It would be easy to be critical of Critchley after last night

Phil_bfc deux

Phil_bfc deux

Well-known member
So i will be

It was obvious to anyone who follows league 1 football how Crewe play

Fast, high intensity, pressing football

Basically what we were promised when Critchley took over

Yet we started very sluggish, far too slow to close them down and we were very poor on the ball. When teams press so high you have to be brave to beat the press but we just panicked and gave them the ball back time and time again

Ballard and Thorniley were awful on the ball and we struggled to string a pass together during the first 30 mins or so

To be fair we did get back into the game when Stewart dropped deeper and started to get on the ball. We also started the 2nd half better

But then calamity Critchley struck again

Why on earth did he make the subs so early and when we were having our best spell of the game, CJ Hamilton just isn't a striker and Simms was getting into the game, having some joy turning Beccles

The subs just gave them the impetuous to go at us and we lost any threat we had

A point was probably more than we deserved on the ballance of play, but we really need to be winning our home games

We set up slow and were lazy on the ball and that falls onto the manager as do the substitutions

Credit Crewe all you want but we were sloppy and got away with it last night
 
I might give you the Royal Seal of Approvalish for your comments again
Thorniley is usually a good passer of the ball with his main weakness his lack of pace. Last night his passing accuracy was only 53% compared to Ballard's 73%.
For me the damning statistics were Yates, 28 touches and Simms,18 touches which isn't a criticism of them but a failure of their team mates to get the ball to them emphasised by Kaikai 17 touches in the 57 mins he played.
I'm not quite as critical of you about the subs. Yes they may have been a bit early and I could see a role out wide for Mitchell and CJ but not at the expense of Simms and not playing CJ in the middle Unless Simms was injured that was Critchy's big mistake.
On the plus side though a very hard working performance to win a point rather then lose all three.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
So i will be

It was obvious to anyone who follows league 1 football how Crewe play

Fast, high intensity, pressing football

Basically what we were promised when Critchley took over

Yet we started very sluggish, far too slow to close them down and we were very poor on the ball. When teams press so high you have to be brave to beat the press but we just panicked and gave them the ball back time and time again

Ballard and Thorniley were awful on the ball and we struggled to string a pass together during the first 30 mins or so

To be fair we did get back into the game when Stewart dropped deeper and started to get on the ball. We also started the 2nd half better

But then calamity Critchley struck again

Why on earth did he make the subs so early and when we were having our best spell of the game, CJ Hamilton just isn't a striker and Simms was getting into the game, having some joy turning Beccles

The subs just gave them the impetuous to go at us and we lost any threat we had

A point was probably more than we deserved on the ballance of play, but we really need to be winning our home games

We set up slow and were lazy on the ball and that falls onto the manager as do the substitutions

Credit Crewe all you want but we were sloppy and got away with it last night
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Can’t disagree with much of that, but l wouldn’t say the subs were calamitous rather than the timing was wrong at a key point in the game. The concerns l had were that the midfield play was very similar to the 2nd half against Rochdale which was worrying. Having said that we ground out a good point against a very good Crewe team who were up for it from the start.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
So i will be

It was obvious to anyone who follows league 1 football how Crewe play

Fast, high intensity, pressing football

Basically what we were promised when Critchley took over

Yet we started very sluggish, far too slow to close them down and we were very poor on the ball. When teams press so high you have to be brave to beat the press but we just panicked and gave them the ball back time and time again

Ballard and Thorniley were awful on the ball and we struggled to string a pass together during the first 30 mins or so

To be fair we did get back into the game when Stewart dropped deeper and started to get on the ball. We also started the 2nd half better

But then calamity Critchley struck again

Why on earth did he make the subs so early and when we were having our best spell of the game, CJ Hamilton just isn't a striker and Simms was getting into the game, having some joy turning Beccles

The subs just gave them the impetuous to go at us and we lost any threat we had

A point was probably more than we deserved on the ballance of play, but we really need to be winning our home games

We set up slow and were lazy on the ball and that falls onto the manager as do the substitutions

Credit Crewe all you want but we were sloppy and got away with it last night
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A good summary Phil. It was a lazy start and Stewart seemed to be out of position. The substitutions were badly timed and just when we had an element of control. There's still something missing in midfield. Thorniley and the midfield were off the pace. It's a point but we need to win at home this Saturday to keep our outside chance of a play off place on track.
 
