Well of course I luckily didn't see yesterday's disappointment but if I'm honest it's what we should expect. We have a squad of quite talented players for this level but the reason they are playing at this level is because that talent is flawed. If we could get consistency out of them individually and collectively then they would be playing higher. Most league one teams play a very rigid system which helps "less" talented players. They know exactly their roles and it's easy to fall back on the safety of the system. Robinson has a team where he likes to play fluid interchangeable football and when's it's working it's good on the eye and works. When it's not we just can't fall back on a basic shape to dig in. Just my thoughts but I think we'll tear some teams one week and look ineffective on others. It was still a huge mistake not to get a striker in though. A BWP yesterday would have earned us a point. I'm still fairly confident that a top six finish is what we'll get. No chance top two.
Just watched the very short goal highlights on VP and it's clear but for the want of a deflection, or a missed block by a Gillingham defender we should have won, or at least drawn the game; but we should be relying on needing a bit of luck.
I wish we had the figures, but it seems to me the club has taken giant strides towards balancing the books, moving on the big wage earners and bench sitters we'd inherited from, er.... landed ourselves with. When a club is faced with a massive wage bill each week, low revenues from TV, and decreasing attendances, it's going make the idea of investing in new players less than attractive.
But with so much of the dead wood having been pruned, surely there's no excuse now for not loosening the purse strings? We have a thin squad, and we're lucky to have signed the like of Clarke, Reeves and Marshall for peanuts, but if this season splutters all the way to the January window and RD still won't invest properly the it's a very bad omen for the future of the club under the Belgian. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't now looking to sell Charlton as a more viable concern (more viable certainly than it was 12 months ago). Let's hope so, eh? The fact that we haven't heard a dickie bird about a potential takeover recently might perversely be a good sign.
I genuinely like Big Mag.......wholehearted and genuine pro.......but we have to admit he's not the greatest finisher you'll ever see. Cost us big time yesterday I'm afraid to say. Sounds harsh maybe, but I can only say what I feel to be true. Unless I'm mistaken I believe most of his goals have come from headers, he ain't too clever in front of goal with the ball at his feet. He gets into some great positions to finish but all too often doesn't come up with the goods. Be delighted for him to prove me wrong further down the line.
We had no clue how to break a poor Gills side down. I was amazed by the shots-on stat when I got home because we never looked like scoring.
We're one dimensional and even if Robinson wanted to change it, and I'm not convinced he knows another way, we don't have the squad to do so.
Put it this way - what do we have on the bench to change a game, really? Konsa maybe - then?
Incidentally Dodoo is doodoo. Will be delighted if he shoves my words back down my throat but whoever scouted him wants shooting. Looks at least one level below Gillingham. That said, if he's a striker bring him on in his position alongside Magennis and give opponents something else to think about.
Well that was a let down and no mistake. If Wigan managed to expose our limitations by being much better than us, Gillingham managed to do it whilst being patently worse! I spent the early part of the first half thinking if we score here this could be a drubbing. And there's the rub. By the time the fourth official signalled 9 minutes added time at the end nobody seemed to get excited, because he may just as well have signalled 9 hours for all the likelihood of us scoring. We laboured and we laboured and we seemed lose a little more belief with every subsequent foray forward. The stats say we had 23 goal attempts and 6 on target (?) which only goes to prove the old saying that there are lies, damned lies and statistics. I can only recall 3 or 4 clear cut chances and an awful lot of poor decision making, blind alleys and woeful ineptitude. I love Josh but unless you plonk it on his head he is no finisher and today was a day when the midfield never looked like helping him out. I said after the Plymouth game that I wouldn't be slitting my wrists after one reversal and I'll still give it 10 to 12 games for a clearer picture, but this game has raised a lot of question marks for me. I expected us to bounce back and we never looked like we would. I would suggest that next week we really have to convincingly.
We had no clue how to break a poor Gills side down. I was amazed by the shots-on stat when I got home because we never looked like scoring.
We're one dimensional and even if Robinson wanted to change it, and I'm not convinced he knows another way, we don't have the squad to do so.
Put it this way - what do we have on the bench to change a game, really? Konsa maybe - then?
Incidentally Dodoo is doodoo. Will be delighted if he shoves my words back down my throat but whoever scouted him wants shooting. Looks at least one level below Gillingham. That said, if he's a striker bring him on in his position alongside Magennis and give opponents something else to think about.
