The Voice - Match preview #18: Crewe Alexandra vs Bradford City Saturday 7th December 2024 12:30pm

I wouldn't say "much better". We've got 3 clean sheets at this stage this season in 18 games, we're as last season we had 4. After 18 games last season, we'd just conceded our 27th goals of the season in early GA days at Notts County which was a spell of 13 against us in 5 matches. Right now we've conceded 19 but it's with less clean sheets. This time last season, the team had conceded in 14 of 18 L2 games, where as this year it's 15 from 18. The teams aren't a million miles apart but this time we dont the have calamity Lewis in goal.

Platt, Stubbs and the ones we have now to me seem bog standard L2 defenders at very best. Promotions would be a challenge with all.

 

How does our goals for column compare as this is obviously our biggest weakness if we want to be challenging?

 

We had 20 scored after 18 last season compared to 23 this year. It's better this season but we can't buy a clean sheet to save our lives currently.

We don't score enough to overcompensate our leaky backline but we aren't tight enough to get a close 1-0 or 2-1 kinda win either. To say our problem is just "find a partner for Cook" is very shallow sighted in my view if thats the narrative posted by some. You won't get promoted within 8 or 9 clean sheets in the season as we are averaging lately. Theres issues at both end that need tightening.

 

At the same stage last season we had 20 points from 18 games, compare that to 25 from 18 so far this season. There is improvement there albeit with the caveat that in my opinion it's an easier division this year with Stockport being the leader on 41 points at this stage last season, Walsall this season on 37.

 

It's worth remembering we are also comparing against literally a bang average L2 side. Bradford City 23/24 floated between 11th and 15th from the autumn until game week 43 or 44. Only a freak unbeaten run that will be hard to replicate gave last seasons side an ounce of respect to measure against.

For me we are a touch better but not enough to pin any hopes on. This time last season in the previous 5 games, we had scored 6 and conceded 13 and had just 1 point from 15. Whereas this season we'd scored 5 in our last 5 league games and conceded 6 and only managed 3 points from 15. As said above, this time last season, the team had conceded in 14 of 18 L2 games, where as this year it's 15 from 18. Last year we had scored in 15 of 18 L2 games where as this year we have score in 16 of 18 games.

We're far tighter but the still can't find a way to win a game and at the end of the day that's the only thing people will judge this side on.

 

The 37 year old has been good, but he's played less than Baldwin, you can't have it both ways if you are comparing appearances.

I will stick with my early season prediction though in that we won't miss Platt and Stubbs and that their replacements are as good, if not better, certainly in the case of Stubbs who had a horrific season for us last season.

The only problems at the back this season are when GA plays full backs at centre back.

 

I can't be bothered to track back, but I think over the summer I posted that only one team had been promoted automatically from L2 with a goal difference of fewer than +20 in recent years. We are on +4.

This is a very equal/average league, even Port Vale sitting in 2nd are only on +7. Walsall, MK Dons, AFC Wimbledon and Chesterfield are the four teams who are showing a goal difference of +10 after nearly half the season.

There is still a massive opportunity for us this season if we can find a way to increase the number of goals in the second part of the season.

 

The first part is up for debate but agree they are all a pool of average c/backs in L2 , the latter ie Halliday and Richards as ( despite their previous history) are in no way capable or part of a back three , on that you are spot on .

For all Platts plaudits , the have conceded one less than us in the league this season , so if the defensive team is the benchmark , we aren’t any worse off on that flimsy comparison.

 

Yep, we need to find a way to better that column to challenge which is again as said, solving both ends of the pitch. Probably for another thread as its way off the topic of the Crewe game, but so far we don't really hit any metric to be a challenger.

As said previously, only Morecambe have less clean sheets than us this season so far, also defensively only Accrington and Grimsby have more cards than us this season... going to the offence, we're joint 12th in the table for goals scored. We're 15th in the table for team xG and chances created. We're 11th for shots, we're 15th placed for shots on target. We've had the 2nd most crosses in the league, but as said we ranked 15th in team xG which tells you the quality we are putting in isn't good at all. We also have the 2nd oldest squad in the league, but looking at the first and second half tables, we are far worse in the seconds than firsts. In the second 45s, we have won those halves just 3 times from 18 so far which has us 16th in that rank, whereas our first halves we are the 7th best team for the opening 45s. To say we have an experienced squad, we seem to be far better starting than using our experience to graft out wins?