I'll agree with you that we were slow to start. The rest of that is agenda driven bullshit. We were a bit below par, but still played a full part in a good game. We have no God given right to beat Crewe, who have play-off hopes of their own. They deserve them too, if last night is anything to go by.

We all know you don't like the manager. We all know that you prefer criticising everything to giving anybody any credit. There's no need to keep proving it.
 
Insider said:
I might give you the Royal Seal of Approvalish for your comments again
Thorniley is usually a good passer of the ball with his main weakness his lack of pace. Last night his passing accuracy was only 53% compared to Ballard's 73%.
For me the damning statistics were Yates, 28 touches and Simms,18 touches which isn't a criticism of them but a failure of their team mates to get the ball to them emphasised by Kaikai 17 touches in the 57 mins he played.
I'm not quite as critical of you about the subs. Yes they may have been a bit early and I could see a role out wide for Mitchell and CJ but not at the expense of Simms and not playing CJ in the middle Unless Simms was injured that was Critchy's big mistake.
On the plus side though a very hard working performance to win a point rather then lose all three.
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Those stats highlight what i thought when watching the game

We didn't keep the ball well enough hence why we couldn't get our forward players involved

If he wanted to give CJ a run out then fine but at least play him in his correct position
 
I agree taking Simms off was odd, but hindsight's a wonderful thing -- foresight's far more difficult.

Critch could have gone defensive by putting Dougall on, but he tried to play the "Blackpool way" by putting CJ on as a striker. It didn't work. That happens. There's no criticism from me in that. If CJ had scored we would all be delirious with joy and praising Critch's substitutions.

A win brings praise and a loss brings criticism. That's the life of a football manager.
 
I would not get too carried away about that game last night. Sure, we were second best for large periods of the game playing against a well organised and very decent league one side. We just did not play well enough ,these things happen. We never gave up and the truth is we gained a very credible point. I expect an improved performance on saturday.
 
Grumpy_no_more said:
I agree taking Simms off was odd, but hindsight's a wonderful thing -- foresight's far more difficult.

Critch could have gone defensive by putting Dougall on, but he tried to play the "Blackpool way" by putting CJ on as a striker. It didn't work. That happens. There's no criticism from me in that. If CJ had scored we would all be delirious with joy and praising Critch's substitutions.

A win brings praise and a loss brings criticism. That's the life of a football manager.
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Better call it a score draw then. 😉
 
coppiceman said:
I'll agree with you that we were slow to start. The rest of that is agenda driven bullshit. We were a bit below par, but still played a full part in a good game. We have no God given right to beat Crewe, who have play-off hopes of their own. They deserve them too, if last night is anything to go by.

We all know you don't like the manager. We all know that you prefer criticising everything to giving anybody any credit. There's no need to keep proving it.
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I don't know the manager enough to like or dislike him

If you said i didn't rate him then that would be more like it

As for being critical, of course i will be when we don't play well just like a praised the team after the Charlton and Portsmouth wins

Its a football forum where people express opinions on football
 
62years&counting said:
A good summary Phil. It was a lazy start and Stewart seemed to be out of position. The substitutions were badly timed and just when we had an element of control. There's still something missing in midfield. Thorniley and the midfield were off the pace. It's a point but we need to win at home this Saturday to keep our outside chance of a play off place on track.
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How is it an outside chance of the playoffs? It’s in Blackpools hands to get in the play offs, win the majority of remaining games, in the playoffs 👍🏻 Simple, surely it is only an outside chance when you’ve got to rely on other teams to drop points.
 