Saw it exactly the same way. I thought gillingham looked extremely bad first half.
Just watched the very short goal highlights on VP and it's clear but for the want of a deflection, or a missed block by a Gillingham defender we should have won, or at least drawn the game; but we should be relying on needing a bit of luck.
I wish we had the figures, but it seems to me the club has taken giant strides towards balancing the books, moving on the big wage earners and bench sitters we'd inherited from, er.... landed ourselves with. When a club is faced with a massive wage bill each week, low revenues from TV, and decreasing attendances, it's going make the idea of investing in new players less than attractive.
But with so much of the dead wood having been pruned, surely there's no excuse now for not loosening the purse strings? We have a thin squad, and we're lucky to have signed the like of Clarke, Reeves and Marshall for peanuts, but if this season splutters all the way to the January window and RD still won't invest properly the it's a very bad omen for the future of the club under the Belgian. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't now looking to sell Charlton as a more viable concern (more viable certainly than it was 12 months ago). Let's hope so, eh? The fact that we haven't heard a dickie bird about a potential takeover recently might perversely be a good sign.
Good post. I honestly wonder if Ricky Holmes is wondering why he signed up for another season of frustration. Robinson rolled over as far as I'm concerned regarding rebuilding the squad, but they must have sold Holmes a vision of promotion, while quietly dismantling our attack. It's hard to attract decent players when those players know they'll be expected to play with a threadbare squad.
How many Coaches do we need before someone realises that if you want to play Magennis you have to play two up front ? Sadly although Solly is still good going forward, he is a weak link at the back where too many crosses are arriving. I am very suspicious about the Reeves situation, I think we may have bought an invalid. All this 'not quite fit yet ' is very fishy. I think we need to revert to a proper scouting facility, I notice that Oldham seem to have recruited a striker named Davies who looks to be the partner for Magennis. We have been playing attractive but ineffective football, and this league definitely requires the odd rough diamond. We are close to a promotion side, if only Roland understood football as well as he knows how to make money !
What was it that Robinson said in early August? We've got goals coming in from all over the pitch, so we don't need another striker? Well I'll tell you Karl we fuc#ing well do!!!!
Gutted on so many levels. We were up against a very poor Gills side. Perversely, they had a better outfit in the draw at their place last season and we had the Slade dross. Really annoyed that we sell out the away end and once again we are let down by the team. No end product to sum up. Then, to top it all off, The petulant Holmes gets next Sat off in the 90th minute. Makes for one crap weekend.
the rumour that we were ever in for players in the £1/2million bracket wad sns us utter tosh ----TOSH !!! its spun out to give us mugs hope and wr then front up the dish for another RD ground hog day/season. IMO the other rumour that Robinson had a budget of K300 is more near the probable truth.it explains why ehen we are already short of numbers up front we get rid of Novak and end up only having the funds to bring in DoDo.
As for Reeves FFS no wonder he wasnt snapped up by others ---looks like another "professional" footballer made of glass or just don't give a shit and coning a living-----get fit or fuck off.
Listened to the game on Valley Pass. To be honest we sounded that we could have been out there all day and still not scored. Creating 23 chances and not to take just one of them is nothing short of embarrassing. I've seen 2 live matches so far this season against Bristol Rovers and Southend, in both matches I thought we were lucky to win them. Yes we played most of the Rovers match with 10 men and dug in, but their physical presence caused us problems and some woeful finishing from them let us get away with 3 points. The Southend game could have gone either way and again their physical presence caused us problems, I said to Dr Kish at HT in that game that Southend could win this and lets face it we were lucky to win that one, again we were let off the hook. So yesterday once they had sussed out everything came, in the main, through Holmes they doubled up on him and whilst we created 23 chances how many were inside the box? We have no plan B and, as I said on the Dodoo thread, I spoke with my next door neighbour who coached him at LCFC for 4 years and he is NOT a striker, he prefers to play wide right or left. So we have no experienced striker we could bring on either alongside Josh or to replace him. Very poor business by the club that we have just 1 experienced striker having moved 6 on, quite unbelievable and now we can do nothing about it until January and by then it may be too late. If we, as supporters, could see our shortcomings in squad size, how come they didn't? Or did they, and decided to see if we could through to January with just Josh? Totally stupid decision that may well come back to haunt us, we can only hope that Josh stays fit or KR can find a Plan B.
