Clough's tweaks at Crewe

[Bergen Blade]

Crewe's camera man doesn't use the zoom as much as his collegues at most League One grounds and that makes it possible to asses tactical tweaks during games.

Starting formation, 4-5-1 (4-1-4-1):

Howard
Alcock Basham McEveley Harris
Doyle
JCR - - - Reed - - - Baxter - - - Flynn
Murphy
​

10ish: Switch to 4-2-3-1, Baxter drops deeper to playmake more alongside Doyle, i.e. :

Howard
Alcock Basham McEveley Harris
Doyle Baxter
JCR - - - - -Reed - - - - - Flynn
Murphy
​

17ish: JCR and Flynn temporarily swap sides.

36ish: Baxter and Reed swaps positions. Then JCR and Murphy swaps. So we play:

Howard
Alcock Basham McEveley Harris
Reed Doyle
Murphy - - - - -Baxter - - - - - Flynn
JCR

​

2nd half: We start with 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 with Baxter continuing just behind Campbell-Ryce. Murphy and Flynn has swapped sides, so Murphy is again on the left.

60ish: Scougall in for Baxter in a straight swap, although Scougall goes on to track back a bit more, not unexpectedly.

68ish: Diego in for Flynn. Diego plays up front and JCR is moved back to right wing.


I think Clough is a clever guy and there's thought behind all these little tweaks, although not everything will come off. I think he's stubborn with a few things though and I think it's vital to get more and better options up front, and we generally should be adding more height, strength and goalscoring ability. The good thing is that I'm confident that Clough will agree and try to put it right.


-------------------------------------------------------

In the absence of Deadbat's ratings, these would be mine:

Howard 7
Alcock 7, Basham 8, McEveley 7, Harris 8
JCR 6, Reed 7, Doyle 7, Baxter 4, Flynn 5
Murphy 7

Subs: Scougall 7, De Girolamo 7.

We were unlucky not to win. It's quite rare to see an away side dominate a game so much. Against Barnsley I thought we struggled, but most players had decent games yesterday and we looked a lot more confident. Our determination to win back possession was the most impressive element to our game. Crewe couldn't get any sort of play going at all.

We do lack a bit height, strength and aggression in the box. Back post crosses are wasted as we have nobody to compete aerially. This means we always have to go for the first post, but against a deep defending opposition it's difficult to beat their defenders to those balls. For all our domination and possession we didn't create that many big chances, and that remains a concern.


I think Crewe's Anthony Grant is a decent player who could play at a higher level.

 

[BeatleBlade]

We've got a good manager and he undoubtedly knows what he's going. After thinking about the match and reading what people who went have said I think we can't really blame the manager for the result. It's not his fault Baxter missed a sitter or Murphy was offside but he certainly put together a team more than capable of winning yesterday and it's not his fault they couldn't pull it off in my view.

Basham and Mceveley is starting to look quite effective too.

 

[sitwell]

Baxter was played in his favoured position then ?

 

[Bergen Blade]

Baxter was played in his favoured position then ?

Only for about 24 minutes, but he's not playing well in any position at the moment. Even the things he can be really good at isn't happening for him.

 

[Revolution]

I think Clough is a clever guy and there's thought behind all these little tweaks, although not everything will come off. I think he's stubborn with a few things though and I think it's vital to get more and better options up front, and we generally should be adding more height, strength and goalscoring ability. The good thing is that I'm confident that Clough will agree and try to put it right.

I agree (and thousands others would agree) that this is the problem, but I disagree that he will try to put it right. This is his preferred way of playing. He has said repeatedly in post match interviews that he wants to stick with 1 up front. There are going to be a number of games like this one, which we dominate and do not win, because of this stubborness.

 

[Kev Gee]

Baxter a 4?

wow.

 

[Bladesman]

All those tweaks and we still didn't score.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Baxter a 4?

wow.

His average rating is 4.20 as voted by others who watched the game. What would you have given him?

 

[Bergen Blade]

I agree (and thousands others would agree) that this is the problem, but I disagree that he will try to put it right. This is his preferred way of playing. He has said repeatedly in post match interviews that he wants to stick with 1 up front. There are going to be a number of games like this one, which we dominate and do not win, because of this stubborness.

I think he may stick with the formation too. I think he will look at our ridiculous dominance on Saturday and believe that the formation and high pressing helped us achieve that. By now I wish we had developed a 4-4-2 variant which we could turn to, but at the moment we have no strikers, and there are problem issues with the midfield composition as well.

I think he should have put Diego on sooner, and the fact that we played Campbell Ryce up front at times shows how much we require an out and out striker. Having said that I think he hoped that the nippy feet of JCR would see him one on one with the goalkeeper, and in the second half that actually happened (Doyle sent him clear), he went past the goalkeeper, but decided not to shoot towards the open goal. It's still an example of a tweak that was tried and almost worked - the pace and control got him into the goalscoring position, but the goalscoring instinct was missing. I think Clough will see that, and therefore look for a striker addition or two. I hope he'll give Diego a fair chance as well.

Baxter continues to frustrate me and I don't think he offers enough at the minute.

 

[sheffielder]

Baxter was played in his favoured position then ?

I thought you were going to stop?

 

[Revolution]

I think he may stick with the formation too. I think he will look at our ridiculous dominance on Saturday and believe that the formation and high pressing helped us achieve that. By now I wish we had developed a 4-4-2 variant which we could turn to, but at the moment we have no strikers, and there are problem issues with the midfield composition as well.

I actually think that this formation will be one of the things that prevents us from finishing in the top 2.

I keep thinking about Howard Kendall's team in 1996-7. When we came away from Bradford on Boxing Day we were in a 3 horse race for 2 places. We had played poorly but won 2-1 and for a late Bolton goal would've been top. That was our seventh away win.

It was also our last. Kendall stopped attacking away from home. We didn't take the lead in an away league game after that. Despite our strong squad (which was admittedly hit by many injuries), Bolton and Barnsley pulled away, and the cautious approach continued into the playoff final, where we failed to have a shot on target.

I fear that when the dust has settled we will be comfortably 5th or 6th but with about 8 0-0 draws to our name, and you all know how the playoffs will end.

 

[Bergen Blade]

I actually think that this formation will be one of the things that prevents us from finishing in the top 2.

I keep thinking about Howard Kendall's team in 1996-7. When we came away from Bradford on Boxing Day we were in a 3 horse race for 2 places. We had played poorly but won 2-1 and for a late Bolton goal would've been top. That was our seventh away win.

It was also our last. Kendall stopped attacking away from home. We didn't take the lead in an away league game after that. Despite our strong squad (which was admittedly hit by many injuries), Bolton and Barnsley pulled away, and the cautious approach continued into the playoff final, where we failed to have a shot on target.

I fear that when the dust has settled we will be comfortably 5th or 6th but with about 8 0-0 draws to our name, and you all know how the playoffs will end.

I also compared the start of this season to that season and a few others here:

http://scandinavianblades.webs.com/apps/blog/show/42679802-the-season-after-a-decent-one

Rather than just carrying on Clough is having to work very hard to get it right this season. But unlike a few of those I think we are gradually improving this season, and if we get more quality in up front I think we will have a good second half.