Insider said:
I might give you the Royal Seal of Approvalish for your comments again
Thorniley is usually a good passer of the ball with his main weakness his lack of pace. Last night his passing accuracy was only 53% compared to Ballard's 73%.
For me the damning statistics were Yates, 28 touches and Simms,18 touches which isn't a criticism of them but a failure of their team mates to get the ball to them emphasised by Kaikai 17 touches in the 57 mins he played.
I'm not quite as critical of you about the subs. Yes they may have been a bit early and I could see a role out wide for Mitchell and CJ but not at the expense of Simms and not playing CJ in the middle Unless Simms was injured that was Critchy's big mistake.
On the plus side though a very hard working performance to win a point rather then lose all three.
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They targeted Thorniley. He likes the take a touch and play a raking pass. They absolutely had noted that and honed in on it.

He got intercepted about 6 times in the first half but he was more decisive second half as he had to be.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
Those stats highlight what i thought when watching the game

We didn't keep the ball well enough hence why we couldn't get our forward players involved

If he wanted to give CJ a run out then fine but at least play him in his correct position
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CJ could play up front but not off Yates. He'd be a different prospect off Madine or even Simms but playing a runner off another runner doesn't make sense when we didn't have enough off the midfield. It's not like we were threading loads of balls through.

Is what it is tho. I gave him the benefit of the doubt as I thought Crewe would tire and the extra pace would be useful against them.

They didn't and actually finished very strongly which was probably the most impressive thing about them.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
So i will be

It was obvious to anyone who follows league 1 football how Crewe play

Fast, high intensity, pressing football

Basically what we were promised when Critchley took over

Yet we started very sluggish, far too slow to close them down and we were very poor on the ball. When teams press so high you have to be brave to beat the press but we just panicked and gave them the ball back time and time again

Ballard and Thorniley were awful on the ball and we struggled to string a pass together during the first 30 mins or so

To be fair we did get back into the game when Stewart dropped deeper and started to get on the ball. We also started the 2nd half better

But then calamity Critchley struck again

Why on earth did he make the subs so early and when we were having our best spell of the game, CJ Hamilton just isn't a striker and Simms was getting into the game, having some joy turning Beccles

The subs just gave them the impetuous to go at us and we lost any threat we had

A point was probably more than we deserved on the ballance of play, but we really need to be winning our home games

We set up slow and were lazy on the ball and that falls onto the manager as do the substitutions

Credit Crewe all you want but we were sloppy and got away with it last night
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I will credit Crewe, they were good. Otherwise your assessment is fair enough.
 
straightatthewall said:
We'll need to understand why Simms was subbed, but if it was tactical, then Phil makes a fair point, because we lose the focal point which has consistently been the cause of poorer performance/results all season.
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I said as much as the op last night. Chisnall said Simms looked dejected when he went off and I didn't see any injury.

Off went the 2 players, off went another 2 points.
 
62years&counting said:
A good summary Phil. It was a lazy start and Stewart seemed to be out of position. The substitutions were badly timed and just when we had an element of control. There's still something missing in midfield. Thorniley and the midfield were off the pace. It's a point but we need to win at home this Saturday to keep our outside chance of a play off place on track.
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i ant stand Thorniley, i honestly think the lad is a liability. I'll back him when hes playing but tbh would rather he played for someone else.
 
I do rate Critchiley overall, but what is frustrating is that each and every mistake he makes through his inexperience is costing us. Not in a hells chance should Simms have come off last night and it cost us and allowed Crewe to get back into the game. Its just very frustrating but hopefully something that Critchiley will learn from
 
td53 said:
CJ could play up front but not off Yates. He'd be a different prospect off Madine or even Simms but playing a runner off another runner doesn't make sense when we didn't have enough off the midfield. It's not like we were threading loads of balls through.

Is what it is tho. I gave him the benefit of the doubt as I thought Crewe would tire and the extra pace would be useful against them.

They didn't and actually finished very strongly which was probably the most impressive thing about them.
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I wouldn't mind seeing CJ play behind Y&M. His pace would frighten them to death when running from deep on to flicks etc.
 