Crazy how football can change, last Sunday I woke up contemplating how far clear we'd be from the third place team if we picked up four or six points from Wigan & Gillingham - never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd get nothing at all from those two games.
It's been said before but we have absolutely no plan b - Robinson really needs to address this because it is going to cost us promotion if we don't. The only silver lining of Holmes being out next week (which is a huge, huge blow) is that it will force us to find different ways to play which is now vital and Robinson's Charlton career will live and die based on his ability to develop an alternative.
I'm beginning to wonder if appointing Jacko and Bowyer as coaches was a good idea. Both are just starting out in their roles and are surely loathed to criticise, by comparison, a highly experienced manager. I would have appointed one, Jacko, and then have brought in an experienced coach who has been there, done it, got the tee shirt who would have been unafraid to put across his views and ideas as a rookie coach would be.
You're right @cabbles Charlton should be beating teams like Gillingham.............oh wait someone said that about us once except we weren't bottom of L1 with players on £200 / £400 per week.
We need to get a freebie or two in ASAP to provide different options but I'm not holding my breath with the megalomaniac puppet master in charge and the puppets who dance to his tune.
Hope I'm wrong and it's just a blip otherwise my observation last week will ring true that peaks and troughs will be a regular feature at least until January and probably thereafter. Especially if we have slipped into mid table mediocrity with no transfer window additions and possible outgoings.
Nobody will be coming in on a free. There is no money.
You're right @cabbles Charlton should be beating teams like Gillingham.............oh wait someone said that about us once except we weren't bottom of L1 with players on £200 / £400 per week.
We need to get a freebie or two in ASAP to provide different options but I'm not holding my breath with the megalomaniac puppet master in charge and the puppets who dance to his tune.
Hope I'm wrong and it's just a blip otherwise my observation last week will ring true that peaks and troughs will be a regular feature at least until January and probably thereafter. Especially if we have slipped into mid table mediocrity with no transfer window additions and possible outgoings.
Nobody will be coming in on a free. There is no money.
You're right @cabbles Charlton should be beating teams like Gillingham.............oh wait someone said that about us once except we weren't bottom of L1 with players on £200 / £400 per week.
We need to get a freebie or two in ASAP to provide different options but I'm not holding my breath with the megalomaniac puppet master in charge and the puppets who dance to his tune.
Hope I'm wrong and it's just a blip otherwise my observation last week will ring true that peaks and troughs will be a regular feature at least until January and probably thereafter. Especially if we have slipped into mid table mediocrity with no transfer window additions and possible outgoings.
Nobody will be coming in on a free. There is no money.
I'm beginning to wonder if appointing Jacko and Bowyer as coaches was a good idea. Both are just starting out in their roles and are surely loathed to criticise, by comparison, a highly experienced manager. I would have appointed one, Jacko, and then have brought in an experienced coach who has been there, done it, got the tee shirt who would have been unafraid to put across his views and ideas as a rookie coach would be.
At the time it kinda seemed like we only appointed Bowyer because he was cheap. Came in to do a couple of sessions a week and just stuck around.
I think if we hadn't have appointed him we wouldn't have got anyone else in.
Midfield looked very flat. Reeves and Marshall need to add life into this team ASAP
Marshall could be out for a few more months - don't think we'll see much before xmas. Reeves is a different matter. He must play on Saturday v Bury - we will be missing Holmes & he needs to step up to the plate. If he ain't fit by in 5 days time then its time to fine him or not to pay him. Guys a twonk & a waste of space. We forgoe another player to get him & he's taking up room and wages.
Midfield looked very flat. Reeves and Marshall need to add life into this team ASAP
That would give the 3 competition but I wouldn't guarantee JFC and Kashi a place every game either. Konsa's capable and we shouldn't write off Aribo making an impact.
I had to swerve around two sets of goals and kick away three balls while mowing the lawn. My excitement was brought back down to earth when I came in to watch Final Score.
Had we won either of our last two matches, we'd have been second in the league behind Barcelona. Had we won both of our last two matches, we'd still have been second. So that's alright then.
Comments
I wish we had the figures, but it seems to me the club has taken giant strides towards balancing the books, moving on the big wage earners and bench sitters we'd
inherited from, er.... landed ourselves with.When a club is faced with a massive wage bill each week, low revenues from TV, and decreasing attendances, it's going make the idea of investing in new players less than attractive.
