Crewe Alex v Cambridge United

[JJ1532]

Another home game and an important game ahead of the trip to Exeter on Saturday.

Team will be the same as yesterday barring any unknown injuries between now and Tuesday. Looks like Conor Grant might be back on the bench, which will give us a bit more depth.

Cambridge will be a totally different proposition to Chesterfield, doubt they will come and give us loads of time and space to knock it around. That being said, they've not had a good start and have struggled to score goals. Thankful they've not got Berry, apparently he was one of the best players against us in both games last season. Uche will be a handful, he usually is against us.

Would take a point, but would be delighted if we grab another win.

 

[Vanni]

Prepare to be delighted then JJ

I don't reckon Shaun Derry will go with another attacking line up like he did at Barnet, in fact I expect him to do the opposite and that' is to go with a cautious 4-5-1 set up. As all footy fans know, an attacking line up is great to watch when it works, but otoh it also leaves sides too vulnerable at the back especially when the other side counters. Still, it most certainly will not work if you have loads of attack minded players on the pitch and they're not that willing (or incapable?) to track back, like what happened at Barnet.

Thing is that the 4-5-1 set up that Derry goes with sometimes isn't ideal either, as it invites loads of pressure on the back four and not enough goal threat up front. It may have worked last season at certain points, but it's also nail biting stuff and one can't expect that the opposition's pressure will not pay off at some time.

My prediction - an ultra cautious set up and a 2-0 defeat.

How many fans do you reckon you'll get Crewe fans, seeing that it's a mid week game?

 

[Crewelad87]

After such a brilliant performance and win naturally what follows is the comelette oposite. So expecting a bit of a battle and this, so just hope DA has them up for it and taking nothing for granted.

Crewe 2-1 Cambridge (Porter, Cooper, Ikpeazu) 3,166 (185 U's)

 

[JJ1532]

How many fans do you reckon you'll get Crewe fans, seeing that it's a mid week game?

Hard to know, as its our first midweek league game of the season. Our Saturday home crowds have been hovering around the 3,000 mark, so might be a bit down. Hope not, this team deserves more support than what they are getting, but I don't blame fans for not flocking back, been mistreated by the club for far too long.

 

[Tom_CUFC]

4-0 home win.

Derry comes out with some cliched bollocks.

Chairman tells us we expect too much.

I die a little bit more inside.

 

[Laker]

4-0 home win.

Derry comes out with some cliched bollocks.

Chairman tells us we expect too much.

I die a little bit more inside.

I'd almost find mild amusement in us getting stuffed 4-0 and Derry claiming "fine lines".

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Might be worth noting that Shaun Derry has won all 5 games as a manager vs Crewe with Notts County and Cambridge... (Albeit 4 were under the previous mug we had in charge.)

Thank the lord Luke Berry isn't at Cambridge anymore. Unfortunately, Uche will be back and will probably bag. I fancy us to win this 2-1 in a tight game but it wouldn't surprise me if Cambridge do a job on us. Certain lower league managers like Russell Slade, Steve Evans, Gary Johnson, Martin Allen and Graham Westley always knew how to get a good result against us and sadly, I believe Shaun Derry is one of these types too. All, bar Evans who probably promotes a more expansive style compared to the rest, are dinosaurs who love a bit of hoofball, clogging and physicality and that's always been our kryptonite. If we allow Cambridge to bully us, we'll get nothing from this game. However, I'm sure they won't be pushovers like Chesterfield were...

 

[Arbury]

We won't be pushovers but we will be bloody boring.

I'm not expecting a result here but it's just the type of game Derry wins, just to take that bit of pressure off him which is getting annoying.

A underserved 0-1.

KTF

 

[Habbinalan]

It seems all the U's fans saw the same game on Saturday and none of us can imagine going so gung ho tomorrow night. Even with the same personnel on the pitch, we might have done a better defensive job with Maris in the CM with Deegan and Jevani Brown LM in a 4231 or 442......probably not. Barnet were able to run the midfield but in any case looked as good as we've played against. Crewe have the players to do the same if we let them.

