Crewe Alex 2026-27 First 10 Games Analysis

Whenever you analyse a team's start to a season, everyone says wait 10 games. It's a quarter of the season, you've played a decent selection of opponents, you can look at the table and run the numbers and properly have a look at where your teams sits. So, that is what we're going to do in this piece. We're going to break down the Alex's first 10 games and assess the good and the bad(yes, there is some) and see what might be coming next for them. So, let's start off with the bad:

Negatives

Captain Finished?

Mickey Demetriou has been the lynch pin of this team for 3 seasons now. Warrior, leader, long throw specialist, set piece menace. The heart and soul of the club. But there is growing evidence that whilst his mind is still willing to play on, his body isn't. He's played just 3 of their first 10 games and will be missing for 2-3 more. Of the 3 games he's played, he's finished just 1 of them. He was sent off against Crawley after being too slow to a challenge, he limped off late against Port Vale and he finished the game against Shrewsbury hobbling. Time is undefeated and it seems Demetriou may be a victim of that. Are we witnessing the last season of his career? I think we might be.

Underlying Numbers

The Alex are 3rd in the table, but the underlying data doesn't suggest they deserve to be there. They are 15th in the FotMob xG table and in Mark O'Haire's expected table through 9 games, he has them 18th. They are 17th in xG created and 14th in xG conceded. They are 14th in the xG difference table, 18th in shots on target per game and 20th in big chances.

They have been outshot for both shots on target and total shots. Opponents are having more of the ball, making more passes. Whilst successful sides come in many different shapes and sizes, the above numbers need to be improved on if they are to continue to get results you feel.

Attacking Struggles

Whilst the defence has been stellar, the attackers both as individuals and as a unit have been very hit and miss this season. Whilst Josh March has 2 assists in his last 2, he's without a goal in his last 6. Adrien Thibaut and Charlie McNeill have both failed to score in the league.

As for the attacking midfielders/wingers, Joe White, Matus Holicek, Jordan Gibson and Jack Lankester are yet to register an assist. There have been signs recently that Lankester and Gibson are finding their feet in terms of scoring, we're yet to see much creativity from them. Calum Agius has been hit and miss and has just 1 assist, with no goal since February. Joel Tabiner has been good creatively, with 4 assists, but he too has no goal to his name.

Add in all the names above together and through 10 games they've registered 7 assists and 8 goals. For such a talented group, that's not enough. They can all improve, both in terms of individual and all round team play.

Eye Test

Let's be honest, the majority of the football through the first 10 games has been a tough watch. There have been good spells for 20 minutes here or 25 minutes there, but it's been a struggle to maintain any sort of control or tempo in games. They rarely dominate games in attack and their build up play too often is slow, predictable and easy to cut out.

Like with the individual attackers, there have been signs that they're trending in the right direction in the last few weeks, but it's been very marginal improvements. Should they be playing better with the group they have available?

Easy Start

Take a look at the league table and it'll tell you that the Alex have played 7 of the current bottom 8. The league isn't good and you could argue they've left a fair amount of points on the board against teams who are either poor or have had slow starts. All 4 of their draws against Shrewsbury, Colchester, Rotherham and Port Vale were frustrating, especially given they led in 2 of them and couldn't hold on to the lead. Will they come to regret those dropped points come May?

The Positives

Defence

Given the attacking struggles and the midfield being a bit patchwork through these early games, we need to full props to the Alex's defence for how they've played. They've conceded just 7 goals through 10 games, their best total since 2002-03. That's a remarkable total. What makes it even more incredible is they've done it without Demetriou for 7 of the games and Reece Hutchinson for 5.

They've had a rookie starting at LCB in Josh Stephenson and make shift options in Lewis Billington, Stephenson and Kyle Ure filling in at LB. To cap it all off, the keeper has been Tom Booth, someone the majority of the fan base wrote off in the summer as not good enough. Yet they all continue to keep opponents at bay and give the team a platform to go and get results.

Don't Trail

Here's a remarkable stat. The Alex have trailed in just 2 games. 2! They've played 10 games, which is 900 minutes. Of those 900 minutes, only 104 of them have been played whilst behind. By contrast, they've led for 215 minutes, double the amount they've trailed. When you are either level of ahead in 88% of the minutes you play, that is a good omen.

Lack of Injuries

I say this with a fair amount of trepidation and whilst touching every piece of wood nearby, but the Alex have not been hard hit by injuries up until now. They've had 36 games worth of absences, but it's been concentrated around 9 players. 10 of those were from Owen Taylor, who probably wouldn't have featured much anyway. By my count 15 players have missed 1 or fewer games so far due to injuries, which is a good level of availability.

Obviously this can change in an instant and we've seen injuries build up quickly as we approach Christmas. But for now, their injury luck seems to be holding, with only a small number of short-medium term absentees. Let's pray that if we do an analysis after 20 games, we can say the same thing.

Poor League

I mentioned above how the Alex have left points on the board against poor sides, but that in itself is a point to look at positively. 2026-27 in League Two is a poor league. A fair number of the expected big hitters have started poorly(Port Vale, Oldham), or have hit early bumps in form(Bristol Rovers, Grimsby). Now, those teams might sort themselves out and get back up the league, but there is no guarantee that they do. If they don't, that opens the door for the Alex to potentially put themselves properly in to the promotion mix.

Results

They say football is a results business and you can't argue with the results. Yes, we can quibble over how they got some of them and the sustainability of their all round play, but at the end of the day, they are 10 games unbeaten. A 4-6-0 record with 18 points already banked, the most points they've amassed after 10 games since the 19-20 season. Yes, more than they got in 23-24, when they finished with 71 and made the top 7.

Now, does that mean they'll definitely finish in the top 7? Of course not. But by putting themselves in a strong position early, it means they can have dips in form and it won't push them completely out of contention or mean they'll be playing catch up.