Been a long time reader of the forum, and have decided to started to write a football blog.
My first one is of our recent string of results, feel free to take a look here.
http://popbanglovely.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/digging-deep/Any feedback is appreciated
Cheers,
kjmorris
Comments
I was at the game yesterday against Birmingham, and for long periods Charlton dominated and controlled the play and could have gone in 2 goals up at half time if it wasn’t for the formidable display from Jack Buckland between the sticks for the Blues.
The constant pressure then told on the 88th minute as Solly clipped the ball to the back post for Kermorgant to head home from 5 yards.
This of course woke Birmingham up and no sooner had they kicked off the deeper Charlton dropped. It seemed as though the way the team had controlled the game had been forgotten. Within an instant a sense of panic seemed to come across the team and the equalizer was inevitable.
So why is this happening? One thing I am certain of is that it is not down to a lack of effort. The teams work-rate and determination cannot be questioned. Throughout the game they were first to every 50-50, getting to every second ball and often chasing down lost causes.
This was epitomised by a passage of play where Kermorgant tracked his man back to the edge of his own box to slide in and win the ball back to start an attack.
Is it the mentality of the players? I don’t think so. Last season (with largely the same group of players, which played yesterday) we were able to hold on to win games. Against Oldham we did this with just 9 players.
Agreed, this is a the Championship and teams are of better quality, but surely a team must be able to hold on to a lead for just 6 minutes! So what has been the cause of this new found soft centre of not being able to hold onto a lead?
Fans have recently voiced there frustrations with Powell’s substitutions. Against Wednesday making a treble substitution in stoppage time with game already lost and players tiring on a boggy pitch.
It was the same again yesterday, Powell had lined up to bring on Bradley Wright-Phillips before Kermorgant scored, but opted to make the change anyway even after we were not needing a goal, but instead to see the game out. Surely Fuller would have been a better outlet to hold onto the ball for the last 5 minutes of the game?
Fuller had been outstanding the whole game, the ball had stuck to his feet and was a nuisance to the Blues defenders the whole afternoon.
Wright-Phillips made an immediate impact and bad the ball in the net, but was ruled out for offside and earning himself a yellow card for kicking the ball away. He then received the ball along the left touchline and tried to cut infield and take on his man instead of trying to maintain possession or win a throw in.
Surely the instructions Powell must have given Wright-Phillips would have been to see the game out, but with the two involvements he had given possession back to Birmingham.
I am not laying the blame with Wright-Phillips but it seemed as though the team went into self destruct and were not capable of doing the basics of keeping the ball as they had the whole game.
Powell just needs to install a sense of calmness and belief back into the players once they take the lead. Reminding them of that day in April at Boundary Park of how they dug deep and was able to see out the game with just 9 men.
You could have simply posted this in the Post Match Views thread...
Circumstances changed between the decision to bring him on and him getting onto the pitch. I'm not sure he is the right person to bring on to see a game out
Riviera, what does RD mean?