Playing a kid who was still 16 just 4 weeks ago, for 90 mins is bordering on cruelty. In bob's defence, the plan was to give him 60 mins but the Igor injury meant he had to go the distance. As Kag had only played a couple of u21 matches, i thought he showed promise in a very poor team performance. he should be getting 20/25 mins as impact sub, but the paucity of our attack is clear for all to see.
The thin veneer of having a championship squad, is already being peeled away as Igor, Johann, and Hendo are all struggling with injuries, thou SH made some good saves yesterday his movement is very laboured and slow when on his feet.
we need to show some character now, the crowd as well as the players. Calling one of our best young prospects to come out of the academy, shite, just won't help Croydon.
@Croydon Ok mate, I've only seen him play three times in the last 12 days but Bob sees him every day in training and clearly rates the kid otherwise he would not have preferred him to Church and then advised the latter to sort out a loan deal.
He definitely has talent and an eye for goal but unless he is tried at this level we will never know if he is ready. Personally I thought for his first start he did ok but was not quite up to the pace of the game, needing too long to get a shot off but his movement and swagger (which all strikers need) was good. He is not a target man so if that is what you were expecting then I can understand your disappointment. His first touch was good most of the time IMO but as I told a poster after the U21 game last week he is more a Vetokele type player than a Yann.
He was only meant to play for an hour and what other choices did Bob have up front apart from 60 min George? Don't be too hard on the kid, to compare him with Pigott v Millwall is way OTT give him support he will come good trust me. :-D
One of a few things I started to wonder about yesterday was why was KAG thrown in the deep end like that. Tucadean and Moussa were both available - I wonder how they felt about that? You would have expected KAG to feature as impact sub a few times, to get the pace and feel and build up confidence. After Veto went off he led the line. Crazy! And then received zero service. None.
Any criticism of KAG is out of order imo. He needed the rest of the team to be on their game but they were not. No service and just hoof balls to deal with. No way was the plan for him to play 90 minutes but the injury to Igor and the necessity to change things at h/t meant he had to. He never hid and on the rare occasion he saw the ball he did ok. It seems some fans expect a 17 yr old to come in and bang in a few straight away. Not going to happen. It comes with experience. Experience comes with playing and we need to accept that until they gain that experience there are going to be bad performances, bad misses, misplaced passes etc etc but I for one am prepared to accept that because the academy is the way forward.
Age is completely irrelevant in my opinion. You get picked for the first team because you can do a job for the first team. If you can't do that job, you shouldn't be on the pitch.
How many times have you seen him play mate? Serious question.
A full 90 minutes yesterday and that's it. My comment wasn't solely aimed at him though, I would feel the same regardless of who it was. It's just a pet hate of mine that people bring age in to it, he's a professional footballer like everybody else in the squad.
Works the other way as well, if an ageing player was underperforming I'd want to see him dropped, not defended by people solely because he was 46.
It is not Ahearne- Grant's fault that he has been thrown into the first team too soon. He should be learning his trade in the U21s. He is just seventeen and he should be cut a bit of slack. As everybody knows we are seriously short of front players. With Polish Pete, Reza and Pigott out on loan and Church injured, we are struggling. Tuesday's front two could be Tucudean and Ahearne -Grant which keeps me awake at night. There is still about twelve games to play before the January transfer window opens. Hands up all the people who think we are going to be in the top half come January. We really missed a trick in the August transfer window not strengthening.
Two decent loan signings would, in my opinion, make a big difference to our squad. But it appears that won't happen.
@Croydon Ok mate, I've only seen him play three times in the last 12 days but Bob sees him every day in training and clearly rates the kid otherwise he would not have preferred him to Church and then advised the latter to seem out a loan deal.
He definitely has talent and an eye for goal but unless he us tried at this level we will never know if he is ready. Personally I thought for his first start he did ok but was not quote up to the lad of the game needing too long to get a shot off but his movement and swagger (which all strikers need) was good. He is not a target man so if that is what you were expecting then I can understand your disappointment. His first touch was good most of the time IMO but as I told a poster after the U21 game last week he is more a Vetokele type player than a Yann.
