Crewe Alexandra (A) Match Discussion Thread

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:23:18:35:57 by Deadly Submarine.

Judging by the results so far this could end up 4-4. Hopefully Ronnie has worked on the defence in the week. I'll take a scrappy 1-0

Believe we will not be good enough for a foot balling team as Crewe are. 2-0 defeat.

Hope I'm wrong.

SWA

2 1 to Crewe.

If Goody is injured as the official site says then we will have no cover at all for the back four! Lets hope they all stay injury free or we may have to play Stockton in defence!!!!! Its a very strange decision in my opinion not to have any sort of cover as yet? Can not carry on much longer like this. Happy in a strange sort of way with a point.

My heart says 2-1 tranmere and my head says 3-1 Crawley due to our terrible defense

Mohammed, you are a week behind, get a grip man, we're playing Crewe.

In that case , 3-3 lol

2-0 crewe

The problem with Goodison as cover is that at his age is going to be far more vulnerable to injury and lack of pre season training cannot help that situation.

It seems really odd that we have entered the season with so little defensive cover

think the win for the ressies mid week will lift the side 1 - 3 think we'll win this one

Oh dear, now we are realy in a mess. This is a complete and utter shambles to the start of the season, Reinforcements badly needed. An utter disgrace we started with no defensive cover. Can only stick up for Ronnie for so long.

3-1 crewe

Not at match but BBC report suggests that Tranmere was on top until the sending off. Not the best of starts to a season.

please go easy folks, think the lads dug in today and tried hard till the end

As much as I like to know they dug in hard - we need to be getting our maximum points against the likes of Crewe. I wasn't there and can't comment on performance, but i am getting a tad concerned now.

Just got back from the match and have to say it could have esily gone either way.

I thought we played our best football of the season so far, out footballed Crewe at times and were definitely making inroads until the sending off.

I don't know what's happened to Danny Holmes, he's lost his head and a few yards of pace as well and I think he needs to be replaced in this transfer window. I have no arguments with the sending off, first was a definite yellow and made a challenge a few minutes later which really deserved a yellow but the ref gave him his last warning. I thought at that point we should have brought him off as it was inevitable he would get a second yellow and sure enough he did.

We looked better defensively with Horwood looking better and only really got exposed once down that side when he was up the pitch. Foster is the problem for me, hardly won a header all game and kept making bad choices. Whether it's time or what i don't know, but he could be a problem if he continues on this path.

Midfield is also an issue, there were either too deep or too far forward for me with no one willing to come back and pick up the ball to take it forward leaving the only option of hoofing it up. I'm not sure about Atkinson , he was virtually none existent today apart from a couple of shots and that's not good enough for me.

Cannot fault either striker today, both put a fine shift in with Akpro my man of the match for causing their backline so many issues.

The biggest worry for me is that we not creating enough chances for either striker. I personally think if you give Lowe enough chances in a game he'll score goals but were not doing it and it's a real worry.

We looked better today, but there's still a lot to improve. A fully fit Koumas and/or Wallace will make a massive difference to us but at the moment, I cannot see where were going to get a win from.

But surely this is the point of pre-season. get your team out, look at players and get an starting XI in mind, not still be looking to improve after you've shipped 8 goals in 3 games. Granted we've scored 5, but we've still shipped 8! Surely by the time you're playing in competitive games you should only be looking at tweaks - unless a key player is injured and it's caused an upheaval in your plans.

Not Ronnie bashing, just thinking aloud.

Danny Holmes was booked and given a final warning for what IMO was more of a yellow card than the first one. The Crewe players on the left were playing to get him a second yellow.Holmes should have been substituted there and then.Thompson had already been booked on that side so he had to be careful too. When he brought Jones our new loanee on,it showed what should have happened before the sending off. Jones was excellent-very impressive and set our goal up.

We were as good as Crewe with ten men.Their second goal was a breakaway.Horwood took a corner from the other side of the pitch but nobody moved across to cover his position.

