Assistant says Crewe need to tighten up at the back going into the new season

Neil Baker, the club’s assistant manager, says that Crewe Alexandra will never be a club that comes and ‘parks the bus’ but that he and manager Steve Davis are determined to improve the goals against column. The Alex staff were extremely disappointed to have conceded 80 league goals this season but were pleased that some sound defending in the remaining few games of the season saw us escape the drop.

Crewe conceded just five goals in the last six games to collect 11 points and move away from the drop zone at a crucial time.

Baker told the club’s official web-site: “We conceded 80 goals last season and that wasn’t necessary down to the goalkeeper and back four. It was a collective and we needed to be a tighter unit and we were in the second half of the season.

“We have to find a way to concede less goals and I genuinely believe that playing 3-4-3 towards the end of the season helped us become tighter at the back. That extra body of protection in front of the back four certainly helped and that system has given us food for thought.

“Our goals against improved and we still had the three attackers, still making chances. We are not a team who park the bus but we do as much work defending as we do with the attackers.

He added: “Individual mistakes cost us, especially in the first half of the campaign but we showed at Bristol City that we can set-up not to concede. We restricted them to just one or two chances over the whole game and we could have won it with the two or three good chances we created. There is nothing wrong with that approach and it showed we could defend really well.”