Crewe Alexandra versus Derby County - Match Day Thread ( FA Cup 1st Round )

[Walkley Ram]

12 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

In the interview on this thread (at 47 seconds) he literally said we don’t come away with it feeling like a victory.

If, in another interview, he did say a draw feels like a win, come on, surely he meant scoring two very late goals to grab a draw makes it feel like a win. I think that’s a very normal and common sensation and not an indication of his expectation. Same with their manager, if you’re 2:0 up on 88 minutes you’re bound to be disappointed not to have won even if you’ve been played off the park for those 88 minutes.

That's a fair way to see it. I won't ever agree that a draw with a lower league team feels like a win, regardless of the circumstances. Call me old fashioned, but a win would have felt like a win.

[BucksRam]

5 minutes ago, Gabby'sThighs said:

Plenty of people here complaining about the endless crosses but at least there were some effective low crosses and cut-backs. It's a damn shame that most of the cut-backs went to someone who either dithered or blasted the ball into row Z.

As well as teaching Collins to stay onside, can Cashin learn how to head the ball downwards? All those corners and we were barely a threat from a single one.

More positively, Wilson looked good coming off the bench, and NML is great at the moment. He looks angry and determined to prove someone wrong.

Adebesi looked really decent and he's out-of-contract in the summer.

With good reason sadly.  If we had a massive unit of a striker as the target then fine - we don't. We need King Colin back.  Crewe were set up to defend the cross, and did it extremely well. We opened them up by playing it to our strengths, on the ground to score our two goals.  Shooting practice wouldn't go amiss too. 

[old tray boy]

If you put lipstick on a pig it's still s pig.Shocking result however you dress it up.

[Jourdan]

43 minutes ago, S8TY said:

It was an FA Cup tie easily Crewes biggest game of the season so far and in the magic of the FA Cup especially if you can bring a big team to your place it all adds to the drama especially if the underdog scores first …if we had scored first as I mentioned in the match thread I think we would’ve won easily but we didn’t and squandered chances and oppurtunities to create more goal scoring opportunities 

This is the FA cup and why we love football so don’t mistake it for the dross we’ve witnessed at times this season 

Good character to keep going and get a draw when we should’ve been out of sight is my analysis 

I am not sure out of sight is a fair analysis. To me, it was a tactical battle which after 88 minutes you would have to say Crewe looked to have won. Fortunately, we got a bit of good fortune with the first goal back and rescued a draw.

Their tactic to defend, soak up pressure and exploit space on the break seemed far more effective given our efforts to dominate the ball and probe a packed defence only yielded 4-5 genuinely good chances despite 30 plus shots and us pinning them back in their half for long spells with 70% possession. Most things were speculative.

Even though they gave up lots of possession, territory and shots, Crewe scored two and capitalised on our lack in of concentration and organisation at the back. They could have scored a few more in fairness too. We were asleep in the first minute and gave away another two quality chances in and around the second goal too.

I am not saying it is dross. But our lack of cutting edge was frustrating and it follows a similar pattern with other games this season. If we had had more cutting edge, we’d have probably beaten Wigan, Cambridge and Cheltenham at the very least and may have got more from Oxford and Shrewsbury too. It would put a completely different slant on the season.

[Tamworthram]

4 minutes ago, old tray boy said:

If you put lipstick on a pig it's still s pig.Shocking result however you dress it up.

Disappointing yes but hardly shocking. If our result was shocking I don’t know what that makes Charlton’s, Barnsley’s and Portsmouth’s.

[Magicman]

Our back line  were below par a rare position  but thankfully Hourihane did the coolest finish to grab a draw.

[Jimbo Ram]

3 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Disappointing yes but hardly shocking. If our result was shocking I don’t know what that makes Charlton’s, Barnsley’s and Portsmouth’s.

Drawing away at Crewe in the cup no longer seen as a shock sums up where we are sadly. 

[strawhillram]

Just now, Jimbo Ram said:

Drawing away at Crewe in the cup no longer seen as a shock sums up where we are sadly. 

Lower league and only 12 fit players available to them, some carrying injuries . 

[Mucker1884]

25 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Drawing away at Crewe in the cup no longer seen as a shock sums up where we are sadly. 

I'd say drawing away to a side just one division below, with a grand total of 22 league placings between the two sides, has rarely... if ever... been considered a shock, when it comes to the FA Cup.

In such circumstances, even a victory for the lower placed team would more often than not be met with mere cries of "Oops!  Well, that's a turn up for the books"!