We could and should have come away with something from that game-it wasn't through lack of effort.

I will be out for next few hours so will answer any replies later.

Ronnie said he was going to bring off Holmes and being on Jones and the sneidng off happened just before he was going to do it.

Danny has to some extent accept responsibility for the result and I feel based on what I know of the game Tranmere would have won with 11 men.

So I am not overly concerned by this, as I think Tranmere were competing well until the sending off, whereas in previous weeks they were behind at that point and no doubt being a man down could have disrupted the flow of the team a bit and they were doing well ot stay in it to some extent and get a goal.

That's 1 goal 1 assist for Akpro, so he's getting somewhere close to his early season form from last season it seems.

Peterborough will be a difficult game, but Jones is available and seems to be a good acquisition and without Holmes playing, he hopefully should provide enough quality, but if the reported effort and will is prevalent for the full 90 next week, I can see Tranmere sneaking that first win.

Then I ate his Liver.......... with some baked beans and a can of coke.

Woeful,

the football was very poor from us long ball after long ball....just what ryan lowe needs

Holmes - they had 10 minutes to sub him off....

Same old rubbish from our manager

could have been 3-0 when clayton hit the post

waste of time and money.

Basically see my comments the past month and that sums it up.

Some more great comments from our joke of a manager post match.

Fed up

Well that opinion differs from every report i have seen on this and other sites.

Moore had 15 minutes to sub Holmes before he got sent off. To call Holmes an idiot is a disgrace-the only idiot was Moore himself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:18:00:02:20 by Hoots Mon.

Deleted



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:18:00:38:42 by Hoots Mon.

Quote:

Matt34
Ronnie said he was going to bring off Holmes and being on Jones and the sneidng off happened just before he was going to do it.
Danny has to some extent accept responsibility for the result and I feel based on what I know of the game Tranmere would have won with 11 men.

''Based on what I know of the game''

So I take it you weren't there?

Holmes should have been subbed as soon as he got the warning, a guy off-form with a 'one more and you are off' warning is a sitting duck to the opposition.

Not sure about idiot ... but Holmes has to take a lot of the blame as well - would hope he is fined. But pretty sickening how he's become a hate figure now on 'the other forum'.

We were doing OK at nil-nil then fell apart for the rest of the half. Second half we gave it a real shot and played pretty well matching the 11 men - the woeful report above is just nonsense.

JLAA missed a one-on-one that he really should have scored just before the red card. If Moore was being legit then you'd assume the break in play would have meant the sub would have taken place there.

According to the BBC website Holmes was booked after 11 minutes and the tackle for which he got his final warning was after 13 minutes. He was sent off after 33 minutes. So Moore was not ''being legit''

Any comments about a player being an idiot should be made in private.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:18:00:35:42 by Hoots Mon.

Starting to get a tad worried now...Losing can become a habit...

Has anyone noticed that Foster can't head the ball? Bit worrying for a centre back, if we had 11 men today we would of got atleast a point but Danny Holmes poor tackling lost us the match. I can't believe Holmes had intrest from Celtic and Liverpool 12 months ago....Bizzare.

foster is decent in the air for me....won the header down for lowe's goal the other week....can't jump but still wins his fair share...

with 11 men we just lumped it down the channels got lucky to get a 1-1 when the centre back missed a hoof forward....to say we would have won the game with 11 is garbage....they were by far the better side and caused a lot of problems hence why our RB could have been sent off after 15 minutes.

Mo, thee was no interest in Holmes from Liverpool or Celtic it was rubbish from his agent that some people believed.

Quote:

cadburygorilla
foster is decent in the air for me....won the header down for lowe's goal the other week....can't jump but still wins his fair share...
with 11 men we just lumped it down the channels got lucky to get a 1-1 when the centre back missed a hoof forward....to say we would have won the game with 11 is garbage....they were by far the better side and caused a lot of problems hence why our RB could have been sent off after 15 minutes.

