Crewe lacking dressing room leadership - Bell

Crewe boss Lee Bell has called for more leadership from his team after back-to-back league defeats.

A home loss to Bromley was followed by Saturday's 3-1 defeat at MK Dons to leave them 11th in League Two.

"I walked into a dressing room that was silent. I purposely stayed out of it to see if anyone was going to be saying anything afterwards," Bell told BBC Radio Stoke.

"They're obviously low on confidence, and nobody spoke. Its about taking the game by the scruff of the neck, which some have shown during the season.

"I've worked extremely hard to get that into a Crewe team in the last couple of years, and it's fading out."

Crewe began this season with four straight league wins, but have won just two of the following nine matches and Bell feels the team have lost their edge.

"If you look at the start of the season - athletic, competitive, and then we've slotted into a 'nice team'," he added.

"Teams enjoy coming to play against us, knowing they can get on top of us.

"We haven't got that bit between our teeth which we've really got to start to show again."

'Let's see if they're up for the fight'

Bell, 42, took over at the Alexandra Stadium in December 2022, with the Railwaymen finishing 13th, then sixth, and 13th last season.

"It doesn't look like I want it to look," he added.

"If you're not going to play well, which we've shown we can do, then you compete, you run around, you cover the distance.

"Whether they're listening or not, I don't know. They tell me they're up for the fight, so let's see if they are."

Bell added he was not critical of his players' work-rate in training, just what they are producing on matchdays.

"I'd tell you if the players weren't working hard. I'd tell you if our staff wasn't working hard," he said.

"I want to see some pride in the performance. Rightly so, the fans at the end were not happy, and I can totally understand it.

"It's about mindset, and that's the mindset we have to have as a group. We've won six, lost six, drawn one. Is that what we want to do? Just be mid-table? At the moment, when I watch us, that's about right for where we are."

Former Crewe manager David Artell brings his Grimsby Town this weekend, and Bell says he has gone into training this week with a blank team-sheet.

"I really don't care which manager is coming to our stadium," he said.

"I'll be picking a team that I feel will give us the best opportunity to win a game, and represent what we want to."