Crewe boss Dario Gradi has not been happy with his squad this past weekend.
While the reserves were thumped 4-0 at Kidderminster, with Gradi saying not one of the players on show could be pleased with themselves, the first team beat Wrexham 2-0. Even the clean sheet didn't please Gradi much, telling the Chronicle: “There wasn’t a player that played well – not one of them looked like a good player.
“Playing like that won’t even get us into the top half of the league. Other then keeping a clean there was very little of interest to me and I think it was a really poor game. The players have had a hard week and we haven’t given them much of a break but they need to do better than that.”
Like the Bulls, Crewe have switched to a 4-3-3 formation this summer but experimented with a 4-4-2 at the weekend. Gradi says he will abandon the experiment after defenders Patrick Ada and Harry Davis both committed red card offences after hauling down opposing strikers that were clean through on goal.
In his three man midfield, Gradi has Lee Bell marshalling the pair of Luke Murphy and Ashley Westwood. Bell told the paper: “All I have to do is get the ball to them. They do the rest and they make my job so much easier.
“In my opinion the two of them are the best midfielders outside the Championship and they have great futures ahead of them. Westy is a real confident lad and hopefully Murph can come out of his shell a bit because he has all the ability to go and play at the highest level. It really is a pleasure to play with them.”
Gradi hopes striker Clayton Donaldson will recover from his knee injury, with the signs looking promising, while winger Joel Grant will miss the game after a bout of flu.