No way were Crewe by far the better side-they were poor and were there for the taking. Foster was ok in the air-it was his header[I think] that hit the bar early on but did NOT cross the line. despite claims to the opposite by some of our fans on the other board.
As to whether we'd have won with 11 men,we'll never know because the manager's unforgiveable tardiness in not replacing a player who was obviously heading for a second yellow card deprived the team of the chance to find out.

I though it was Ash who won the header for the Lowe goal v Crawley.

So its the managers fault for the player getting sent off. How about it was the player fault?. Maybe he should have looked at his crystal ball and then seen he was going to happen ... ... .

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

Quote:

tranmerepete
So its the managers fault for the player getting sent off. How about it was the player fault?. Maybe he should have looked at his crystal ball and then seen he was going to happen ... ... .

Yes it was his fault for not substituting Holmes well before he was sent off.There was no crystal ball needed to see that that was going to happen and there was plenty of time for this to have been done after the ref gave Holmes his final warning.

So it was Homles fault as he was playing not Ronnie. He did not listen to the ref so he cost us the game. So what your saying is soon as a player gets a yellow card they should be taken off. Lots of players get a yellow card and stay on the pitch the whole game. Homles let the team down not Ronnie...........

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

Quote:

tranmerepete
So it was Homles fault as he was playing not Ronnie. He did not listen to the ref so he cost us the game. So what your saying is soon as a player gets a yellow card they should be taken off. Lots of players get a yellow card and stay on the pitch the whole game. Homles let the team down not Ronnie...........

No. Not at all.He got the yellow card and then the final warning in the first quarter of an hour or so.It was clear that the two Crewe players on the left side who were both quite quick were trying to induce another tackle to get him a second yellow. He should have been substituted long before he was sent off. Were you even there?

I think with 11 men on the pitch we'd have at least drawn the game it's as simple as that.

People are moaning about Holmes being called an idiot but quite simply he was.

I will add that it was fairly clear that Holmes was on thin ice particularly after the warning but whether he was about to be subbed we will never know.

Crewe were nothing special at all and we looked a lot better going forward particularly Horwood. Considering Thompson was ill he also played well.

Definitely some positives yesterday. None more so than the new right back Jones who looked great. Hopefully the beginning of a new RB era!

Holmes is a professional. If he 'had ' to be substituted because of 'provocation' he is clearly an idiot. Therefore he deserves to be called one.

Quote:

Mal A Prop
Holmes is a professional. If he 'had ' to be substituted because of 'provocation' he is clearly an idiot. Therefore he deserves to be called one.

He wasn't provoked. Encouraged[by their left sided players] yes but not provoked.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:18:19:23:53 by Hoots Mon.

The fact holmes was left 1-1 with the fastest winger in the league NOT ONCE NOT TWICE BUT 3 TIMES says a lot about our tactics.

It was either 2-0 down or 3 fouls imo

I remember thinking 'wish he would sub Homes' cos you could just sense he was going to lash out again. I think it was really unprofessional of Holmes - you could see it coming- and he let us all down because it was shaping up to be a great match with a good atmosphere in the away end before that.

Still loads of time to turn it around and the fans need to stay calm.

As far as Moore is concerned he's brought in some good signings up front but why has he left us so short in defence. I think it's a bit reckless and we have absolutely nothing in depth to turn to when we defend poorly.

Jones showed us what we've been missing and as far as I'm concerned Ronnie should be working to bring a couple more loan defenders in as soon as.

I honestly think that the shortage is due to lack ofquality out there for the available money. Ronnie didnt want to sign anyone just to fill numbers. Maybe we will have a Gibson moment with the likes of Jones, as a result.

I agree that we have to manage on a low wage budget. This is challenging but not unique at this level. It is harder to find talent and there is more of a risk as to whether a signing will pay off but it is does not explain the lack of balance in the recuitment this summer.