The thing I like about last night is that the Pool players looked devastated at the end that they didn't win the match. It shows the players are really up for the fight. Lets give credit to Crewe for confusing the Blackpool players with their high energy work rate. Crewe sure didn't want us to go above them in the league table last night.

The only thing I'm a little critical of last night is that Critch took Simms off for CJ. Simms was playing well so we should of replaced for CJ with someone other than Simms.
 
voyeur said:
Crewe were much better than Charlton were on Saturday though. Charlton were abject.
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Voy - i think it's a fair point to recognise the relative strength or performance of the opposition. We're not good enough to be assuming that we're starting from a position of being much better than the team we're playing. But by that same token, it's surely also fair to recognise where we think our performance, tactics, selection etc...have reduced our chances of winning the game.
 
voyeur said:
Crewe were much better than Charlton were on Saturday though. Charlton were abject.
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But we didn't let Charlton play

We were right at them straight away

Its all about intent

The start of last night was a bit like Ipswich and Shrewsbury away, lazy and sluggish
 
Blackpool_Gaz said:
The thing I like about last night is that the Pool players looked devastated at the end that they didn't win the match. It shows the players are really up for the fight. Lets give credit to Crewe for confusing the Blackpool players with their high energy work rate. Crewe sure didn't want us to go above them in the league table last night.

The only thing I'm a little critical of last night is that Critch took Simms off for CJ. Simms was playing well so we should of replaced for CJ with someone other than Simms.
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It certainly shouldn't have confused the players

Crewe play that way they always have and do throughout their age groups

Critchley used to be at Crewe so no shock at all for anyone on how Crewe play
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
But we didn't let Charlton play

We were right at them straight away

Its all about intent

The start of last night was a bit like Ipswich and Shrewsbury away, lazy and sluggish
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There's truth in that, we certainly started badly, but Crewe started like a house on fire, whereas Charlton looked devoid of confidence from the kick off. My feeling before the game was that we might react to the Charlton game by being s bit sloppy and we did and I felt that a bit of rotation could have helped. Bring in a couple of players who are keen to make an impact like Embleton who has shown promising signs. And he would have balanced the midfield better. I also think it's almost playing with ten men when KK plays. Unfortunately.
 
straightatthewall said:
Voy - i think it's a fair point to recognise the relative strength or performance of the opposition. We're not good enough to be assuming that we're starting from a position of being much better than the team we're playing. But by that same token, it's surely also fair to recognise where we think our performance, tactics, selection etc...have reduced our chances of winning the game.
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Yes of course it is. I'm just commenting on one aspect. Crewe look full of confidence, they outplayed Sunderland at the weekend. Charlton looked devoid of confidence, after some poor results. Two very different games. We only had to do the basics at Charlton. The ref did the rest. 🙂
 
voyeur said:
Yes of course it is. I'm just commenting on one aspect. Crewe look full of confidence, they outplayed Sunderland at the weekend. Charlton looked devoid of confidence, after some poor results. Two very different games. We only had to do the basics at Charlton. The ref did the rest. 🙂
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My concern for us is that we have to be 'at it' from the off, pretty much every game now. We're playing catch up, so that reduces the room for error. That we can't or weren't allowed to start off strongly points to us not being good enough overall. That's something I've felt most the season anyway, so I'm not too concerned about it, but when you get on a decent run and the play offs are in sight, it's hard not to feel a big disappointment at (perceived) dropped points.
 