Mingoia and Maris are proving a big disappointment this season but that may partly be driven by their discomfort or unfamiliarity with the roles they're being asked to play in the diamond we seem to have adopted to get our 3 best attackers on the pitch. So does Derry make wholesale changes to personnel (most couldn't complain) or just revert to his standard 4231 start, with strong attacking options on the bench? For me, none of the subs earned a start but something needs shaking up - probably the tactics

I'm assuming that Carroll was one of those "carrying knocks" on saturday so Taft may get a start. Where is Howkins? Although I hate to say it (as I'm going), I can see Derry bringing back O'Neil and leaving 1 or even 2 of Uche, Jabo or Jevani on the bench. I think we need Jabo on the end of any crosses that we can produce but my guess, for what it's worth, is:

Forde
Halliday, Legge, Taft, Taylor,
Deegan, O'Neil (I'd rather see more of Osadebe)
Mingoia, Brown, Dunk
Ikpeazu

Even though we won last season after a similarly poor performance at Accrington and O'Neil had one of his better games after a spat with fans as he left the pitch that Tuesday, this is a better (and significantly better managed) Crewe side and I'm expecting a defeat by more than one goal, especially if Crewe score first. We might struggle to bring as many as 150, based on the pessimism around the place.

 

[North_Cheshire_Alex]

Just hope the weather does not play havoc with tonight's fixture, some serious rain is forecast for later in the day and the wind is supposed to pick up. If everything goes ahead, I expect a tight game, I thought Cambridge (at our place) looked a bit quicker to the ball than us last season and deservedly won, but I like to think we will be more than a match for them and go into this match in high confidence. Win this and Exeter away could be a potential table topping clash.

 

[Habbinalan]

Just hope the weather does not play havoc with tonight's fixture, some serious rain is forecast for later in the day and the wind is supposed to pick up. If everything goes ahead, I expect a tight game, I thought Cambridge (at our place) looked a bit quicker to the ball than us last season and deservedly won, but I like to think we will be more than a match for them and go into this match in high confidence. Win this and Exeter away could be a potential table topping clash.

Decision to travel in the balance. It doesn't look like the rain will start seriously until around 5/6 p.m. but then it'll probably be of biblical proportions. "Luckily" the gales aren't supposed to kick in until around midnight so should be able to outrun them on the way home.

Still haven't got my promised £20 from SkyBet for the futile trip to Accrington in February. This is looking similar and I haven't identified another reason to head NW yet. I'm not into trainspotting. At least in February, I managed to find a Bluethroat to photograph on the way north.

https://www.onefootballforum.co.uk/...enge-of-the-penalty-takers.14385/#post-582550

EDIT:

Can't hang about any longer heading up for a vinyl hunt pre-match.

 

[TommoCUFC]

Easy 2-0 for Crewe tonight

 

[North_Cheshire_Alex]

Easy 2-0 for Crewe tonight

I'm not sure about easy pal, the Alex have an age old habit of putting in a barnstorming performance backed up by a bag of shite performance, but I think in Dave Artell we have a manager who is trying re-write the old Alex hang ups. I'm hoping for a hard fought 2-1 win, with both Chris's on the score sheet for us.

 

[Vanni]

How's the weather looking, game's going ahead I presume?

Alan, found any decent record shops yet? You never know, you may find some Rory or Neil Young classic album in the 'bargain' bins. Mind you, today's bargain bins are nothing compared to only some 10 years ago. A bargain record nowadays means a fiver at the very least, while back then it meant 99p or less!

 

[Vanni]

An unchanged U'S starting line up Derry's either going bonkers or else he wants to send a clear message to the fans that he knows what he's doing and the Barnet performance was a one off, and I strongly suspect it's the latter. I'm preparing myself for a one man midfield and David Forde (hopefully) keeping the score down to only something like a two goal defeat.

 

[JJ1532]

Atrocious tonight, utterly atriocious. That was like watching a Davis team, how clueless we were in attack. So aimless, so slow, so lacking in pace, creativity, anything resembling quality. Take out Saturday's one off and serious questions have to be asked about how we attack teams. 5 goals in 6 league games Saturday removed. Not good enough with the quality in the team upfront. Dagnall, goals aside has been pretty poor so far. Cooper looks totally disinterested. Walker didn't try to do anything of note, seemed happy just to turn up and make the simple 5 yards passes. Ng was piss poor and there is nobody to replace him. Garratt had a shocker for their goal, his kicking is horrific and there is no option to replace him, despite him having a shaky start to the season. Artell uses 2 subs, yet despite having a promising young talent in Dale on the bench, someone who's direct running and pace might actually cause some problems, he doesn't bring him on, leaving the likes of Dagnall and Cooper to flail around. Maybe Dale wouldn't have done anything, but roll the dice FFS!