 

[DCFC Kicks]

2 hours ago, On the Ram Page said:

Think you'd better watch Liverpool a bit more. Mo Salah in particular on the left side. Newcastle are another who attack down the wings with Gordon and Almiron.

Just because they both like to attack from wide doesn't mean they want to do it in the same way. What Warne wants is nothing like the    3-3-3-1 Liverpool or Man City play, or Newcastle's 4-3-3. Liverpool have Szoboszlai, Mac Allister and Trent who play through the middle. Warne wants something similar to how Luton play, who also attack almost exclusively from the wing-backs. 3-5-2, with three ball-winning midfielders, and two big target men up front

[Chris_Martin]

2 hours ago, On the Ram Page said:

Think you'd better watch Liverpool a bit more. Mo Salah in particular on the left side. Newcastle are another who attack down the wings with Gordon and Almiron.

salah never plays on the left.

Yes they both attack down the wings, but they don't just relentlessly cross it in as soon as they get in the final 3rd. They both very rarely if at all just aimlessly cross it in the box in the hope that eventually one will fall for you. Both clubs have so many more attacking patterns of play too. We are nothing like either of them.

[RedSox]

2 hours ago, S8TY said:

It was an FA Cup tie easily Crewes biggest game of the season so far and in the magic of the FA Cup especially if you can bring a big team to your place it all adds to the drama especially if the underdog scores first …if we had scored first as I mentioned in the match thread I think we would’ve won easily but we didn’t and squandered chances and oppurtunities to create more goal scoring opportunities 

This is the FA cup and why we love football so don’t mistake it for the dross we’ve witnessed at times this season 

Good character to keep going and get a draw when we should’ve been out of sight is my analysis 

But just to bring a rather more dismal viewpoint to it, Crewe could only manage 5 players on their bench and I believe had 8 players out injured.  Why didn't we change our gameplan by halftime to overrun a makeshift Div 2 team?  We were too slow and deliberate in our build up, giving Crewe time to pack out the final third. You're right, we should have been out of sight and with better game management, maybe we would have been.  The jury is still out on our tactical nouse - whether that lies at PW's door or the players  - or maybe both, I don't have an informed view of.  It's still very frustrating to watch.....

[S8TY]

1 hour ago, Jourdan said:

I am not sure out of sight is a fair analysis. To me, it was a tactical battle which after 88 minutes you would have to say Crewe looked to have won. Fortunately, we got a bit of good fortune with the first goal back and rescued a draw.

Their tactic to defend, soak up pressure and exploit space on the break seemed far more effective given our efforts to dominate the ball and probe a packed defence only yielded 4-5 genuinely good chances despite 30 plus shots and us pinning them back in their half for long spells with 70% possession. Most things were speculative.

Even though they gave up lots of possession, territory and shots, Crewe scored two and capitalised on our lack in of concentration and organisation at the back. They could have scored a few more in fairness too. We were asleep in the first minute and gave away another two quality chances in and around the second goal too.

I am not saying it is dross. But our lack of cutting edge was frustrating and it follows a similar pattern with other games this season. If we had had more cutting edge, we’d have probably beaten Wigan, Cambridge and Cheltenham at the very least and may have got more from Oxford and Shrewsbury too. It would put a completely different slant on the season.

I can say now it was never a tactical battle Crewe you say had looked to have won that battle, I disagree as we should've been out of sight by the 88th min as we were that dominant.

If we had been lucky to get a draw I'd admit to that but we wasn't lucky, If you'd watched that match not knowing either side or what level they were playing at I'd say nearly everyone would say we were by far the better side but...as i mentioned our finishing was poor and sometimes our decision making was not great but I'd rather have those problems than being dominated and playing on the backfoot, we didn't and on another day we would've been 2-3 up before they scored.

Also credit to Crewe who defended resolutely and should be proud of there performance but there only tactic was to try and get out of there own half in the first 45

I've been critical of Warne but not in this game, as fans we can all have an opinion and choose to dislike the manager or certain players maybe but also its important to get behind the team and management if they're seen to be trying to improve some of the dross from this season that we've seen so all the time we are trying to dominate games and try to actually play football I'm fully behind us win lose or draw because its better than Some recent away performances and some home ones too 

[Ghost of Clough]

2 hours ago, On the Ram Page said:

Think you'd better watch Liverpool a bit more. Mo Salah in particular on the left side. Newcastle are another who attack down the wings with Gordon and Almiron.

