Crewe Alex's 2024-25 Season Review Part 2 - The Bad

As my review of Crewe Alex's 24-25 season expanded, I decided to break it into smaller parts to make it more palatable. Yesterday, I put out Part 1, which discussed the positives of their season and yes, there were a few. Depending on your deposition, maybe start on this one, move to that one and you'll feel better about things? Anyway, after discussing the positives, now we come on to the negatives. And unsurprisingly, there are quite a few, with blame to be assigned at all levels of the club. So, let's get into it:

Squad Building

My first critique starts with their squad building that went on last summer. They went into the pre-season looking to play 4-2-3-1, but from early on I couldn't work out why. They tried to force Joel Tabiner into the number 10 role, but that experiment quickly ended once the season started. They signed Jack Lankester to play out wide, but he seemed ill suited to that wide role. Their other options on the wings were Shilow Tracey and Chris Long and both of those 2 players had their flaws in playing out wide, namely quality and fitness respectively.

Then we go to the defence. Trusting Charlie Finney to play at LB and only signing Max Conway just before the season started seemed strange. Signing 2 CBs in Jamie Knight-Lebel and James Connolly, despite already having Zac Williams and Mickey Demetriou as starting options, seemed like overkill. And why didn't they consider moving Lewis Billington inside to CB and sign a RB/RWB to compete with Ryan Cooney?

Upfront, they signed 2 similar profile strikers in Bogle and Hemmings, two big physical 30+ year old strikers. They didn't work out, with only 9 goals scored between them and only one(a penalty) since early January. In midfield, they tried to shoe horn Tabiner and Holicek, which didn't work. And can we ask how they ended up with Sanders, Thomas and Powell, 3 midfielders who don't provide any goal threat. To have 3 players who don't add any threat for goals is simply too much for a small L2 team to carry.

Then we come to the January transfer window. I wrote shortly after that window ended that I felt they erred by bringing in just a CB and CM, 2 positions they arguably had internal options to choose from. Yes, O'Riordan and Lowery were good, but the team was screaming for help at wing back and creativity upfront. Neither of those needs were addressed and that was a failure that didn't need to happen.

Discipline

I almost forgot to include this one, but it's worth a mention. The Alex's discipline all season was a big problem. Ok, Owen Lunt's red card was farcical and Jamie Knight-Lebel's against Wimbledon almost never gets given as one. But the reds to Long, Cooney, Lowery and Williams were fair and cost their team in those games. And those were just the red cards.

Zac Williams picked up a ridiculous 13 yellows. Cooney wasn't far behind on 11. But this isn't about hanging individuals out to dry, it was a team wide issue. They were 7th in the yellow card table despite only sitting 14th in the fouls committed table. Whilst there are no stats to track it, I'm willing to bet around a quarter of their cards were for completely unnecessary things like dissent and players getting into tussles with the opposition.

Bell likes his players to play with an edge and that's fine, but too often it crosses the line and leaves them with players walking the tightrope of possible bans.

The Pitch

I'm not blaming anyone in particular for this, but the Alex's pitch definitely became a defining factor of their season. Despite not a particularly bad winter, it was a mess all over, not just the section under the main stand roof. It also potentially led to their injury concerns. It might be a coincidence, but Jack Lankester, James Connolly, Kane Hemmings, Charlie Finney, Joel Tabiner and Matus Holicek all picked up injuries during home games. Lowery picked up 2.

The pitch also led to a total mental block from the management, where they point blank refused to play football on it. Now, they shouldn't need a carpet to at least try and play on the deck, but the fact is, the surface was atrocious and it'll need a lot of work over the summer to rectify.

Home Struggles

Speaking of issues, their home form became a massive worry for the 2nd straight season. Now, part of that is the pitch, part of that is the tactics as we'll go into shortly. But despite a fantastic and large home backing, one of their largest at this level for many a year, the management and players simply never responded.

For the second straight season, their form regressed at Gresty Road. In 22-23, they picked up 38 points at home. In 23-24, it was 37. This season, they managed 34. Their home form to end the season was particularly worrying, as they went 2-2-7. Defeats to Accrington, Newport, Fleetwood, Cheltenham and MK Dons were alarming, given they all finished nowhere near the play-offs. They couldn't rise to big games against Colchester or Port Vale. They let leads slip, they suffered 3 heavy defeats. They were blanked 8 times and only kept 8 clean sheets.

Until their home form dramatically improves, both in terms of results and all round performances, Lee Bell will not win back the support. And those positive fan numbers coming into Gresty Road I mentioned in my first season review piece will quickly start to diminish.

Killer Instincts

If we're looking at statistical reasons why they failed to go up, then some big stats stand out and I don't just mean the number of draws or goals scored. I think we need to look deeper.

The first is them going 8-4-9 against the bottom half teams. Ok, you aren't going to beat them all, but that's 35 lost points against the poorer sides in the division. Even 9 more points from those games gets them into the top 7.

