Player Ratings - Crewe Away

[Piglet_Phoenix]

Thanks heavens Michael Raynes signed for Crewe in the summer. I have no idea what he was thinking for the penalty and his ***** goal for us takes him above Richie Bennett in the goalscorer charts.

It may be churlish to point this out but on this performance Crewe have real problems all over the park, their manager looks out of his depth and it could be a long season for them – did we make them look this bad?

Anyway, Curle neither picked the team nor employed the tactics I would’ve chosen today – but ultimately we were hideously effective without ever setting the world on fire…

George – 7 – Looked a bit shaky and uncertain first half, but grew into the game. Disappointingly, he was the culprit in looking for Miller’s head with long punts for the majority of the twelve occasions we did this. That being said, his distribution can be excellent and he commanded his box excellently. Crewe didn’t really threaten but when called upon to make saves he looked confident. An absolute first choice keeper, at the minute.

Brown – 7 – Coming up to speed nicely, looks a competent and defensively savvy full-back. His crossing is still abysmal but used the ball excellently on the ground today. It did help him having two bodies in front of him on the right hand side first half and an experienced head alongside him in the centre. I’d keep him in the team ahead of Tom Miller, after today’s performance, for at least another game.

Grainger – 7 – Slotted the penalty away calmly and struck the ball excellently for a peach of a first goal. Still looks like the weakest link in defence however, and was turned for pace frequently and often caught daydreaming out of position. It’s a conundrum however, when a player contributes two goals but is defensively poor what mark do you give him? I can’t stress enough the importance of the first goal this afternoon, up until that point Crewe probably looked the more convincing side – but the piece of quality Grainger provided lifted us and drained the life out of them…

Hill – 9 – What a difference a brain makes in defence. I can’t remember the last time we looked more solid defensively than today. Set the tone with an early tackle, excellent in the air, and a peach of a fifty yard ball that was the pass of the afternoon. The way he controlled Parkes on the leash was reminiscent of the way Derek Mountfield used to influence Dean Walling.

Parkes – 8 – At this level, Porter and Dagnall are, in theory, a decent partnership but they didn’t have a sniff today. Having Hill alongside him has served to remind Parkes that he is principally there to defend – which he did excellently today.

Jones – 9* - Almost a ten, but for a misplaced pass towards the end of the game. Back to his imperious best running the game from central midfield. Tackling, breaking up play, setting the tempo with some excellent passing, pulling all the strings and holding us together as a team. A near perfect holding midfield display today, far and away too good for tier four.

Joyce – 8 – Doing the ugly side of the game extremely effectively and working with Jones in a solid defensive midfield partnership. He’s probably been our most consistent player this season so far and for me, as important as Jones in the engine room.

Etuhu – 3 – He looks like he should be Tyrannosaurus of a player, but the reality is his claws are made of cloth and his teeth are made of cake. In fairness he got a couple of decent crosses in from his position, wide on the right (ahem) in the first half. I know he was there to try and stop the supply of ball to Crewe’s left winger – but the words “Chocolate” and “Tea-pot” kept springing strangely to mind. Always looking for the easy pass, which he often screws up, tackles like a powderpuff, looks like he’s running through treacle and is weak in the air. Switched to the left hand side of a holding midfield three in the second half but had to be substituted when it all became too much for him and he collapsed in a state of utter bewilderment. Maybe the tactic is lull the opposition into a false sense of security by starting with Etuhu – and when we replace him with an actual footballer it’s like we have an extra player on the pitch – it’s certainly happened two weeks on the bounce now…

Adams – 7 – Lively, involved and looking like he was enjoying himself. Needs to work on his shooting, but his work rate was immense today, the ground he covered extremely valuable and his use of the ball excellent. He would benefit immeasurably from having two bodies in the penalty box to aim for rather than one. Only a fool would ever consider dropping him if he was fully fit…

Lambe – 7 – A game of two halves for Reggie. Still looked like a player maddeningly out of form in the first half. Although he probably was suffering from Etuhu being far too close to him, his performance was incredibly poor. In the second half however, when Etuhu was told to stop trying to hold his hand, he was outstanding and possibly the best attacking player on the pitch by some distance. So what caused the transformation from Pob to Pele? Who knows, but he was unplayable in the second period. Won the penalty with some great awareness and slight of foot and took his goal with aplomb, flitting past hapless Crewe defenders with the grace of Vaslav Nijinsky, crisply passing the ball to players on the same team, working back to tackle in midfield. Where has this version of Lambe been hiding?

Miller – 8 – Worked the channels superbly all afternoon, and when we hit his feet with the ball outside the box he held things up well and brought the midfield into play with some really great touches. Clearly playing upfront alone is not what he’s best suited for, but he played the role better than any of our other forwards could’ve managed today. Wasted two excellent chances in the first half, but his workrate, awareness and influence on the team were all good today.

Subs:

Devitt – 6 – Imagine holding your breath under water for as long as you can, then breaking through the surface and filling your lungs with cold, clean air. Or trying to swim with a heavy rucksack on your back then suddenly having it removed. Taking Etuhu off and bringing Devitt on gave the team such an exhilarating shot in the arm we blew Crewe away. Tactical masterstroke – or should we have played Devitt from the start?

Miller – 5 – Looked uncertain and almost created a moment of confusion that let Crewe score. I’m not sure why Brown was taken off?

Hope – 6 – You know you’re having a bad day when Hope scores against you. In fairness however, he took his goal with a touch of quality and despite missing another relatively simple opportunity he kept plugging away and got his reward in the end.

[postmanpete]

Decent scores apart from Etuhu who i would have given a 7,are you Mark Sampson in disguise ?

[Piglet_Phoenix]

Why would you have given him a seven?

Did he bring you a cup of tea before the game, a pasty at half time, then give you a massage and cook you dinner yesterday evening?

[griff]

Grand stuff Piglet, I look forward to these. I like the approach where everyone starts with nowt and has to earn their mark. So many others start with 10 and take the odd one off. I've seen some real stinkers of performances given 7s and 8s in the past.

[postmanpete]

Why would you have given him a seven?

Did he bring you a cup of tea before the game, a pasty at half time, then give you a massage and cook you dinner yesterday evening?

I saw him get skinned once in the first half after which he was pretty solid for the rest of the game,kept hold of the ball well and kept it simple.