It was patently clear that we lacked depth and options in defence. Goodison is also a diminishing asset and does not give a real option for replacing a player as aregular starter. It has been clear for sometime that Holmes has been increasingly exposed and i was quite surprided that he was retained.
The defence remains vulnerable and our midfield is questionable.There is scope for playing either Koumas or Robinson but both together leaves us short of pace.

It is early days but this always looked like a squad that was more likely to be fighting off relegation than pushing for promotion. With just one point we urgently need a win both for confidence and to avoid becoming detached. The first 3 games have not been the most demanding but we have struggled to make an impact.

I am an admirer of RM but I do think that he has got things wrong during the close season. I hope that PJ will give him enough slack to bring in some loanees. There is also the hope that some youngsters will break through to the first team but there is no obvious candidate knocking on the door.

It is probably lack of available talent for the price that has largely governed defensive signings, though perhaps not the complete reason.

Then I ate his Liver.......... with some baked beans and a can of coke.

Moore has said it has been hard to find decent defenders at the right price, particularly RB and LB.

Even if it has been hard I think it's stupid to have started the season with only Goodison as cover. His job is to make sure we start the seaon with a squad, even accepting he has a tight budget. IMO he's been reckless in that respect.

He's then publicly gone on the record criticising the defenders several times. Many might agree with that criticism but he's undermined them in public - which might be ok if he could bring someone else on. But he can't so its stupid.

So I think he should be busting a gut to sort it out and bring in some alternatives on loan or whatever.

And I don't think it's right to be heaping blame on the likes of Foater, Horwood and Holmes in this respect because if we had a tiny bit of depth in the squad we wouldn't be so exposed and we might see them performing more confidently.

just gets me RM thought to comment post match he was 'going to sub Danny' !!! I was going to do so much !!

Ok, so can you name those who are available that would be good enough?

I reckon we still need a RB/LB an a RM because we have not replaced Mcgurk an so far this season I would of rather had Mcgurk in our team.

[quote @gony]just gets me RM thought to comment post match he was 'going to sub Danny' !!! I was going to do so much
We should all get off Ronnies back. It's Danny Holmes fault Danny Holmes got sent off. If Ronnie delayed making the sub Thete would be a valid reason for it. He signed strikers in the close season because we coulnt hit a bar
n door for the last 10 games. Did anyone really believe we would be mounting another promotion challenge this season??

Quote:

Gloucester white
Did anyone really believe we would be mounting another promotion challenge this season??

A lot of people did and that's part of the problem now. The defence was short staffed back at the start of the season and yet there was (blind?) optimism but now everyone is seeing what only some of us seemingly saw all along!

[quote Gloucester white][quote @gony]just gets me RM thought to comment post match he was 'going to sub Danny' !!! I was going to do so much
We should all get off Ronnies back. It's Danny Holmes fault Danny Holmes got sent off. If Ronnie delayed making the sub Thete would be a valid reason for it. He signed strikers in the close season because we coulnt hit a bar
n door for the last 10 games. Did anyone really believe we would be mounting another promotion challenge this season??[/quote]
Moore DID delay making the sub. He had almost 20 minutes to do so after Holmes received his final warning. It was patently obvious to THOSE OF US WHO WERE THERE that Holmes would be sent off if he was not subbed.

Quote:

Deadly Submarine

Quote:

Gloucester white
Did anyone really believe we would be mounting another promotion challenge this season??

A lot of people did and that's part of the problem now. The defence was short staffed back at the start of the season and yet there was (blind?) optimism but now everyone is seeing what only some of us seemingly saw all along!

