Alonso's first half kinda reminded me of Pouso's. The main problem was that he was taking 4 or 5 touches but hardly getting anywhere, looked completely unfit. But as I said earlier he never hid and showed a few signs in the 2nd half that there's something there. At least he got slightly better than worse.
Some of Alosno were quite nice. Playing in that deep lying role, I was quite impressed. He wasn't even close to being match fit. When he's 100%, Alonso and Pritchard are good back ups for centre midfield.
Decided last minute not to go but watched it at home with my 8 yr old son - he has really got into CAFC over trhe past year or so, but even he decided to go to bed at half time mutterring that it was all over.........
Only positives for me were Evina, Sullivan & Kermit.................and the fact that hopefully a few more fans may realise why we still need another striker as WAGGY or EUELL AREN'T THE ANSWER.
Alonso was injured on 2nd August at Carshalton and played on 20th September for the reserves against West Ham - albeit only a half, but it shows that he was pretty much recovered from the injury. That was over two weeks ago, so why allegedly is he unfit now if he has trained since that date? I was there last night and I cannot see that his lack of fitness was the problem - it was his wayward passing/shooting and poor control that was the issue. His brother he most certainly is not...... It was just a very poor performance from Alonso and most others. I won't lose any sleep though, as long as it improves Saturday!
Match fitness he was lacking not physical fitness. You can't judge him in that first half performance. I think he looked ok in the second half and I'm sure he will turn out to be a good signing.
No one is suggesting that Alonso lacks fitness but match-fitness which is not the same, it means he is not up to speed yet with the tempo and timing of the game, that is why teams play pre-seasons, that is why teams take time to gel. Green is in the same position he needs a couple of games to get going. Not having a reserve team playing rgualr competive matches is a real pain.
There is a point above and all over this and other threads talking specifically about him 'being completely unfit', which is not the issue. The guy is a 31 year old ex Premier League and La Liga player who, in my eyes, should be able to pass a ball, without needing time to 'get going' or get used to playing regular football in match situations. Shall we give him a few months to get used to opposing players wanting to take the ball off him at the edge of his own box? Don't understand the mentality of professional players needing a couple of games to 'get going'. Maybe I expect too much.
The way I see it is that if we'd lost 3-0 in a behind closed doors friendly with Brentford yesterday afternoon it would barely have got a mention on here or caused us any concern.
I think SCP approached it as a match to try a few things out and see how certain pairings worked, as well as giving some legs a run out, and whatever the result both those objectives were met.
The only sad thing about last night I thought was that it was on Sky so it made it all a bit humiliating, but like I say, if the same team had put the same performance in a match down Sparrows Lane anyone posting concerns or worries on here after it would be accused of taking it too seriously.
I'd hope that the mood in the camp is unaffected and all eyes on the week's proper fixture against Tranmere.
There is a point above and all over this and other threads talking specifically about him 'being completely unfit', which is not the issue. The guy is a 31 year old ex Premier League and La Liga player who, in my eyes, should be able to pass a ball, without needing time to 'get going' or get used to playing regular football in match situations. Shall we give him a few months to get used to opposing players wanting to take the ball off him at the edge of his own box? Don't understand the mentality of professional players needing a couple of games to 'get going'. Maybe I expect too much.
I wasn't there so can only go by comments on here but if somebody can't pass 5 yards to a team mate or control the ball it has nothing to do with match fitness or general fitness
We learned last ngiht who could play in the first team (Green, Evina) and who couldn't (Doherty, Hughes).
It terms of the evidence, yes, we're not a cup team, but it doesn't really make sense to say 'Charlton don't do cups', as some have. How can a club have a culture of doing badly in cups when the players keep on changing?
