Charlton – As stated above they weren’t brilliant but did not have to be. They survived our decent start and one good chance and gradually got on top of the game. They missed an equally good chance to take the lead but felt they were the better team as half time approached as they picked up the loose balls all over the field and passed it with more urgency; getting the ball into dangerous areas far more than we did. After the break they also seemed to control midfield and whilst not looked that threatening took their chances when they came and like Huddersfield then saw us off easily.
They had more shots on goal, more efforts overall and had more possession. As an away side you have to be happy with that and to keep a clean sheet and your keeper to not have a save of note to make really until the closing stages (Cresswell header – was that it?) is a good professional away performance.
They played some smattering of decent football but the thing that stood out was their midfield actually got ahead of the strikers and showed real mobility and could move between the back, midfield and attack. They seemed to have more flexibility and adventure than us and they were the away side. At the back I cannot recall a major save the keeper made (one kicked off the line) all game and he barely had anything to do second half. The two centre backs had a comfortable game and of course the strikers profited from two errors but also they held the ball up better than ours and ran the channels more than ours too. They were not much better than us but were better and like Huddersfield look far better equipped for promotion with more solidity at the back, goal scorers up top and pace/movement throughout. They are not well clear of us and I cannot honestly see us being anywhere near them in the league this season. As poor as we are they are even poorer teams in this league and thus Charlton, Huddersfield et al will not lose many games.
Sadly Charlton’s wage bill will be far lower than ours but they have hungry, young players who want to get higher up the leagues. Most of ours seem to be on the way down and seem to care very little. Whilst he could do nothing about the dross he was left with; I am disappointed in Wilson’s signings when you look at the players Charlton picked up like Stephens, Hollands, Wright Phillips etc. Not one of Porter, Jean Francois, Flynn, Menez Laing has been convincing at all. It would be nice if we signed a few players from this level or even lower that are young, fast and on the way up. Porter and McDonald are slow players that have proved they are not good enough for the levels higher up. Sadly they are probably stuck here for another couple of years like Doyle and Collins. I am still majorly concerned about our scouting network which seems to bring us no real gems in at all. Indeed, when was the last time we signed a player (any player) from another club that you could say ‘he was a good signing’. Yes, I am struggling too!
I have only copied the views on Charlton though the rest of his report makes an excellent read. A good appraisal of our team and the game overall
I just love an away win especially against one of the stronger teams. The last team to be on 27 points at this stage in this league over the last 7years were Leeds Utd two season back, interestingly Norwich had only 16. A quarter of the way through.....very promising indeed
It appears SUFC are bit like we were when we dropped in championship 1, they need a bit of Slaterism!
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http://www.s24su.com/forum/showthread.php?24720-United-0-Charlton-2-report
Nice observation and heartening to read this bit.