Third, they were level after 60 minutes in 20 different games this season. They went 4-14-2 in those games. What this means is that whilst they didn't lose many games after that point, they also weren't able to kick on and find a win often enough either. Too many draws became the defining point in their season and it showed a lack of killer instinct, on or off the pitch.

Finally, Bell set his side up to win tight margin games. Yet they never actually won many tight margin games. They won 9 games by a multi-goal scoreline, the joint 7th best in the league. Yet they only won 6 by 1 goal, the 2nd worst in the league. You have to go back to January for their last 1-0 win of any kind and September for their last 1-0 home win. They won just 1 game by a 2-1 scoreline, which is crazy given that is one of the most common score lines in football.

Attacking Issues

This is a mixed one to criticise, because some of it is unfortunate, some of it is on the players, some of it is on the management.

The unfortunate is the fact that the majority of their injuries this season occurred in forward areas. Only Shilow Tracey gave them 20 starts, They were hampered by big injuries to Hemmings(multiple times), Lankester(multiple times), Bogle, Long(multiple times) and Tracey. They never once were able to name a squad with all 5 of those players in it. That's bad luck.

But then we look at the players. There were issues in their decision making and finishing all season. They were 9th in the big chances missed table and only scored 49 goals despite creating 55.1 in xG. They underperformed their xG by 6.1, the 2nd biggest margin in League Two. Lee Bell can't finish the chances for them. The players did not do a good job in front of goal and they need to take blame for that.

However, a larger issue is the management. They rarely ever focused on putting the players into a system that would allow them to attack teams. It was defence first, everything else was secondary. The attacking game plan only got more disjointed and confusing as the season ticked by. They managed just 3.4 shots on target per game, good for just 19th in League Two. That's a system and philosophy issue and I don't know if the management have it in them to realise that issue and rectify it next season.

Lack of Academy Products

This is a tricky one, as again part of it is in the manager's hands, part of it isn't. Bell cannot do anything about the lack of top talents coming through. Maybe Tabiner and Holicek will go on to have successful careers in the top 2 tiers of the EFL, but the jury is out on both. Maybe Zac Williams will grow up, improve his attitude and go on to play higher. But at the moment, none of them project to match the paths of Pickering, Wintle or Ng.

Behind them, Tom Booth and Charlie Finney were unfortunate that injuries saw them lose potential starting spots to loanees, but how likely they are to be top quality EFL players, I'm not sure. But the group of homegrown talent Bell had to work with this season was noticeably diminished. There are no Pickering, Ng, Kirk, Dale or Wintle's in this group. They brought back 2 departed graduates in Lowery and O'Riordan and in truth, they outshined most of their younger colleagues. The question over whether the academy is fit for purpose is back on the agenda.

However, whilst I do think Bell has been dealt a tough hand, I will criticise him for his refusal to use certain players. Regardless of how good Owen Lunt, Callum Agius and Lewis Billington are or will be, they should have been used more. Or used more effectively. The same in that regard probably goes for Tabiner and Holicek. Holicek probably had the best season out of all the homegrown players and even he was, for me, only a touch above average.

Questions have to be asked over whether Bell and his management group are actually that good at developing home grown players. Only 1-2 in their 2 1/2 year tenure can say they have truly improved as players and they are mostly defenders. So, this is a double edged sword. Whilst I don't think Bell has utilised the talent he has available to him as effectively as he could, he is also dealing with a smaller, less talented pool than his more successful predecessors had. 2 big issues which I don't see being fixed any time soon.

Style

I thought I'd save the biggest issue for last. The style. Look, being the team with the most possession and most successful passes doesn't guarantee success. Only 2 of the teams in the top 6 for most possession this season made the top 7. Only 2 of the teams with the most successful passes made the top 7. Having possession and being a passing side means little if you don't use it effectively. Port Vale, who went up as runners up, were 11th in possession, 8th in accurate passes and 7th in xG this season.

However, this is Crewe Alexandra. Where they value the academy and have doubled and tripled down on using it to be the backbone of their entire business model. The likes of Tabiner and Holicek are never going to flourish in a system where they don't look to pass the ball and set up to play on the front foot. Nor will Owen Lunt, Callum Agius, Owen Taylor or any other graduate from the midfield/forward areas coming through in the next few years. Hoof ball will simply not work for this club in any season.

The Alex are defensive, slow and predictable in their build up. Their attack feels like it's done on a wing and a prayer most games. Hearing Bell repeatedly refer to hoping for a bit of luck or a ball to drop nicely in attack is worrying and suggests he doesn't actually know how to get them consistently good in attack.

Having a solid defence is one thing, but football is about both ends of the pitch. And for 18 months now, the Alex's attack has been badly, badly lacking. And as with the youth development section, I have serious reservations as to whether this management group truly knows how to fix them.