Crosses as a percentage of total passes:

Derby: 6.25%

Liverpool: 3.13%

Newcastle: 2.79%

Man City: 2.50%

[Barney1991]

22 hours ago, Ambitious said:

I didn’t watch the game, but I believe we had something like 700 passes and 30-odd shots at goal with almost 80% possession. 

I thought the majority wanted Warne out because we didn’t play in that manner more often? It’s hard for a manager to have total control over situations in football games, it’s not FIFA, all he can really do is set up a team in a way that generates the most possession, opportunities and the players are liable for the rest. 

Again, without watching the game, but just looking at the box score, I’m not sure how you can blame Warne for this?

The football was better than what’s been served up before the Northampton game. My biggest big bear with warne and has been since the West Ham game is his inability to tactically alter a game in play. Cambridge Cheltenham yesterday Stevenage Shrewsbury all game it’s cross cross cross. It’s so predictable and the defenders are lapping it up. Hence why we’ve struggled when players sit behind the ball he hasn’t got the brain tactic to change it up or quick think. It’s like he doesn’t even use his brain with substitutions. On the flip side this season and last season the sheer amounts of games where the opposition manager has altered the game plan at half time or mid game and he hasn’t got a clue how to combat it. One example being Shrewsbury at home last season or where managers have changed formation or added an extra body in midfield to overload it and he hasn’t got clue. You can clearly see why he’s struggled at championship level as he hasn’t got the technicality to alter his methods and it’s a whole different level even just the step up from league 1 to the championship. 
 

it’s completely different to managing Rotherham to derby in league 1. Managers will specifically target a scalp on derby and will alter their game to suit and I’m not so sure teams would look at Rotherham in the same light. 
 

I love the guy and want him to do well but he’s got to start finding different ways to win. Also the recruitment in the summer was confusing to say the least. He wanted players prime age to press and bought in the complete opposite. He wanted legs in midfield and only opted to bring formah in. 
 

was a very confusing and underwhelming summer recruitment and I feel we are worse of for it. We are building for the championship and there’s not more than 3 players if keep if we were to go up says it all. Sorry for the rant 

[Abu Derby]

11 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

I guess the Luton keeper could have done the same given Liverpool had 24 shots but only six on target.

Couldn’t give a monkeys what Luton & Liverpool could or couldn’t have done. 

[S8TY]

19 minutes ago, Barney1991 said:

The football was better than what’s been served up before the Northampton game. My biggest big bear with warne and has been since the West Ham game is his inability to tactically alter a game in play. Cambridge Cheltenham yesterday Stevenage Shrewsbury all game it’s cross cross cross. It’s so predictable and the defenders are lapping it up. Hence why we’ve struggled when players sit behind the ball he hasn’t got the brain tactic to change it up or quick think. It’s like he doesn’t even use his brain with substitutions. On the flip side this season and last season the sheer amounts of games where the opposition manager has altered the game plan at half time or mid game and he hasn’t got a clue how to combat it. One example being Shrewsbury at home last season or where managers have changed formation or added an extra body in midfield to overload it and he hasn’t got clue. You can clearly see why he’s struggled at championship level as he hasn’t got the technicality to alter his methods and it’s a whole different level even just the step up from league 1 to the championship. 
 

it’s completely different to managing Rotherham to derby in league 1. Managers will specifically target a scalp on derby and will alter their game to suit and I’m not so sure teams would look at Rotherham in the same light. 
 

I love the guy and want him to do well but he’s got to start finding different ways to win. Also the recruitment in the summer was confusing to say the least. He wanted players prime age to press and bought in the complete opposite. He wanted legs in midfield and only opted to bring formah in. 
 

was a very confusing and underwhelming summer recruitment and I feel we are worse of for it. We are building for the championship and there’s not more than 3 players if keep if we were to go up says it all. Sorry for the rant 

good post mate I share your inhibitions regarding Warne and can he really change that much and be adaptable ?

I'm not sure, it looks to me like a slight change of style has just began but not entirely convinced its totally comfortable for Warne and maybe not his idea ?

[DiggerB]

5 hours ago, admira said:

Nothing has changed since pre-season. We needed a striker who knows where the net is then and yesterday proved we still do. Let's hope one becomes available in January in our price range.

And their price tag and wage demands will rocket as soon as Stephen Pearce’s number pops up on their agents phone.

[RoyMac5]

2 minutes ago, DiggerB said:

And their price tag and wage demands will rocket as soon as Stephen Pearce’s number pops up on their agents phone.

Just get Warney to WhatsApp them.

[ketteringram]

Anyone know which match day this season has had the longest thread?