have now been partly undone by what happened yesterday but it works both ways and although he got it wrong yesterday it never gets picked up on when he gets it right.

We haven't lost to Peterborough this season over 90 minutes in all three games though and in all three games we deserved at least a draw (and we deserved a win in both games at their Ground I felt).

As for Colchester, our Tuesday night away record has been poor for as long as I can remember but that is no basis on whichto write us off in that game either I don't feel.

We won't get in the play offs if we can't win our away games end of!

That much is obvious but it doesn't mean we won't win away games!

Fair enough Sub, I see your point on people only picking out the bad that Ronnie has done rather than the good. He seems to be able to motivate a team to pass the ball around and move well at home but away from home we seem to have a real problem. Crewe yesterday was the first away game I've been to this season but I went to a few last season and the season before and we always look like a different team, I just don't understand the problem. It's not so much the tactics I feel Ronnie got wrong yesterday, more the personnel and the way he goes about things, dropping Edds was a bad choice, moving Shotton to CB was another bad choice and it was enough to cost us the game. There must be the basis of a good team there but the age old problem of square pegs in round holes just keeps rearing its head over and over again and I think that's what fans have the biggest problem with. Ok the defending might have been naive yesterday but Ronnie chose who was playing where, that blame has to fall on his shoulders in my opinion. He's also signed midfielders and defenders when we've needed a striker on loan just to pick up some more points away from home but it hasn't happened. Instead we're playing defenders in midfield and wondering why we're not creating chances away from home.

IF the game goes ahead tomorrow then drop Kay back to defense, and put Edds back where he was for Stockport and Carlisle. it seems to me like the best place to have a captain lead from is the back two rows of the field. Kay plays too far forward on the pitch in all honesty to be a captain but maybe putting him smack bang in the middle of defense he might be able to give our defense the marshalling they need in keeping their line in the absense of Goodison.
That's if he doesn't start going walkabout himself and stays to the back rather than pushing up and leaving a big gaping hole in the middle of defense.

The only good thing to come out of Saturday was the fact that we haven't lost much ground and can still overtake Oldham with our extra two games, and we are still 7pts off 4th spot, we should be 3pts off Oldham now though and sitting 2 places higher than we are.
Our collapse on Saturday has left us 11pts off 2nd spot now, but as far as tomorrow goes, If Leicester can hammer 4 past them at their place, MK Dons can put 5 past them, and Peterborough can put 6 past them at their own ground then there should be no reason why we can't do the same.
The only side they have beaten in the top 12 this season was Colchester, and that was 5 minutes into injury time, they have the worst record in the division against sides in the top half with only 5pts gained in 14 games, whilst we are 7th against sides in the bottom half. They have also shipped more goals than any other team in the division now after letting 5 in on Saturday, taking over from previous goal leakers, errr...Crewe.

Knowing our luck though, we will probably get beat 1-0 now, when we should be winning this game, especially after Saturday's performance.

Ronnie got it so wrong sub mate. When we won we did praise hime and the team. But that was s@@t. Why did Kay not go center back and ed's in the middle.

Every ball is a white ball............TRFC

I agree that's what he should have done but people choose only to see one side!

Interesting stats their intimate. Hope it goes on tomorrow and we can show how good we really are. Only crewe in this league have lost more games than Cheltenham this season

Not me mate. I had nothing but good to say in the last game. But we was so poor and it's a shame cause so many people showed up and how many of them do you think will go back to an away game again. A win was so important but instead it was all wrong

Every ball is a white ball............TRFC

He got it wrong and won't admit it that's for sure!

Just a reminder sometimes Ronnie got it wrong lol