Cooks form is really papering over some cracks in this team. We don't create with much quality, we don't shoot enough, we don't hit the target anywhere near enough when we do shoot, and we don't keep our discipline or clean sheets to consistently mount a challenge. We need the squad to either take that step forward, we're pretty mid table at pretty much everything but even just improving each output by 5% would be enough to be fair to get some consistency in this side.

 

So we have improved slightly at this stage on last year.
We need to get a result on Saturday to get us out of this run, Before the tough Christmas fixtures.
Lets stay in touch, re-inforce properly in Jan, playoff's still well in touch and with good form so is third.
We are having our sticky patch, which has come with lots of injuries and now suspensions.
Have other teams had the depth of missing players like us?
It's still there , so lets hope the club deliver for once.

 

Fair anology Andy . It’s in the balance but we have had our fair share of bad luck, from injuries and GA’s weird team selections ( because of it) to appalling officials making no, or the wrong decisions . We are not on our own but we have had our share of it thus far of that there is no doubt.

It’s difficult to be positive for sure right now , but can it get any worse?

 

We aren't "missing" Stubbs and Platt because they weren't good enough to get us promotion either, just like Byrne and Baldwin won't.

What we're missing is better players than the ones that left and the point you're trying to twist to suit your narrative is neither here nor there because none of them have been good enough.

 

I agree , positivety is hard to find, but we had 2 points taken from us , by the officials not awarding Cook a goal, when the ball had clearly crossed the line right in front of me at the kop end against Salford, and i still do not think the Fleetwood penalty should have been given, the lad seemed to go other Cook's planted leg for me and a booking for Patto on Saturday, i think we would have taken all 3 points as Crewe were well of the pace before the dismissal , as their manager admitted, stick those extra 5 or 6 points on and it would look different.
Its fine margin and we need to find a way of being on the correct side of those margin's.

 

I think Platt is better than anything we have, Notts are complimentary of him and they’ve gone from the worse defence in England to one that’s currently better than ours. Stubbs I don’t think we’ll miss. Ultimately though when you fail to get promoted at this level you should improve on the failures, but we haven’t. I don’t mind the look of Baldwin but he looks a bit of a Clitchow, cultured rather than solid. Had we kept Platt and brought in a quality partner I think our defence would be far better than it is. A big reason for our defence being better than last year imo is a negative manager who spends little time attacking. If we played open football that created chances I think our defence would leak goals like a sieve.

 

Platt was a solid defender, just like Paudie before him, but neither were good ball players, which is what we need in this system. I think are current centre halves are better ball players, but not as good defensively..
We need the ball on the ground to good wingbacks, who can get up and down the pitch, defend reasonably and put in a good cross at the other end on a regular basis.Most of our crosses from out wide are either cut out at the near post or over hit.
Against Barrow there was two good crosses, one by Cook , that Sanderson should have done better and Bobby's that Cook buried.

 

Better than ours ?………

Conceded ONE league goal less …really that’s the weakest comparison I’ve seen for a long time . Have they had 3/4 of their entire back line partnerships absent for weeks on end…..?
Please don’t overblow a bang average L2 defender because of one goal.
He’s no better , nor worse than what we have.

 

Also the blatant, out and out penalty that should have been awarded when Adams got crippled from behind v. Wimbledon.
Probably another two points taken away there.

 

Yes i forgot that one, a challenge that put the lad out for the season.
Its supposed to be swings and roundabouts and even itself out.
We must be going to get some right decision go our way after Christmas.

 

They've had a bad time with injuries, but mostly in attack.

Platt is very consistent in terms of fitness.

Just another reason we wanted to keep him, but he wanted to go to a side more likely to go up and stay up. (His opinion)

 

Then take off 3 because on another day MK would have scored 5 or 6 .........

It's a dangerous road if we're pretending we've been harshly done to with decisions and slides of luck. We need to just look at what we can control and that's performances which by and large have been absolutely nowhere near good enough.