Crewe v Swindon Matchday Thread

[Trashbat?]

We lack a big brick outhouse type forward, which to me is essential in this formation

[Batch]

Yeah i've thought about Jan window, but we wont get anyone to push us on. It needs a spark, or a group of 4/5 very good players hitting form at the same time, and I cant see either happening on that showing.

We'd certainly need to get very very lucky, 'cause there's cat in hells chance of paying for them.

I think we are only 2 players and a lucky run of no injuries/suspensions to make the playoffs. A proper striker and a left back.

Relying on Anderson and Woolery to chip in with goals is stupid. As is putting Richards as the loan striker.

[Bogus Dave]

We have one, he’s being played on the left for some reason

[Sir red ken]

January window or not our team isn't on fire or able to grind out results. PB is a nice guy but the squad is underfunded and will continue to be so.Jan would just see another loan player or freetransfers. The club has no money and not much future under the current ownership. PB is safe though he's keeping the team in the desired positition Mid table div2. What worries me is if we start a season badly, the big black non league door will open and swallow us up.

[RobertT]

Reg has mentioned, and have a few others, but Doughty is a big miss.  He'd be for any side at this level, but he is the key for the way we have set-up to play.

Just as Diagouraga is probably key to us stopping the rot at the back, so Doughty is the key going forward because the front man is being played with his444 back to goal all the time.  On top of that Richards is getting gradually worse it seems.  Either he really is now in decline or he can't take the games.  He is not the right player for that role anyway, but even a half decent forward should at least be able to play a role, just not as effectively.  He's worse than Dunne was at right back when exposed as a player.

Not sure how it works with Wollery, do you add him wide and move Adebayo inside?

Anyway, Doughty is the missing player that will worry me about my play off prediction.

Romanski went backwards in that game as well, and with Taylor also looking well past his sell by date, that is a position we have to sort out in January.

I'm also not sold on Alzate and Anderson together.

[RobertT]

It's frustrating because a few games we've looked quite good, then we have ones like this where it seems like the players are all working for themselves, it unravels and becomes lacking in any shape.  Iandolo and McGlashan were on the same wing at one point.

[diggers]

Yeah I didn’t think you’d get through a match day thread without having a pop at Matt Taylor! “Well past his sell by date”  is more than harsh - it seems some people have short memories on here - he was out best player last season by a country mile - he just shouldn’t be playing 40 plus games this season at left back, nor should he be last man one on one like he was on Saturday.

[Batch]

To be fair he's not been of the same standard as last year yet

[RobertT]

He was good, in a role last season.  That role does not exist anymore and he's one day older as each day passes.  Just because a player was good last season does not relate to this season.  He cannot be relied upon to be an effective left back in every game, and as was shown today, we don't really have anyone to give him a rest.  I wouldn't have too much of a problem with him being brought on later in a game, but he is exposed at left back, and usually badly.  His free kicks remain a threat, but you can't player a specialist kicker and hide them in football like you can in rugby.  It's an area of weakness - if he was playing like he did in a spell last season it wouldn't be.  Time stands still for nobody, no matter how well liked.  Ferguson was a master, as three Managers have since shown, because he knew when to move a player on and get new talent in.

[Batch]

mcGlashen, Ricky Shakes mk2. Too harsh?

[diggers]

Oh no, I totally agree with that - but it just seems to me that he’s the one getting most of the tap on here. He didn’t play tonight and by all accounts it was one of the worst performances of the season. It has to be a concern when you are relying on 2 players past their mid thirties - it’s not like they are going to get better is it?!

[RobertT]

Yeah I didn’t think you’d get through a match day thread without having a pop at Matt Taylor! “Well past his sell by date”  is more than harsh - it seems some people have short memories on here - he was out best player last season by a country mile - he just shouldn’t be playing 40 plus games this season at left back, nor should he be last man one on one like he was on Saturday.

And you finish off with the problem - he is being used as a 46 game a season player as we don't have a back-up, and that is exactly the role you ask your full backs to do when you have a corner or attacking free-kick.  Namely because they know how to defend and usually do not have the same height as the centre backs come with.  It is his job when not taking the corners, if he can't do it for 46 games and he can't do all of the job he is supposed to do, that is a problem for us.  It had no bearing on today, other than it exposed the issue because his replacement started ok and finished off doing rings around himself trying to track players at times.

[diggers]

ps you said he was way past his sell by date - that’s just rubbish. He’s past his sell by date, but at least he has a sell by date, which is more than you can say about Lancashire, Robertson and Dunne who are all still cluttering up the wage bill and have been woeful since the minute Flitcroft signed them. Brown is stuck with them.

[suttonred]

mcGlashen, Ricky Shakes mk2. Too harsh?

Not from what I've seen so far. Over the years I've seen him against us a few times, and he's never been one to worry about when discussing before a game, and never shown he would be. Maybe he needs time to settle, some players take a year.

[RobertT]

And I'm not saying I don't like him, he has grafted to make a pretty good career for a player with limited ability, that left foot serving him well.  If anything, I feel a bit sorry for him having to shoulder the burden - if he'd been given the Managers job I bet he would have hung the boots up in the summer.  Don't begrudge anyone willing to put the effort in, that's my biggest frustration with the team.  Even Lancashire tries, nobody goes missing, our problem just seems to be we either get it right as a team or everyone goes off and does their own thing in isolation.  Anderson for example, had several runs today of about 30 or 40 yards but everyone else just watches because they had no idea what he was then going to do at the end.