To be fair, I initially thought Alonso was poor for 90 mins last night watching from the Lower West. I have just watched the game on sky+ and up to the penalty Alonso made 5 successful passes, 2 poor passes, but did nothing else. He never touched the ball with his feet for about the first 8 minutes and just jogged around. After he conceded the penalty in the 24th minute, he went from bad to worse and his confidence just plummeted. My point is that there were at least 3 or 4 other Charlton players out there who were much worse than Alonso in the first half. Evina was still the best we had, but it was just a bad performance across the board. It's done now though......so lets move on.
Reading this thread, people are either very disappointed with Alonso and/or suggesting that he will come good with time and more match fitness. I'm not entirely sure where the expectation that he is/will be any good comes from. His career has been very patchy indeed and since his best patch with Real Sociedad in 2005/6 he's not been retained by any club. I have seen very little of him - the second half at Bromley where he looked ordinary at best - but I can't imagine many other Lifers have seen much more than that until last night where everyone agrees his performance was poor. So, why the expectation that he will come good?
Reading this thread, people are either very disappointed with Alonso and/or suggesting that he will come good with time and more match fitness. I'm not entirely sure where the expectation that he is/will be any good comes from. His career has been very patchy indeed and since his best patch with Real Sociedad in 2005/6 he's not been retained by any club. I have seen very little of him - the second half at Bromley where he looked ordinary at best - but I can't imagine many other Lifers have seen much more than that until last night where everyone agrees his performance was poor. So, why the expectation that he will come good?
We wanted out of that competition and rightly so. The usual 1st teamers were ok at best, baring in mind they were not giving 100% and were trying to avoid injury. (I agree with this btw).
The replacements were poor. Alonso - shocking. Hughes not much better. Doherty very poor as usual. Euell - has done nothing all season.
Sullivan & Evina were ok.
Painful to watch, but job done I'd say.
I can't believe it will have any bearing on our league form. Roll on Saturday.
I was surprised by some of the schoolboy errors Alonso made. First game, you would have thought he'd just have kept it simple, at least to start with but he did play like a novice. On the bright side, he did keep looking for the ball and did try to create so i'm hoping he can put this one behind him, work his nuts off and be ready when we need him. If you didn't know he'd played all those years at the top level in spain and he was on trial, i think he'd be shown the door but there again, look at Murphey's first few games for us. He couldn't pass it five yards either.
Comments
Decided last minute not to go but watched it at home with my 8 yr old son - he has really got into CAFC over trhe past year or so, but even he decided to go to bed at half time mutterring that it was all over.........
Only positives for me were Evina, Sullivan & Kermit.................and the fact that hopefully a few more fans may realise why we still need another striker as WAGGY or EUELL AREN'T THE ANSWER.
He seemed like a rabbit in headlights and couldnt cope with the pace of the game.
The penalty was farcical.
No one is suggesting that Alonso lacks fitness but match-fitness which is not the same, it means he is not up to speed yet with the tempo and timing of the game, that is why teams play pre-seasons, that is why teams take time to gel. Green is in the same position he needs a couple of games to get going. Not having a reserve team playing rgualr competive matches is a real pain.
He couldnt pass the ball 3 yards to a redshirt last night. Struggling to think of a worse 45mins from a cm in recent years.
Him and Hughes were woeful. Doherty shambolic.
I agree with Clem too, you do not have to be fit to be able to pass a ball less than 10 yards to a team mate.
Shocking
We learned last ngiht who could play in the first team (Green, Evina) and who couldn't (Doherty, Hughes).
If you are exhausted, it affects your ability and will make your ball control and passing ability drop down a level.
One Aim.
(and it isn't the paint pot)
nuff said!
We wanted out of that competition and rightly so. The usual 1st teamers were ok at best, baring in mind they were not giving 100% and were trying to avoid injury. (I agree with this btw).
The replacements were poor. Alonso - shocking. Hughes not much better. Doherty very poor as usual. Euell - has done nothing all season.
Sullivan & Evina were ok.
Painful to watch, but job done I'd say.
I can't believe it will have any bearing on our league form. Roll on Saturday.