Yet again, we seem happy to sit off teams and let them pass the ball around. We're at fucking home FFS! Why are we sitting back at all? Why do we look so frightened on the ball, we so rarely keep the ball for longer than 30 seconds or have any sustained periods of play in the oppositions half. 48-52% possession in favour of Cambridge tonight. Says a lot considering we dominated the ball in the 2nd half. Must have been something like 65-35 in their favour at half time. Only 1 game this season(Barnet) where we've had more than 50%. Not good enough.

First half, we let them knock it around and to be fair, they created very little. But we barely got into their half for the most part, not sure what the game plan was. They did what Mansfield, Newport and Barnet did, press us hard early on. And yet again, we don't learn. Yet again we play slow tippy tappy football in our own half and get mugged off it time and time again. Can Lunt not see the problem? Throw ins. Yes, broken record with Crewe teams. But for the first time in ages, we have a giant striker who can head a ball. So what do we do at throw ins? Have him stand 40 yards away whilst we throw it into the middle of the pitch to get picked off. Brainless.

2nd half and for some reason(*cough*Shaun Derry*cough*), Cambridge went deep and sat on their 1-0. Gave us almost all of the ball and what do we do? Naff all! What was the game plan? Get it out wide and just whip balls into the box? Is that it? Cambridge won't have an easier away win all season, we gifted it to them tonight. Yes, we're not a great team and we'll finish mid table, but if we play like we have done in our first 7 games for the rest of the season, we won't win any fans back. If we go 1-0 down in a game, we're more than likely done for, because we don't seem capable of chasing a game and breaking down a team with something to defend. If we go 1-0 up, then we'll probably pick up a win, as I don't see many teams breaking us down.

Dave and Kenny have got to have a long hard look at the attacking game plan, because so far this season, it's been awful. Individual moments of quality, very few periods of sustained possession or dominance. No excuse with the midfield and attack we have. We'll get a stuffing against Exeter if we don't buck our ideas up and sharpish.

Fair play to Cambridge, they were excellent in the first half, played some excellent football, even if they didn't create much. Not sure why they sat back so much, all it takes is a fluky one to go in at the other end and they would have looked pretty silly. Plus we were there for the taking. But they grabbed their goal and defended our powder puff attacks easily. Deserved 3 points for them.

Glad I got that off my chest, not been so frustrated and angry watching a Crewe team in a long time. With the shambles Davis used to turn out, I expected no better because the team he assembled was piss poor with no quality and he was a joke. Artell is better than this, so to see him making the same mistakes is so annoying. Hey, grab something at Exeter and we'll all be forgetting tonight's abomination. Then we have a leaky Carlisle. Artell is still learning and at least he knows where we're going wrong. Would just like to see him walk the walk rather than just talk the talk. Hey ho, we're playing like a mid table team and that's probably what we'll be come the end of the season. Looking forward to Saturday.

 

[TimeyWimey]

We were shit, Cooper was atrocious. We couldn't even match Cambridge for the first 60 mins; predictable, unimaginative and generally rubbish for last 30 minutes.

Davis out.

 

[Habbinalan]

How's the weather looking, game's going ahead I presume?

Alan, found any decent record shops yet? You never know, you may find some Rory or Neil Young classic album in the 'bargain' bins. Mind you, today's bargain bins are nothing compared to only some 10 years ago. A bargain record nowadays means a fiver at the very least, while back then it meant 99p or less!

Back home. Grinning from ear to ear. Spent more than I intended on the vinyl - which is always a good sign. I'll expand in the Music Venue tomorrow. There was little 70s stuff apart from folk and nothing later. Highlights were Bonzo Dogs, a couple of Rambling Jack Elliott albums from the 50s and Full Cream. The "store" had mainly old books but a room of Vinyl, CDs and sheet music but mainly old jazz and sixties stuff. It was in a barn outside a village just south of Crewe and the owner was an Everton season ticket owner who could talk the hind leg off a donkey.