He was only meant to play for an hour and what other choices did Bob have up front apart from 60 min George? Don't be too hard on the kid, to compare him with Pigott v Millwall is way OTT give him support he will come good trust me. :-D
Fair enough mate, sounds like I was expecting him to be a completely different player to what he actually is then. But that makes me wonder why we didn't start George, and then maybe bring on KAG later (or at HT when Vetokele came off). I think that would have made more sense, and would have possibly worked better yesterday.
I'm sure he will come good, and I don't want it to seem like I'm 'hating' on the kid. I just don't think starting him was a good call.
@Croydon wouldn't disagree with your suggested starting line up yesterday and hindsight is a wonderful thing but Bob rolled the dice and what with injury to Igor sadly it never paid off. Tuesday's selection will be interesting, he has a choice of KAG and George up front as suggested by dickplumb or George and either Moussa or Harriott behind him as a number '10'.
@Croydon wouldn't disagree with your suggested starting line up yesterday and hindsight is a wonderful thing but Bob rolled the dice and what with injury to Igor sadly it never paid off. Tuesday's selection will be interesting, he has a choice of KAG and George up front as suggested by dickplumb or George and either Moussa or Harriott behind him as a number '10'.
All on current form/experience in the league, does not sound frightening at all. Without sounding too negative, Johann & Igor out entirely nullifies our team, worried to say the least.
@Croydon wouldn't disagree with your suggested starting line up yesterday and hindsight is a wonderful thing but Bob rolled the dice and what with injury to Igor sadly it never paid off. Tuesday's selection will be interesting, he has a choice of KAG and George up front as suggested by dickplumb or George and either Moussa or Harriott behind him as a number '10'.
All on current form/experience in the league, does not sound frightening at all. Without sounding too negative, Johann & Igor out entirely nullifies our team, worried to say the least.
Hobson's Choice mate, if I were Bob I would set up not to get beat and try and nick something. Negative in the extreme at home but what's the alternative?
At the end of the day BB gambled on starting KAG and it didn't work. Bob is obviously still learning his trade. He is also learning that the Championship is a brutal division to play in. The physicality of it is frightening and I think that is why the squad are starting to pick up the injuries. That is obviously why Igor is starting to be off the pace and the same can be said for JBG. The problem we have is that the squad is very light and I agree with others that we missed a trick in not bringing a couple of extra players in while we could.
The next few weeks will be interesting as we lead up to the January transfer window. This is when we'll really start to see if BB really is the business or whether things start to fall apart. There's only so much you can do with 'bluster' but at the end of the day it's the application and discipline that is the answer.
Any criticism of KAG is out of order imo. He needed the rest of the team to be on their game but they were not. No service and just hoof balls to deal with. No way was the plan for him to play 90 minutes but the injury to Igor and the necessity to change things at h/t meant he had to. He never hid and on the rare occasion he saw the ball he did ok. It seems some fans expect a 17 yr old to come in and bang in a few straight away. Not going to happen. It comes with experience. Experience comes with playing and we need to accept that until they gain that experience there are going to be bad performances, bad misses, misplaced passes etc etc but I for one am prepared to accept that because the academy is the way forward.
Age is completely irrelevant in my opinion. You get picked for the first team because you can do a job for the first team. If you can't do that job, you shouldn't be on the pitch.
How many times have you seen him play mate? Serious question.
A full 90 minutes yesterday and that's it. My comment wasn't solely aimed at him though, I would feel the same regardless of who it was. It's just a pet hate of mine that people bring age in to it, he's a professional footballer like everybody else in the squad.
Works the other way as well, if an ageing player was underperforming I'd want to see him dropped, not defended by people solely because he was 46.
It is not Ahearne- Grant's fault that he has been thrown into the first team too soon. He should be learning his trade in the U21s. He is just seventeen and he should be cut a bit of slack. As everybody knows we are seriously short of front players. With Polish Pete, Reza and Pigott out on loan and Church injured, we are struggling. Tuesday's front two could be Tucudean and Ahearne -Grant which keeps me awake at night. There is still about twelve games to play before the January transfer window opens. Hands up all the people who think we are going to be in the top half come January. We really missed a trick in the August transfer window not strengthening.