But with so much of the dead wood having been pruned, surely there's no excuse now for not loosening the purse strings?
We have a thin squad, and we're lucky to have signed the like of Clarke, Reeves and Marshall for peanuts, but if this season splutters all the way to the January window and RD still won't invest properly the it's a very bad omen for the future of the club under the Belgian. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't now looking to sell Charlton as a more viable concern (more viable certainly than it was 12 months ago). Let's hope so, eh?
The fact that we haven't heard a dickie bird about a potential takeover recently might perversely be a good sign.
Sounds harsh maybe, but I can only say what I feel to be true.
Unless I'm mistaken I believe most of his goals have come from headers, he ain't too clever in front of goal with the ball at his feet. He gets into some great positions to finish but all too often doesn't come up with the goods.
Be delighted for him to prove me wrong further down the line.
We're one dimensional and even if Robinson wanted to change it, and I'm not convinced he knows another way, we don't have the squad to do so.
Put it this way - what do we have on the bench to change a game, really? Konsa maybe - then?
Incidentally Dodoo is doodoo. Will be delighted if he shoves my words back down my throat but whoever scouted him wants shooting. Looks at least one level below Gillingham. That said, if he's a striker bring him on in his position alongside Magennis and give opponents something else to think about.
If Wigan managed to expose our limitations by being much better than us, Gillingham managed to do it whilst being patently worse!
I spent the early part of the first half thinking if we score here this could be a drubbing.
And there's the rub.
By the time the fourth official signalled 9 minutes added time at the end nobody seemed to get excited, because he may just as well have signalled 9 hours for all the likelihood of us scoring.
We laboured and we laboured and we seemed lose a little more belief with every subsequent foray forward.
The stats say we had 23 goal attempts and 6 on target (?) which only goes to prove the old saying that there are lies, damned lies and statistics.
I can only recall 3 or 4 clear cut chances and an awful lot of poor decision making, blind alleys and woeful ineptitude.
I love Josh but unless you plonk it on his head he is no finisher and today was a day when the midfield never looked like helping him out.
I said after the Plymouth game that I wouldn't be slitting my wrists after one reversal and I'll still give it 10 to 12 games for a clearer picture, but this game has raised a lot of question marks for me.
I expected us to bounce back and we never looked like we would.
I would suggest that next week we really have to convincingly.
That and the realisation that we were pretty toothless and no real threat
I thought gillingham looked extremely bad first half.
I am very suspicious about the Reeves situation, I think we may have bought an invalid. All this 'not quite fit yet ' is very fishy. I think we need to revert to a proper scouting facility, I notice that Oldham seem to have recruited a striker named Davies who looks to be the partner for Magennis. We have been playing attractive but ineffective football, and this league definitely requires the odd rough diamond. We are close to a promotion side, if only Roland understood football as well as he knows how to make money !
Really annoyed that we sell out the away end and once again we are let down by the team. No end product to sum up.
Then, to top it all off, The petulant Holmes gets next Sat off in the 90th minute.
Makes for one crap weekend.
As for Reeves FFS no wonder he wasnt snapped up by others ---looks like another "professional" footballer made of glass or just don't give a shit and coning a living-----get fit or fuck off.
i had a bet on us going up pre season !!!
until RD and his poodles go nothing will change
It's been said before but we have absolutely no plan b - Robinson really needs to address this because it is going to cost us promotion if we don't. The only silver lining of Holmes being out next week (which is a huge, huge blow) is that it will force us to find different ways to play which is now vital and Robinson's Charlton career will live and die based on his ability to develop an alternative.
The lowlights according to SSN, with us shooting straight at the keeper and spectating while they score.
I think if we hadn't have appointed him we wouldn't have got anyone else in.
Man arrested for throwing fireworks and carrying a knuckle duster
Marshall could be out for a few more months - don't think we'll see much before xmas. Reeves is a different matter. He must play on Saturday v Bury - we will be missing Holmes & he needs to step up to the plate. If he ain't fit by in 5 days time then its time to fine him or not to pay him. Guys a twonk & a waste of space. We forgoe another player to get him & he's taking up room and wages.
Had we won both of our last two matches, we'd still have been second.
So that's alright then.