Going the full "old man enjoying retirement," the Beer Dock provided some excellent American Pale Ale and the chippie had a decent steak & kidney pudding. Oh and Crewe played like a typical Davis team (I couldn't believe how helpful they were) and we played like a typical Derry away team but with more oomph if needed up front and a steady spine of experience. The Amber Army responded to the effort and the craft shown by a bunch of players who cottoned on what was needed - but Crewe were pretty clueless for the most part.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

It was a very poor showing but it was nowhere near as bad as a Davis-esque performance and we need to gain perspective here. If Davis was manager tonight we'd have been picked off on the counter on a number of laughable occasions like when we lost 3-0 to Shaun Derry's equally as defensive Notts County on a Tuesday Night three years ago where Marcus Haber and his merry band of disinterested colleagues couldn't give a flying fuck about the game.

I had no problems with the effort levels of the players, and Artell won't have this lot slacking either. The huge criticism I have of the players tonight was their decision making. It was absolutely abysmal to say the least. They played the wrong passes at the wrong time. For most of that second half, we kept giving it to a lacklustre Cooper (who was being tightly marked by the Cambridge RB) and Bakayogo who has the first touch of a baby elephant. Why weren't we utilising the centre or the spacious right a lot more? The Cambridge LB looked very shaky whenever we made runs past him (indeed our two best chances were created down that flank) so why didn't we do it that often?

My other concerns are: Why are we over-reliant on a 1 good game in every 4 or 5 George Cooper too? He's not Luis Figo, he's a fourth division footballer that lacks consistency. Whenever we're 1-0 down, our philosophy seems to be "Pass to Cooper, cross, doesn't beat the first man, cleared, win the ball back, rinse, repeat.". As Artell said, we need to stop being so one-dimensional. But we're gonna have games like this where teams will come to Gresty Road and frustrate us. From our own point of view, defensively we've been fine this season. When was the last time you could say that about this football club? We have a young 3-man midfield with an average age of 20 who will be incredibly inconsistent and have poor games now and again, but they were fantastic on Saturday. This is why they're fourth division footballers. Chris Porter has been an asset for us this season and Chris Dagnall is still a very good striker for this level but they both need the supply line to achieve their goalscoring potential. I wouldn't necessarily blame them entirely for this, I'd blame the predictable service of Bakayogo, Cooper and Ng and the lack of cutting edge from our young midfield. But it's still early days. We're in much better shape than we were under Davis and for me, that shows improvement which can be maintained. I don't expect us to be promoted or in the Top 7 this year but I expect to see significant improvement on the shower of shit that was last season and we'll get there in time. Tonight, we were up against a manager who knows how to do a job on us and exploited our achilles heel, which is the inability to break down defensive football sides. That's something that has dogged us ever since we were relegated out of League One in 2009.

We're not going to win every game and we're not going to thump every team like we thumped Chesterfield, but we have enough quality within our ranks to win more than we'll lose this season and I reckon that'll be the case over 46 games. Cambridge are no mugs, they played to their strengths and are worthy of the 3 points.

Genuinely thought the Cambridge goal looked offside but will have to see it again. Delayed reaction from Uche but why did Ben Garratt palm it straight into his path? And who the fuck allowed Uche all that space too? The only significant lapse of concentration by the defence all evening and it cost us dear.

 

[Habbinalan]

I
.............................................Genuinely thought the Cambridge goal looked offside but will have to see it again. Delayed reaction from Uche but why did Ben Garratt palm it straight into his path? And who the fuck allowed Uche all that space too? The only significant lapse of concentration by the defence all evening and it cost us dear.

Apparently it was onside. First shot from Uche, followed up by Jabo, similar to his goal at Crawley. I've seen the video as well as this still, but it was far from our only chance in that first half, they just fell to anyone but Jabo.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Apparently it was onside, I've seen the video as well as this still, but it was far from our only chance in that first half, they just fell to anyone but Jabo.

That confirms it was onside. However it just makes Garratt's decision to palm the ball in the direction of Ibehre even worse. At least play it safe...

Also I was bracing myself for Uche to inevitably score that I was convinced he actually did. No wonder I thought Ibehre was offside, I've been calling him the lower league Inzaghi since his Walsall days!

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Haha, we are so fantastically unpredictable, I both hate it and love it.