Totally agree.

mal a prop we could have had gareth Roberts Richard hinds better than what we,ve got.so our scout philpotts cannot find a defender in a lower league who,s wage we could double surely that's his job after all he does get paid

How so, 'could have had'? What were the wage demands? Did they actually say they wanted to join? I am curious because there has to be a logical reason why they didn't join. Actually, were they on trial? I couldn't make any pre-season friendlies

As an aside, I find it shameful that we suffer from financial woes whilst Liverpool writes off £30,000,000 on two players when selling them to West Ham. What we could have done with just 10 % of that waste.

I met gareth Roberts at a wedding in chester last December and he said he would love to come back to tranmere these players hinds,navarro,jennings,plus Roberts are in the real world regarding wages not saying we want Navarro or jennings

Thought Navarro was a great player when he was with us who amazingly didn't get picked regularly. No surprise he went on to play at a higher level. Jennings wasn't bad either.

Navarro was a regular until he got a serious injury, when he came back for us he didn't look the same player and was rightly left out of the side, he has since gone on to prove his fitness and have a good career.

I don't think we would've been able to afford both Roberts & Horwood so weve gone for the younger player.

Bury could somehow afford him though, bearing in mind their owners regardless of wealth, shelled out on a debt ridden club, so they won't be giving Kevin Blackwell quite the same money as they would have, had they just bought a solvent club with "want away" owners.

Perhaps the cost of two Lb's was an issue in that regard, but then Ronnie makes a choice.

A: Sign the younger player over one with more experience, fit as a fiddle, (his last managers reflections) and potentially more than adequate for another 2 maybe 3 years.

B: Do the reverse, favouring experience and potential skill factor over youth, knowing a popular returnee will potentially generate a few more £££'s on the gate, giving the club more spending ability in the longer-term.

C: Have both and decide to forget someone like Rowe or Atkinson, in an attempt to create a more balanced transfer window, that doesn't favour one area of the pitch too much.

I would favour option C: and would probably feel Rowe is the better option over Atkinson, as the latters loan wages could have then been used to pay part of Roberts' money, seeing as Rowe had played quite a bit of pre-season and Atkinson was more of a unknown quantity coming in in the latter stages.

Roberts would then have been signed with maybe at least a good 3-4 games left prior to Walsall, so time enough to bed in again and make a statement regarding whether he would usurp his younger counterpart, for a start at LB against Walsall.

I would have been a little happier about the defensive ranks if Roberts had signed, if it meant sacrificing Rowe or Atkinson, preferably Atkinson, though I have no particular beef with him.

Then I ate his Liver.......... with some baked beans and a can of coke.

its all ifs and buts and what ifs now, until tranmere and ronnie pull somthing out the bag, we are stuck with what we have now !!!!!!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:21:12:21:54 by goosed.

What is odd is that RM said that there is a problem in the centre of defence as both are right footed and each is better playing on the right. Didnt he know that before building the defence around this partnership?

Maybe he did know this, but thought it might work out anyway.

Let's face it, it's clear he's not been able to find many viable options for defence, so if he'd decided not to bother with Foster, Tranmere would have been even more thin at the back.

Then I ate his Liver.......... with some baked beans and a can of coke.

Theirs not much we can do apart from encourage Ronnie or start chanting 'Ronnie Out" on Saturday but that is very unlikely to happen and rightly so. So we might aswell get behind the lads despite how sh*t they are.

They were not sh*t at Crewe mo. There were some very posative signs of us gettin better very impressed with the young lad jones thought he played very well so let's see how we get on on sat and hopefully sneak 3pts. S.W.A

Your living in a fantasy world Dave

Thoght the game was quite even most of the time and rovers seem to play better when Holmes was sent off.

And I think you are living in a negative world, Mohammed. There WERE positive signs.

"I think there's an enormous value to being negative. The world we live in today, negativity is not permitted".
Godfrey Reggio

Sub, did you go the ressies ? I missed it ! any one you spotted ? several new names that have not come from the youth to my Knowledge, tho missed most games as helping in charrity shop ! off to watch them in the morning tho

Most of the Reserve games are 2pm kick off so won't make many this season.