Player Performance Analysis vs Crawley Town (H): EFL League Two
17/10/26
Starting Lineup 5–2–2–1/3–1–4–1
GK Will Norris
RCB Will Aimson
MCB Dan Scarr
LCB Taylor Allen
RWB Luke Molyneux
LWB Abraham Odoh
CM Elliot Bonds
CM Matt Butcher
AM Jorge Grant
AM Kalum Cesay
CF Macaulay Langstaff
Team Selection
Just before I get into the football part of this article, I’d like to ask you a question.
Are you finding it any harder to get an Uber recently than you have in the past?
For your sake, I hope not, but from my experience, every friggin’ time I order one, I end up waiting so long to connect to a driver that I have no option but to bump up the price by changing the ride from Uber X to Priority.
Seems like a right scam to me, but maybe it’s just a run of bad luck.
But anyway, the reason I mention it is that I had a busy week moving into a new apartment and was running behind schedule in the lead-up to the match.
But once I arrived, the gifts just kept on giving.
Butcher in the starting eleven???????
Well, from what I’m told by people who watched the warm-ups, Wiredu seemed to pull up with some form of twinge pre-game. I guess this likely explains why he began this game on the bench.
And keeping with the players who I often earmark for criticism, Cesay was also in from the start.
Oh joy of joys.
But to give him his due, he really helped turn the game in Salford’s favour against Cheltenham, so I can’t argue at all with his selection for this game.
Against Crawley, I must say he looked brimming with confidence, and lots of the flicks and throughballs he attempted were more or less bang on the money. Chalking up five assists already this season is no mean feat, and I know there was a period last season where his chance creation stats were top level for a time, but unfortunately in that team there wasn’t a lethal finisher to hand as we now have with Langstaff.
I think I’ve already banged the drum enough for Dan Udoh to be considered as one of our two AM’s, but it seems that Mr Cklamovski doesn’t see it the same way.
And the results speak for themselves.
As I wrote after our last game, if Cesay can keep up the form he showed last weekend (and fairly regularly yesterday too), even I can see there’ll be no reason to look for an alternative to play in behind Langstaff upfront.
Whether Kallum can maintain that level of form consistently is another question, but so far so good, at least as far as the last few games go.
TMNT
And now onto the thing I’m most looking forward to discussing in this particular piece.
The balance of our midfield.
What came to mind when I saw the lineup of our two DM’s and AM’s was that each individual player had a unique selling point which didn’t overlap with any of the other three.
And this put me in mind of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as per the image I’ve used to headline this article.
If you’re in your late forties like me, you’re likely well-versed in who and what the TMNT are. But in case you’re from a different generation, or don’t pay attention to cartoons, I’ll try to fill in the gaps the best I can.
The four main characters, all turtles, each had a high level of skill with a particular weapon. From what I vaguely recall, things like knives and nunchucks were involved. But this cross-section of abilities helped them defeat many a enemy regardless of the odds they faced.
And relating this back to our midfield, I could kind of see something similar in terms of the blend we had across this quartet.
Starting with the deepest first, Bonds was our defensive specialist who’s in there to help us break up play and protect the back line.
Alongside him was Butcher, who provided experience and is more of a vocal organiser than Elliot is.
Of the two number tens, Grant was in there for his craft and passing ability, whereas Cesay’s athelticism and work rate helped us tick all the boxes.
Bit of a curveball, I know, but I thought it was worth putting in to keep things fresh.
Tactics
The first thing I want to look at here is our defensive record so far this season, which on the whole is excellent.
Across this campaign we’ve conceded an average of 1.00 goal per game, and have only let in more than a single goal on two occasions (Barnet and Rotherham).
And this newfound solidity has started to make me wonder how it’s been achieved, so that’s what I’ll be looking at here.
My first point I may have referred to before, but just in case I haven’t, here it is again.