Two decent loan signings would, in my opinion, make a big difference to our squad. But it appears that won't happen.
Yea but at least we are playing by the rules re FFP just wait until every other team in the league get docked points and we go up automatically.
The problem is who is left to play Tuesday, no Vetokele, Solly, Gomez, and JBG unlikely. BP can't play KAG again from the start, so who is left. We may be able to put out a reasonable 11 but then who's left on the bench?
The problem is who is left to play Tuesday, no Vetokele, Solly, Gomez, and JBG unlikely. BP can't play KAG again from the start, so who is left. We may be able to put out a reasonable 11 but then who's left on the bench?
A lot of kids. I would like to see the following, if Vetokele and Gudmundsson are out.
just got back after a long weekend in Bournemouth.really impressed with that callum Wilson what a find he is.Really disappointed with us in a non exitent midfield we had to many players underperforming and why bring moussa on and play him so deep.
A couple of points. Callum Wilson is a very good player but he did cost £3m I think? In fact their wage bill must be a lot higher than ours so they are not really little Bournemouth. I understand the thinking re loan players and I do not really know who is available. However if we did manage to invest in a loan signing who could give the squad a lift it might enable the good results to be maintained and then players like KAG will only find it beneficial. Sure some loan signings are duds but this is not always the case. It really would be a shame to see our good start to fall away.
No inside info but i think we might see a loan in for Igor. We are already light and his injury makes life for Bob very difficult.
I wouldn't be surprised if we do bring a loan or two in sometime soon. Church now in the departures lounge (!) and Harriott has not impressed so we need something to get us to January in good shape. We've still not seen much of Bulot as he missed another game so it's possible to put a half decent front six out on Tuesday even if one or two are out. My real concern is that the better players angle for moves next summer if they don't see ambition and a continuation of how we started this season. Vetokele and Gudmundsson didn't come to CAFC to spend five years mid table in front of 14,000 crowds. If we can't secure wins in the next two then the club has to do something to take control again. Beauty of three points for a win is that we could be anywhere by the time the window opens - but I would suggest that the better placed we are, the better our chances of signing decent talent in January.
Any criticism of KAG is out of order imo. He needed the rest of the team to be on their game but they were not. No service and just hoof balls to deal with. No way was the plan for him to play 90 minutes but the injury to Igor and the necessity to change things at h/t meant he had to. He never hid and on the rare occasion he saw the ball he did ok. It seems some fans expect a 17 yr old to come in and bang in a few straight away. Not going to happen. It comes with experience. Experience comes with playing and we need to accept that until they gain that experience there are going to be bad performances, bad misses, misplaced passes etc etc but I for one am prepared to accept that because the academy is the way forward.
Age is completely irrelevant in my opinion. You get picked for the first team because you can do a job for the first team. If you can't do that job, you shouldn't be on the pitch.
My point was though that if you are making your debut you'd expect your team mates to perform so making it easier for you to do so also. When your team mates are playing shit it makes it harder for you to perform. Or should it have been KAG getting them going and dragging them through the game? Help and encouragement from his captain would have been nice but he was too busy trying to get sent off. It wouldn't have mattered if he was Aguero yesterday, it really wouldn't.
@Croydon wouldn't disagree with your suggested starting line up yesterday and hindsight is a wonderful thing but Bob rolled the dice and what with injury to Igor sadly it never paid off. Tuesday's selection will be interesting, he has a choice of KAG and George up front as suggested by dickplumb or George and either Moussa or Harriott behind him as a number '10'.
All on current form/experience in the league, does not sound frightening at all. Without sounding too negative, Johann & Igor out entirely nullifies our team, worried to say the least.
Hobson's Choice mate, if I were Bob I would set up not to get beat and try and nick something. Negative in the extreme at home but what's the alternative?