We were lucky to get away with a point.
Crewe are a very good side.
They had 2 goals disallowed for off-side. A good attacking side.
Glad we don't have to play them again.
 
after a dodgy first half hour, I thought we were getting control of the game when the linesman went to ground. That 10 minutes disrupted us and we never really recovered the impetus we had up to that point. I don't think the subs completely disrupted us but SImms going off was a strange one.
 
voyeur said:
There's truth in that, we certainly started badly, but Crewe started like a house on fire, whereas Charlton looked devoid of confidence from the kick off. My feeling before the game was that we might react to the Charlton game by being s bit sloppy and we did and I felt that a bit of rotation could have helped. Bring in a couple of players who are keen to make an impact like Embleton who has shown promising signs. And he would have balanced the midfield better. I also think it's almost playing with ten men when KK plays. Unfortunately.
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I agree with the majority of that with the exception of the KK point as he hardly had the ball

KK has been decent recently winning goal in a tight game and several assists, played the ball for the first pen on Saturday etc etc
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
So i will be

It was obvious to anyone who follows league 1 football how Crewe play

Fast, high intensity, pressing football

Basically what we were promised when Critchley took over

Yet we started very sluggish, far too slow to close them down and we were very poor on the ball. When teams press so high you have to be brave to beat the press but we just panicked and gave them the ball back time and time again

Ballard and Thorniley were awful on the ball and we struggled to string a pass together during the first 30 mins or so

To be fair we did get back into the game when Stewart dropped deeper and started to get on the ball. We also started the 2nd half better

But then calamity Critchley struck again

Why on earth did he make the subs so early and when we were having our best spell of the game, CJ Hamilton just isn't a striker and Simms was getting into the game, having some joy turning Beccles

The subs just gave them the impetuous to go at us and we lost any threat we had

A point was probably more than we deserved on the ballance of play, but we really need to be winning our home games

We set up slow and were lazy on the ball and that falls onto the manager as do the substitutions

Credit Crewe all you want but we were sloppy and got away with it last night
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100% agree with that. Why the hell he took Simms off and put CJ on is anybody's guess ?? CJ was trying to play as an out and out striker down the middle in the main with Yates. He definitely got it wrong I'm afraid to say.
 
Can’t be bothered reading it tbf. We are on a very good run of form and long may it continue.
a draw last night against a team that came close to beating Sunderland on Saturday is no bad thing. We have no given right to win every game

can you tell me what period it was since I started watching in 1972 that we played well every week & won all the games, I must of missed it.
 
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KK is an enigma,from time to time making a quality contribution but all too often as last night being ineffective or well nigh invisible.

Another point not mentioned so far in the discussion on substitutes is that the very best chance we had in the second half,a very good one, fell to the ring rusty CJ when he was in a central position,not his normal role, in front of goal when he unfortunately completely missed his kick,with the ball rebounding I think off his standing leg .If Simms had still been on,and I agree with almost everyone on here that substituting him at that point was dead wrong,we could well have gone 2-1 up as it was exactly where he would normally have been.
 
It was a point gained for me, Crewe were good and I’m not sure that had too much to do with how NC had us playing. Even the best managers in the world lose games sometimes when they play well and win when they play badly. And sometimes you get what you deserve. And we did last night IMO. A draw was a fair result as BOTH managers agreed.
 
voyeur said:
There's truth in that, we certainly started badly, but Crewe started like a house on fire, whereas Charlton looked devoid of confidence from the kick off. My feeling before the game was that we might react to the Charlton game by being s bit sloppy and we did and I felt that a bit of rotation could have helped. Bring in a couple of players who are keen to make an impact like Embleton who has shown promising signs. And he would have balanced the midfield better. I also think it's almost playing with ten men when KK plays. Unfortunately.
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It's the speed of thought that impresses me about Embleton. We've got technically good players who will from time to time pick a good ball or see a gap to exploit with a bit of skill, but Embleton looks a step ahead of the game and no one else really gives me that vibe. They might be faster, or stronger or work harder than the opposition but are they mentally half a yard ahead?

He's only had flashes but he's got that quality where he plays a pass or has a touch you didn't see cos he's more in tune that anyone else with the overall picture on the pitch.

I think the only other player who plays like that consistently (cos Sullay can as well) is....

You've guessed it. The goal machine!