I keep seeing at least one of our wingbacks dropping deep alongside the back three to help give us a more solid base at our own end. So far, it feels like Odoh is the one required to help out in this way more often than Molyneux, but maybe that’s just a figment of my imagination.
What this added cover allows for is one of our centre backs to shoot forward, out of the defensive line, to close down the opposition ball carrier upfield. This aggressiveness can prevent some attacks from even reaching our penalty area, which reduces the amount of pressure our defenders have to deal with.
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I also think Cklamovski’s decision to play two deep-lying central midfielders makes us harder to break down through the middle of the pitch. These extra bodies clog up that area, forcing other teams out towards the wings where I imagine we’re happier for them to be.
With Scarr and Aimson in our back line, we seem sorted as far as the ability to deal with high crosses goes. So, anything the opposition fire into our box from the touchline is bread and butter to those two strapping lads.
Also, I think we’re quite measured in terms of how far up the pitch we choose to trigger our press. By allowing the other team to play passes across their backline, it allows us to sit off and choose exactly the right time to pounce. I think our judgement of these situations is improving all the time, as shown by the increasing number of times other teams make passing errors which go out for throw-ins.
Even when that doesn’t happen, pressure from the likes of Cesay and Langstaff can cause the other team to panic in possession. This can mean the pass that’s made is less accurate and becomes harder to control for the player receiving the ball.
The knock-on effect here is that the player next in this chain can be more easily pressured off the ball, leading to a turnover, putting us straight back on the counter-attack.
All this is great news, and I’m really enjoying seeing how the team is working as a more cohesive unit with every game they play.
But……
I do think relying so much on our winger/wing backs as our widest defenders could be our undoing. At the minute, when other teams target them by peppering crosses into our box, I think we’re more than happy to back ourselves to win the majority of aerial battles that come our way.
However, I did notice yesterday that Crawley preferred to run at our wingbacks and cut infield to find space to attempt a shot.
And this poses us a different problem entirely.
When the opposition reach our defensive third/penalty area, our three centre backs move into an extremely narrow shape around the six-yard box, which leaves acres of room that the wingback is left to deal with.
I simply can’t believe that, given time, this won’t prove to be our undoing, as Odoh and Molyneux are clearly not natural defenders. But maybe, like a few of my other red flags, this thought will prove to have no substance.
Linked to this, one last thing which I feel is also hugely important in assisting our defensive record is that we score first in matches and control the game state.
If we do this, and other teams have to chase the game, at some point or other they’ll need to start pumping the ball long when they get desperate enough for a goal.
Again, this is great news for our defenders as they’re more than happy to thrive on a diet of filthy hoofball served up towards their foreheads.
And I think this plan is proving its worth, as over the last two months the only time I remember us conceding the first goal was against Newport County. Apart from that, we tend to be the team that gets its nose out in front, which forces the other team to open up a little more, potentially playing right into our hands.
My last point, which goes back to our defensive structure, concerns our midfield.
I’m noticing that our deeper midfielders tend to stay narrow and central, whereas the AMs play further apart and can drift out towards the wings at times.
So if you add this quartet to our wingbacks (one of which may have dropped alongside our defenders) we have a bank of at least five players across the middle of the pitch which the other team have find a way of playing through.
Again, I think this puts most opponents right where we want them by forcing them out wide, or to play it long over the top of our midfielders. And as I mentioned before, Scarr and Aimson can deal with that type of threat while still holding a pint in each hand.
For me, the biggest thing here is that we’re forcing other teams to react to how we play, rather than the other way round. Without having all the antics of Robbo and his fake siege mentality, we’re able to dominate games in a much calmer, more sustainable way.
I know some fans were calling for Peter to be sacked after only a few games, and if you were one of those people, I just say this to you.
It’s a free country, so say what you want about our team and manager within the realms of reason and legality. That’s your right, no question about it.