@Croydon wouldn't disagree with your suggested starting line up yesterday and hindsight is a wonderful thing but Bob rolled the dice and what with injury to Igor sadly it never paid off. Tuesday's selection will be interesting, he has a choice of KAG and George up front as suggested by dickplumb or George and either Moussa or Harriott behind him as a number '10'.
All on current form/experience in the league, does not sound frightening at all. Without sounding too negative, Johann & Igor out entirely nullifies our team, worried to say the least.
Hobson's Choice mate, if I were Bob I would set up not to get beat and try and nick something. Negative in the extreme at home but what's the alternative?
So play like we normally do then.
Except that without Igor our goal threat is virtually extinguished so it doesn't bear thinking about if we go behind again. :-(
Poor all over the field as others have said really, some very good saves from Henderson and the defence was good other than a poor start that cost us. Midfield non existent really, no creativity, lack of movement and an overall poor performance. KAG did ok upfront and Vetokele didn't get a sniff.
Tucudean has to start games, he isn't fantastic but we look better coming forward when he plays.
There's a damning match report by the estimable Kevin Nolan on the Greenwich.co.uk website. We were "a disorganised rabble" and "desperately disappointing, managing to create just one genuine chance in a hapless search for an equaliser".
Our build-up play was "ponderous", the midfield "ineffective onlookers" and "too easily overpowered". Charlton were "gormless", and "a three- or four-goal margin wouldn't have flattered Bournemouth".
"A counterpunching style, which invites the opposition forward in the hope of catching them on the break, contains the seeds of its own destruction." Nolan notes that we have been "outclassed" in several other games this season.
http://www.greenwich.co.uk/sport/ Kevin Nolan is a damned good reporter, tells it how it is, always has done, always will do. If he hadn't done so after Saturday's performance I would be worried for him that he was losing his touch. He also gives credit where credit is due and looks to give a balanced opinion on the game that has just taken place! Being an ardent fan like the rest of us I'm sure he'll be hoping to report more favourably on tomorrow night's game, we move on COYRs.
There's a damning match report by the estimable Kevin Nolan on the Greenwich.co.uk website. We were "a disorganised rabble" and "desperately disappointing, managing to create just one genuine chance in a hapless search for an equaliser".
Our build-up play was "ponderous", the midfield "ineffective onlookers" and "too easily overpowered". Charlton were "gormless", and "a three- or four-goal margin wouldn't have flattered Bournemouth".
"A counterpunching style, which invites the opposition forward in the hope of catching them on the break, contains the seeds of its own destruction." Nolan notes that we have been "outclassed" in several other games this season.
There's a damning match report by the estimable Kevin Nolan on the Greenwich.co.uk website. We were "a disorganised rabble" and "desperately disappointing, managing to create just one genuine chance in a hapless search for an equaliser".
Our build-up play was "ponderous", the midfield "ineffective onlookers" and "too easily overpowered". Charlton were "gormless", and "a three- or four-goal margin wouldn't have flattered Bournemouth".
"A counterpunching style, which invites the opposition forward in the hope of catching them on the break, contains the seeds of its own destruction." Nolan notes that we have been "outclassed" in several other games this season.
He's right.
Outclassed is an outright overstatement and unfair criticism .. I've seen only 3 games this season, all away, two 1-1 draws and a 1-0 win, the last at Norwich where we held our own against a quality side. Our fault of course is lack of goal scoring threat and an inability to hold the ball up in the opposition half .. this leads to great pressure on our midfield and defence .. I would say that defensively, both these areas have been effective, outstanding even and at times classy .. in attack our midfield is average to good from what I have seen and the distribution from the back is better than it's been for a few seasons .. I repeat, attack is our major, major, major weakness .. for a seasoned reporter to use the words, 'gormless, rabble, outclassed and hapless' is out of order .. 'overpowered' ? .. yes, but nothing that a tough and large striker would not go along way to eradicate.
I know we were not at the top of our game on Saturday but goodness me that ref a complete homer. Every little cackle from the home fans he just blew his whitsle. Just always reacting to the homecrowd. It's not something an honest referee does.
We looked beaten from the KO. We showed nothing and did well to hold out for 3 mins.
