Ive been asking myself this all day...
Having actually seen the match in its entirity for the first time... i think the answer is, at times, very good...
its a difficult one to judge becasue we are in the third division... yet the passing was truly fantastic at times yesterday... I also thought Racon looked almost viera-esqe at times(maybe thats his long legs)... admitedly against a thrid tier team....
Our midfield looks absolute mustard....when we get the ball down, which we kept fighting to do, we look like we could out pass anyone... Shelvey looked fantastic I thought, never lost the balll...and some terrific touches and passes...
Semedo was excellent as was Bailey, although in his curent role if could slightly improve his crossing that would be great, but im splitting hairs, he was terrific....
Overall, if we can keep this up, keep the spirit up, and if Parkinson can keep his feet on the ground we look very good indeed yet the real test will be when we screw up and lose a game we shouldnt have or get punished for some of our defensive sloppiness we can show and have shown this season..... or if we collapse as we did last season.... that will be parkinsons test...
But the truth be known all the pain and anguish and bad results and Board breathing down his neck, and fans booing him and calling for his head... all that is the best experience he could have... It means we know hes not a quitter, and it is clear as crystal he has the team playing for him and all the other good stuff that goes along with 6 wins in a row.....
Ok , so how good are we? Do you think this side would be mid table in the championship, Playoff spots, relegation...
Premiership even
Id go for Mid table championship, BUT I also think wed be getting sussed out by now in the champ and wed need a plan B, hence mid table....
what do you reckon?
Comments
;o)
Triffic .... well I am glad we've cleared that up then ; )
Deffo better than Palace.
Having watched the whole game live and seen the BBC highlights I wish I could fully share your optimism. Weston blazed over when unmarked; Elliott missed a punch etc. and Dailly and Lliera have the mobility of...an oil tanker / elephant which means that we WILL get found out by speedier and more skillful players. Having watched 'The Football League Show' and seen the div. 3 opposition, there are indeed several excellent and dangerous wingers / strikers we yet have to come up against. Certainly our midfield appears one of the best but it's asking a lot of our center backs to keep out lively strikers all season isn't it? If promotion comes reinforcements will be needed, certainly at the back.
What top of the Prem ? Think not.
Blimey, you're a cheerful one!
Of course some of our players will get found out throughout the course of the season and I'm absolutely certain that our centre backs wont keep out every srtiker between now and the end of the season - in the same way I'm certain that a CB pairing of Ferdinand and Terry wouldn't keep out every striker in every game this year!
Replace Semedo with ZZ, then that is the midfield that only lost around 3 matches in the last 15, in the last third of last season. And held their own comfortably against the promotion chasers.
And with principally Kandol or Burton as lone strikers, the team still scored plenty of goals.
In that period last season, it was the defence that was sub-standard - despite the sterling work of on-loan Darren Ward.
If the defence hadn't conceded so easily when in match winning positions, we might have even made a much better fist of staying up.
I reckon our defence today is better than the latter part of last season. If we should get promoted .....,, initially in the starting XI at least, providing Dailly is still quick enough and can keep going, then we'd possibly be looking just for a Championship quality centre back.
I don't see any reason that the nucleus of this present confident and spirited Charlton side could not hold it's own back in the Championship.
Don't forget Solly is on the bench every game no doubt champing at the bit.
Mambo, Jack Clark and the other young full back, Sam Long is it, may get a chance.
Remember Parky saying, "We'll only retain young Pro's, who we think have a chance of playing in the 1st team this season."
Basey is still only 20, good touch on the ball, but whether he's got the pace to be a regular, I'm not so sure. But still young - I'd love to see him carve a niche for himself, but where .... ?
For me this gives the lie to some of the "oil tanker" nonsense above. If our defenders were that bad we'd be leaking goals and have a far worse ratio. We aren't though, because Llera is actually pretty lively - especially in the air, and Dailly makes up for a lack of speed with a better sense of positioning than most defenders at this level.
So in answer to the question, How good are we? For this division, very good. For other divisions, it really doesn't matter.
Injuries can wreck a campaign, look at Millwall!
My only concern is that we are giving a fair few chances to teams during each match. At this level you get away with it a bit more and if you win, these things tend to get glossed over and forgotten about. Eventually we are going to come up against a forward line that will take the chances we are presenting.
My gut feeling is that we are actually playing within ourselves. We seemed in cruise control for times yesterday. Whether we can get out of cruise control and go up a gear if we go behind remains to be seen. I know we went behind at Orient but that was a different situation. The first half was a real battle and we earnt the right to play our football in the 2nd half.
He's been long gone, I suppose .....?
;o)
Certainly, against Brentford we had several players playing with niggling injuries - Semedo, Racon, Richardson for example.
So these players are probably instructed not to push themselves physically to the limits, and other team mates are doing some of these players' covering and tracking.
We've been lucky to field 6 consecutive starting line ups the same, but it seems to have been a bit touch and go to have done so.
Yes we have been lucky to do so but i also think that if this was last season and playing under pards these players with nigglig injuries would have not played and just had a few weeks off. How refreshing it is to see players wanting to play despite minor injuries. These boys aint just taking a pay cheque they are enjoying their football and want to play week in week out and i for one applaud that. The longer we start with the same team each week the harder we will be to beat.
Only Mambo really. Don't know much about any centre backs younger than him.
As you say, our lads are really enjoying their football, and the spirit in the side is unmistakable - and plain for all to see.
Nobody wants to be left out - and the fringe players are desperate to be involved.
Some of our passing moves is straight from the text book - fearless and flowing.Confidence sky-high!
That's the difference a few wins on the spin can give.
Nails it for me Oggy.
We are however a League One team because we f*cked it up last season and didn't gain enough points. Many of our players though were good enough last season to mount a challenge. That it failed spectacularly to materialise is one of those mysteries that we will never, ever quite get to the bottom of. We thus have a nucleus of a team good enough for the next league up. The challenge is for the players to understand that you have to win the right to play football your way whatever division you play in. Yesterday, against a determined and decent opponent, we did enough of the scrapping needed to keep the ball and play the football. If we keep that up, we won't be a million miles away. Bear in mind though that getting out of this league ain't easy, ask Leeds.
Look at the other end of the pitch, how many chances did we miss?
Quality strikers (and other players for that matter) are few and far between in this league. Hence the number of squandered chances by other teams we play.
We are the best at present and I'm going to enjoy this untill we start playing teams above us.
I don't think anyone would have thought of putting Bailey on the left but he has florished there. Credit also for giving Shelvey the free role, Not sure a 17 year old could handle playing week in week out in a flat midfield four but by freeng him from some of the defensive responsibilities he has given him license to express his natural football inteligence.
Will be interesting to see what happens when injurys/suspensions kick in, if Shelvey for example is missing then I'd guess we would have to go 4-4-2. If Buton's missing can any of the other strikers do the back to goal job he does?
Similarly if any of the other midfielders are missing will we still be as cohesive? Think we will have a better idea of the merits of the squad after we've seen how they compete with a couple of key players missing.
That sums it up well
It's all about confidence & we seem to have loads of it at the moment. But beware the banana skin Top v Bottom this week as was Charlton v Swindon when he had won 13 consecutive games & we all know how that one turned out!