Zoumana: "We Have To Start Much Better"
Bakayogo looking to go on the front foot against Barnsley this weekend after giving ourselves uphill battles.
Zoumana Bakayogo has come through great adversity in his career with two serious knee injuries taking away two years of his career - but the former Leicester City and Tranmere man is determined to end his return to professional football on a real high by helping Crewe escape the relegation zone.
Bakayogo worked incredibly hard to overcome injury and earn himself a short-term deal at Crewe in the New Year and the 29-year-old has quickly established himself as a firm favourite with the Alex fans with his all-action displays. His more natural position is at left-back but Steve David has utilised his pace and direct running by playing him on the left hand side of midfield in recent weeks.
He repaid that faith shown in him by the boss by producing a man-of the-match performance and a goal at Chesterfield last weekend. His close range finish from Brad Inman’s cut back was a mere consolation in the end in our 3-1 defeat, but it was his first goal for almost three years after such a tough time with injuries.
Ahead of this weekend’s home game with Barnsley, Zooms told us: “I thought we deserved more from our performance last week but that has gone now, its finished and we have to focus on the next game.
“There are 14 big games to go and we have to focus on the next game and getting as many points as we can between now and the end of the season.
“We have made some bad starts in games and we need to be starting games better. It was frustrating because it was little details at the time. We made some mistakes as a team and we have to work on specific things to make sure we don’t concede so early.
“It happened at Rochdale and we managed to fight back but we couldn’t manage it against Chesterfield. We need to start another way, be better defensively and try and score that first goal ourselves.