It really should have been 3-0 and could easily have been 5-0.
Henderson had a very good game and the centre halves were good. Solly was ok, but Wiggins was below par again.
The midfield were all poor and we had pretty much nothing up front.
Ahearne-Grant had a very decent debut, playing by himself, as Vetokele was clearly unfit and non existent.
We know we need a good hold up striker and central midfielder and unless we get them, I can only see us sliding further.
Bizarrely, the whole team seemed sluggish from the off. I can only conclude that the smallish squad and injuries are taking their toll. Buyens said after, that he has felt tired for the last 2 (now 3) games.
PS Henderson has obviously been told to roll the ball out from the back, but couldn't do this, as Bournemouth pushed up so much. So he has to kick it & kicks it to the tallest player, which is Cousins on the left. We used to do this previously when Jackson was on the left. If you lose the header, at least it's not coming straight back down the centre. If it goes off, it's not because the goalie, can't keep it on a wide pitch. It's because he's aiming for Cousins on the touch line.
There's no point kicking it to Vetokele, Moussa or Harriot and Tucudean, wasn't out there.
There's a damning match report by the estimable Kevin Nolan on the Greenwich.co.uk website. We were "a disorganised rabble" and "desperately disappointing, managing to create just one genuine chance in a hapless search for an equaliser".
Our build-up play was "ponderous", the midfield "ineffective onlookers" and "too easily overpowered". Charlton were "gormless", and "a three- or four-goal margin wouldn't have flattered Bournemouth".
"A counterpunching style, which invites the opposition forward in the hope of catching them on the break, contains the seeds of its own destruction." Nolan notes that we have been "outclassed" in several other games this season.
He's right.
Absolutely. If Hendo had been 1% off his game we'd have been done 3 or 4 nil. Wilson & Boruc aside cherries were no great shakes and their shooting was poor. JBG's performance was the worst by one in Charlton red this season worthy(sic) of comparison with the many disgraces delivered by Marvin Sodall last term. Injuries are a constant threat and a squad can only carry so many bodies in reserve. Charlton's 'strikeforce' was threadbare before Igor tweaked his achilles - let's hope KAG fits in quickly but with Roly Douchebag in town this week Bob must surely be making the strongest case for a loan or 2?
Comments
In bob's defence, the plan was to give him 60 mins but the Igor injury meant he had to go the distance.
As Kag had only played a couple of u21 matches, i thought he showed promise in a very poor team performance.
he should be getting 20/25 mins as impact sub, but the paucity of our attack is clear for all to see.
The thin veneer of having a championship squad, is already being peeled away as Igor, Johann, and Hendo are all struggling with injuries, thou SH made some good saves yesterday his movement is very laboured and slow when on his feet.
we need to show some character now, the crowd as well as the players.
Calling one of our best young prospects to come out of the academy, shite, just won't help Croydon.
He definitely has talent and an eye for goal but unless he is tried at this level we will never know if he is ready. Personally I thought for his first start he did ok but was not quite up to the pace of the game, needing too long to get a shot off but his movement and swagger (which all strikers need) was good. He is not a target man so if that is what you were expecting then I can understand your disappointment. His first touch was good most of the time IMO but as I told a poster after the U21 game last week he is more a Vetokele type player than a Yann.
He was only meant to play for an hour and what other choices did Bob have up front apart from 60 min George? Don't be too hard on the kid, to compare him with Pigott v Millwall is way OTT give him support he will come good trust me. :-D
Tucadean and Moussa were both available - I wonder how they felt about that?
You would have expected KAG to feature as impact sub a few times, to get the pace and feel and build up confidence.
After Veto went off he led the line. Crazy! And then received zero service. None.
There is still about twelve games to play before the January transfer window opens.
Hands up all the people who think we are going to be in the top half come January.
We really missed a trick in the August transfer window not strengthening.
Two decent loan signings would, in my opinion, make a big difference to our squad. But it appears that won't happen.
I'm sure he will come good, and I don't want it to seem like I'm 'hating' on the kid. I just don't think starting him was a good call.
