A game of tactical chess ensued at Bloomfield Road as Blackpool and Crewe left with honours even

Dave Artell and Neil Critchley came through the ranks at Gresty Road and they gave a showcase of the sort of intense, expressive football that the club is famous for.

Blackpool opened the scoring against the run of play when Dan Ballard headed home from a Luke Garbutt corner four minutes before the break, but Crewe levelled proceedings in the 86th minute with a deserved equaliser through substitute Stephen Walker.

The visitors dominated the opening 30 minutes of the game, arriving with a level of intensity that has not been seen before from an away side at Bloomfield Road this season.

They shuttled the ball efficiently from left to right, attempting to disrupt the midfield organisation from Blackpool so that they could play a probing pass in between the lines into Anthony Evans who loitered in space for most of the first half.

Artell’s side were relentless in their press, working in tandem for their off the ball work that cut off out balls for the home side and forced them into direct balls out wide, where Crewe had confidence in their full backs to sweep up where required.

As you can see above, the visitors tended to press in a rectangle shape in order force the ball out wide and direct down the line.

The play would start at the feet of Dan Ballard and Jordan Thorniley where Crewe would then force the press across to the left or right hand side, cutting off available passes as it was swept across meaning the only viable option for Luke Garbutt in this instance was a through ball to Sullay Kaikai, who was closely marked in that phase.

This was something that Blackpool struggled with in the first half an hour and in the latter stages of the game because, after an initial burst of intensity targeting the centre halves, Crewe quickly monitored that Jordan Thorniley’s distribution in particular struggled when they sat off and allowed him time to pick out a pass.

Due to the setup of the press it left Thorniley having to hit long but the accuracy of his direct balls was subpar, allowing Crewe to quickly regain possession without having to intercept with a high press.

On to the on-ball action from the Alex and they again really sussed out the fragilities of Blackpool’s setup which has been a rare occurrence this season.

Ryan Wintle and Anthony Evans were the prolific progressive players in the first half for Crewe, finding themselves with time on the ball and space in key areas to pick a pass that would put them on the front foot.

The image above showcases the freedom that Wintle, as the deep-lying midfielder and Evans, as a drifting number 10, had, but it also evidences that Blackpool were stuck in between systems and effectively were failing at both.

They had two options to eradicate the threat from Crewe and both came with risks.

Neil Critchley’s side could either sit deeper and tighten the lines between defence and midfield in order to cut off the supply line to Evans and therefore make the visitors have to probe their way through a more structured, disciplined defensive line.

Or they could play a higher line, squeezing the gap between defence and midfield again but forcing Crewe into the direct ball over the top, playing an offside trap to stop them from being able to have joy in that sense.

The difficulty with the first option was that Blackpool would struggle to get out and provide an attacking intent themselves in order to win the game and would basically be trying to stem Crewe rather than play their own game.

With the second, the Seasiders have had issues with defending balls in behind, especially when Jordan Thorniley is in at centre half, probably the weakest part of his game and therefore, the offside trap had to be inch perfect in order to get a foothold in the game and stay on the offensive.

Critchley opted for the second option and for large spells of the game after that, the hosts reaped the rewards of upping their own intensity and being tight and aggressive in the midfield areas to combat Crewe’s build up play.

You can see above how effective that tweak of approach was for Blackpool.

After the earlier phases of the game gave Crewe freedom of a lot of space to probe through the lines, now they were forced to play quick balls in behind under pressure from a midfield press tending to come from Kevin Stewart or Matty Virtue.

The offside trap worked well in this instance, stepping up to play Mikael Mandron offside and those patterns of play continued into the majority of the second half with the home side able to maintain composure on the ball and create chances that had otherwise been slack and disjointed in the first half.

It was no coincidence that Blackpool’s goal came just five minutes after that change of shape off the ball as it allowed them to spring counter attacks and use the overlap more freely out wide, knowing that they could recover into a tighter shape that would slow the pace of Crewe’s play down.

However, the Tangerines started to look tired around the 75th minute mark onwards and cracks in that high line were starting to show.

What has to be prefaced is the sheer fitness and intensity that was evident here. After such a tough run of fixtures, Blackpool were bound to run out of steam when they played an unchanged starting XI, against a side who were as relentless and hard working as Crewe.

Stephen Walker’s equaliser for the away side came through the increasingly disjointed nature of Blackpool’s offside trap and high line.

The image above is moments before another direct ball was fed in behind, with Walker beating the offside trap and slotting home.

It shows that whilst Dan Ballard was maintaining the same level of high line that was seen in the earlier stages to squeeze the defensive and midfield lines together, Jordan Thorniley was starting to fatigue and lapse in concentration.

Now, with Thorniley having a weakness for balls over the top, it was only natural that when he started to fade he would sit a yard or two deeper in order to make up for his lack of recovery pace, but in this system, in this game, he could not afford to do that.

The offside trap became null and void the minute Thorniley started to become disjointed from the lead of his partner at centre half.

As you can see, Jerry Yates was looking over his shoulder to keep tabs on Lowery who was starting to find pockets of space in between the lines. A quick transition of possession would see Lowery use that space in between Stewart and Demetri Mitchell to drive forward and create a chance.

Had Thorniley been holding the same line as Ballard in that phase of play above then Lowery would have been crowded out and possession recycled out of harms way.

Whilst the winner went over Ballard’s head this was because he had to turn in recovery due to Thorniley sitting deeper and therefore playing Walker on side. Small margins are massive against teams as switched on as Crewe and the Seasiders paid the price for not having the personnel at their disposal to execute a perfect plan from their Head Coach.

Now it must be said that Crewe are probably the best side to play at Bloomfield Road this season in terms of identifying Blackpool’s weaknesses and creating a shape that limited their creative output, but also key injuries at the heart of defence left them already vulnerable.

This sort of trouble will not be of much concern in future games which is the main positive for the hosts. Crewe are very much unique in their style and to come away relatively unscathed shows the professionalism that has grown within this squad.

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