Agree with the Crewe assessment of us, we were excellent first half if still a little toothless in the final third, Crewe came close a couple of times but think we deservedly led. Came out well first 10 minutes second half and then sat back too early for my liking, the defence were outstanding though and hoovered up everything and Crewe didn't really get that close.

Good performance and fair play to Derry on this occasion, no doubt we will revert to type at some point over the next couple of games but against two decent sides if we can nail it in just one of them then that's probably acceptable.

 

[North_Cheshire_Alex]

It was a very poor showing but it was nowhere near as bad as a Davis-esque performance and we need to gain perspective here. If Davis was manager tonight we'd have been picked off on the counter on a number of laughable occasions like when we lost 3-0 to Shaun Derry's equally as defensive Notts County on a Tuesday Night three years ago where Marcus Haber and his merry band of disinterested colleagues couldn't give a flying fuck about the game.

I had no problems with the effort levels of the players, and Artell won't have this lot slacking either. The huge criticism I have of the players tonight was their decision making. It was absolutely abysmal to say the least. They played the wrong passes at the wrong time. For most of that second half, we kept giving it to a lacklustre Cooper (who was being tightly marked by the Cambridge RB) and Bakayogo who has the first touch of a baby elephant. Why weren't we utilising the centre or the spacious right a lot more? The Cambridge LB looked very shaky whenever we made runs past him (indeed our two best chances were created down that flank) so why didn't we do it that often?

My other concerns are: Why are we over-reliant on a 1 good game in every 4 or 5 George Cooper too? He's not Luis Figo, he's a fourth division footballer that lacks consistency. Whenever we're 1-0 down, our philosophy seems to be "Pass to Cooper, cross, doesn't beat the first man, cleared, win the ball back, rinse, repeat.". As Artell said, we need to stop being so one-dimensional. But we're gonna have games like this where teams will come to Gresty Road and frustrate us. From our own point of view, defensively we've been fine this season. When was the last time you could say that about this football club? We have a young 3-man midfield with an average age of 20 who will be incredibly inconsistent and have poor games now and again, but they were fantastic on Saturday. This is why they're fourth division footballers. Chris Porter has been an asset for us this season and Chris Dagnall is still a very good striker for this level but they both need the supply line to achieve their goalscoring potential. I wouldn't necessarily blame them entirely for this, I'd blame the predictable service of Bakayogo, Cooper and Ng and the lack of cutting edge from our young midfield. But it's still early days. We're in much better shape than we were under Davis and for me, that shows improvement which can be maintained. I don't expect us to be promoted or in the Top 7 this year but I expect to see significant improvement on the shower of shit that was last season and we'll get there in time. Tonight, we were up against a manager who knows how to do a job on us and exploited our achilles heel, which is the inability to break down defensive football sides. That's something that has dogged us ever since we were relegated out of League One in 2009.

We're not going to win every game and we're not going to thump every team like we thumped Chesterfield, but we have enough quality within our ranks to win more than we'll lose this season and I reckon that'll be the case over 46 games. Cambridge are no mugs, they played to their strengths and are worthy of the 3 points.

Genuinely thought the Cambridge goal looked offside but will have to see it again. Delayed reaction from Uche but why did Ben Garratt palm it straight into his path? And who the fuck allowed Uche all that space too? The only significant lapse of concentration by the defence all evening and it cost us dear.

That's a spot on assessment in my book, and reading Dave's reaction he was annoyed with us being so one dimensional, we know Porter is more than a head the ball, we should have tried to play the ball through the middle more, as you say, we were hoping for a Coops Beckhamesqe ball landing on somebody's head. George can play a decent through ball, why we didn't try and mix it up a but when it was obvious early doors Cambridge were solid.

Fair play to Cambridge, they did this to us at home last season, they had a game plan for us and executed it to the letter, not sure what the fuck Uche's chicken walk was all about when he was subbed, but it made me laugh even if it made others scream blue murder at him!

I will put this down to a bad day at the office, as you have highlighted, nothing wrong with the effort levels, Dave & Kenny wouldn't stand for anything less than 100%, and even though it was a poor perfomance, I always thought we might sneak something, under Davies i would have fucked off to the bar 15 minutes before the full time whistle, even at only 1-0 down.

On to Exeter, which on paper is a harder game, but it's probably a match where our performance will be more encouraging.