The next few weeks will be interesting as we lead up to the January transfer window. This is when we'll really start to see if BB really is the business or whether things start to fall apart. There's only so much you can do with 'bluster' but at the end of the day it's the application and discipline that is the answer.
Come on Bob, show us what you're made of.
Henderson
Wilson, Bikey, Ben Haim, Wiggins
Bulot, Buyens, Jackson, Cousins, Moussa
Tucudean
Subs Pope, Fox, Morrison, Munns, The Harriotts, Ahearne- Grant, Muldoon or Ansah
We've still not seen much of Bulot as he missed another game so it's possible to put a half decent front six out on Tuesday even if one or two are out.
My real concern is that the better players angle for moves next summer if they don't see ambition and a continuation of how we started this season. Vetokele and Gudmundsson didn't come to CAFC to spend five years mid table in front of 14,000 crowds. If we can't secure wins in the next two then the club has to do something to take control again. Beauty of three points for a win is that we could be anywhere by the time the window opens - but I would suggest that the better placed we are, the better our chances of signing decent talent in January.
Tucudean has to start games, he isn't fantastic but we look better coming forward when he plays.
Our build-up play was "ponderous", the midfield "ineffective onlookers" and "too easily overpowered". Charlton were "gormless", and "a three- or four-goal margin wouldn't have flattered Bournemouth".
"A counterpunching style, which invites the opposition forward in the hope of catching them on the break, contains the seeds of its own destruction." Nolan notes that we have been "outclassed" in several other games this season.
He's right.
Kevin Nolan is a damned good reporter, tells it how it is, always has done, always will do. If he hadn't done so after Saturday's performance I would be worried for him that he was losing his touch. He also gives credit where credit is due and looks to give a balanced opinion on the game that has just taken place! Being an ardent fan like the rest of us I'm sure he'll be hoping to report more favourably on tomorrow night's game, we move on COYRs.
Outclassed is an outright overstatement and unfair criticism .. I've seen only 3 games this season, all away, two 1-1 draws and a 1-0 win, the last at Norwich where we held our own against a quality side.
Our fault of course is lack of goal scoring threat and an inability to hold the ball up in the opposition half .. this leads to great pressure on our midfield and defence .. I would say that defensively, both these areas have been effective, outstanding even and at times classy .. in attack our midfield is average to good from what I have seen and the distribution from the back is better than it's been for a few seasons .. I repeat, attack is our major, major, major weakness .. for a seasoned reporter to use the words, 'gormless, rabble, outclassed and hapless' is out of order .. 'overpowered' ? .. yes, but nothing that a tough and large striker would not go along way to eradicate.
It really should have been 3-0 and could easily have been 5-0.
Henderson had a very good game and the centre halves were good. Solly was ok, but Wiggins was below par again.
The midfield were all poor and we had pretty much nothing up front.
Ahearne-Grant had a very decent debut, playing by himself, as Vetokele was clearly unfit and non existent.
We know we need a good hold up striker and central midfielder and unless we get them, I can only see us sliding further.
Bizarrely, the whole team seemed sluggish from the off. I can only conclude that the smallish squad and injuries are taking their toll. Buyens said after, that he has felt tired for the last 2 (now 3) games.
PS Henderson has obviously been told to roll the ball out from the back, but couldn't do this, as Bournemouth pushed up so much. So he has to kick it & kicks it to the tallest player, which is Cousins on the left. We used to do this previously when Jackson was on the left. If you lose the header, at least it's not coming straight back down the centre. If it goes off, it's not because the goalie, can't keep it on a wide pitch. It's because he's aiming for Cousins on the touch line.
There's no point kicking it to Vetokele, Moussa or Harriot and Tucudean, wasn't out there.
JBG's performance was the worst by one in Charlton red this season worthy(sic) of comparison with the many disgraces delivered by Marvin Sodall last term.
Injuries are a constant threat and a squad can only carry so many bodies in reserve. Charlton's 'strikeforce' was threadbare before Igor tweaked his achilles - let's hope KAG fits in quickly but with Roly Douchebag in town this week Bob must surely be making the strongest case for a loan or 2?