But if I was one of those calling for Cklamovski’s head early doors, then maybe next time I want to rip everything up and start again, I might try and remember that something new isn’t always something better.
And just because a new manager gets off to a poor start doesn’t mean he’s destined to be a bad appointment.
It’s still far too early to tell if PK is going to be the man to get us up into League One, but surely it was a little too premature to be demanding his sacking less than a month into this season?
In that vein, I’ll attach a clip here which has an in-depth interview with ex Oldham/Barrow/Fleetwood boss Pete Wild. And he discusses at length the time he believes a manager needs to get a club moving in the right direction.
It’s nearly an hour long, but I must admit I found it fascinating. And maybe you will too.
And just one last point before I change topics.
I seem to notice that there seems to be much less fan interaction, especially on the Facebook group when we win than when we lose. This suggests some supporters are biding their time until the next loss to be able to vent their feelings at the regime.
Again, if that’s what you like to do, crack on, it’s up to you.
But purely from my view I think giving credit where it’s due is the right thing to do.
Players such as Luamba, Austerfield and a few others have tended to get very little praise from me, and in my defence that’s because I genuinely never thought they were good enough as players to get this club where it needed to go. In the main that’s been proved to be correct, but that’s not always been the case.
For instance I wasn’t a massive fan of either Louie Barry or Brandon Thomas Asante (although BTA’s spell under Neil Wood was truly excellent) so my talwnt ID radar is most definitely not always tuned in.
With the new breed of Cesay and Co, the jurys still out, but I promise I’m trying to keep an eye out for both the ticks and crosses in their game as otherwise I’m sure I’ll end up with egg on my face at some point.
I’ve written a lot here about our defensive set up but one thing in the attacking sphere we seem to be doing differently is to not attempt to make as many deep crosses as we were earlier in the season.
My question was always that I didn’t understand who we expected to be on the end of these deliveries, as we don’t have a forward line that’s particularly skilled in aerial duels.
As a number of fans have pointed out, once we’re within range of the oppositions penalty area we now tend to carry the ball infield rather than punt it into the box hoping for the best.
So thankfully, Aussie Pete has cottoned on that the strategy he initially used needed to be changed. And here we are now with Plan B.
In my mind at least, long may it continue.
The Flow Of The Game
I must admit I’m not really blessed with a great deal of time to say much more about this performance, but let’s see what I can fit in before I head out the door.
My feeling for the first fifty or so minutes was that it was a bit of cakewalk. I didn’t feel much threat at all from Crawley, and maybe that was mainly due to the defensive structures I’ve discussed above.
Once the lead grew to 2–0 I just couldn’t see the opposition getting back in the game, which felt a little like the early parts of the Rotherham game. But once Crawley scored, which I’d say was against the run of play, it reminded me that they were still in the game even though I didn’t really think they deserved it.
My hope was that this wouldn’t turn into a Rotherham style comeback, and thankfully it didn’t. Compared to the kamikaze approach we took under Karl Robinson, even when we were in the lead, we now seem to be able to manage the back end of games so much better under Cklamovski.
Some of that may be due to our organisation, but I also think the improvement in quality across the whole squad plays a huge part in this too.
Having such Rolls Royce options as Wiredu, Powell and Allen in the mix, alongside established (but underperforming) talents like Molyneux and Langstaff, seems a word away from the patchwork recruitment that Robbo had to deal with for the most part.
In fact, this brings into question just how much Peter Cklamovski himself should be credited for our recent upturn in form, as surely it must be much easier getting wins in League Two with this group than it has been for Salford managers in years gone by.
But things can change around in the blink of an eye, and hopefully we can continue in our rich vein of form on Tuesday night when we make the trip to Bristol Rovers.
Until this season I’d be worried about how we’d deal with Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday turnarounds but with the depth of squad we have at our disposal there should be much drop off at all if Cklamovski makes a few changes to the lineup ahead of our next fixture.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this article, and many thanks for taking the time to read it.