It's an impression based on fleeting glimpses but I do like what I've seen. He's also quite well built so he's not as easy to knock out the game as some players in his mould might be.
 
straightatthewall said:
My concern for us is that we have to be 'at it' from the off, pretty much every game now. We're playing catch up, so that reduces the room for error. That we can't or weren't allowed to start off strongly points to us not being good enough overall. That's something I've felt most the season anyway, so I'm not too concerned about it, but when you get on a decent run and the play offs are in sight, it's hard not to feel a big disappointment at (perceived) dropped points.
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Wouldn't argue with that. We aren't yet the full Monty. Crewe showed us how to do some stuff. We are disjointed in attack and sometimes set up wrong in midfield. But I don't think any other side in the league is the Full Monty either. A league season is a ride with ups and downs and we have controlled a lot of games in spite of some deficiencies, and we are getting stronger, slowly, and we have good depth to the squad.

The loss of Marv & Viking is a big shame, I think, they give us a real calm at the back. Composure, which helps the players in front of them, and out wide of them. That Lowery lad would improve our midfield - but we have Embleton who also looks good on the ball. I feel Critch was too desperate to see CJ and overlooked what Embleton could have done, and he is match fit and performed well last time out. Yates and Simms needed more composure and creativity behind them, but instead we took Simms off and stuck a winger who hasn't played for ages up front in a position he hasn't played for us. We were coming close to a second goal but then lost the initiative.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
I agree with the majority of that with the exception of the KK point as he hardly had the ball

KK has been decent recently winning goal in a tight game and several assists, played the ball for the first pen on Saturday etc etc
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Yeah sort of, but we carry him the vast majority of the time, for me.
 
td53 said:
It's the speed of thought that impresses me about Embleton. We've got technically good players who will from time to time pick a good ball or see a gap to exploit with a bit of skill, but Embleton looks a step ahead of the game and no one else really gives me that vibe. They might be faster, or stronger or work harder than the opposition but are they mentally half a yard ahead?

He's only had flashes but he's got that quality where he plays a pass or has a touch you didn't see cos he's more in tune that anyone else with the overall picture on the pitch.

I think the only other player who plays like that consistently (cos Sullay can as well) is....

You've guessed it. The goal machine!

It's an impression based on fleeting glimpses but I do like what I've seen. He's also quite well built so he's not as easy to knock out the game as some players in his mould might be.
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I see no resemblance (or Embletonance) between Embleton and the tattooed one. 😉
 
Poultongirl said:
How is it an outside chance of the playoffs? It’s in Blackpools hands to get in the play offs, win the majority of remaining games, in the playoffs 👍🏻 Simple, surely it is only an outside chance when you’ve got to rely on other teams to drop points.
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Pool have to win games in hand. Points in the bag almost always hold sway.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
So i will be

It was obvious to anyone who follows league 1 football how Crewe play

Fast, high intensity, pressing football

Basically what we were promised when Critchley took over

Yet we started very sluggish, far too slow to close them down and we were very poor on the ball. When teams press so high you have to be brave to beat the press but we just panicked and gave them the ball back time and time again

Ballard and Thorniley were awful on the ball and we struggled to string a pass together during the first 30 mins or so

To be fair we did get back into the game when Stewart dropped deeper and started to get on the ball. We also started the 2nd half better

But then calamity Critchley struck again

Why on earth did he make the subs so early and when we were having our best spell of the game, CJ Hamilton just isn't a striker and Simms was getting into the game, having some joy turning Beccles

The subs just gave them the impetuous to go at us and we lost any threat we had

A point was probably more than we deserved on the ballance of play, but we really need to be winning our home games

We set up slow and were lazy on the ball and that falls onto the manager as do the substitutions

Credit Crewe all you want but we were sloppy and got away with it last night
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Jobs comfeter is at it again! 😩
 
Crewe were very good last night. We were no way at our best. Think NC made a tactical booby - the subs should have come later - we were on top at that point and once the subs came on we lost the plot apart from some good counter attacks. I think Simms should have stayed on and our midfield beefed up. CJ to replace KK/Ward later on.
Still it was a good game to watch.

** Note for NC buy Lowery - dude is class.
 
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