Charlton Athletic vs Blackpool
3pm Kick-Off
Referee –
ANDY DAVIESINTRODUCTIONLast Saturday saw Charlton achieve their eleventh draw of the season with a 1-1 result against Nottingham Forest at the City ground.
The Addicks’ ongoing problem to ‘kill off’ games will be of some concern for Bob Peeters, but, with January just round the corner, hopefully a new striker will eventually solve that issue.
However, Saturday, Peeters’ men play hosts to a struggling Blackpool side who have only won two games all season.
It comes at an important time for the Addicks who have not won in four matches and have yet to win a game in the league this season with at least two clear goals.
Funnily enough, the last time the SE7 club did score at least two goals more than their opponent was against Blackpool at the end of the 2013/14 campaign, with Callum Harriott scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 away victory.
THE OPPOSITIONLife at Bloomfield Road was pretty chaotic before the season even began.
As I’m sure you are aware, Jose Riga was left with an almighty task of assembling a side together and when only nine players had been registered in the morning of their first Championship game of the season, you just knew things were not going to go well for him.
Things didn’t exact help when chairman Karl Oyston labelled Riga as, “unprofessional” and Oyston’s relationship with the fans declined rapidly as even ‘walk-out’ protests were organised as a way of showing their disapproval of his actions as chairman of the club.
At the end of October, with the club rock bottom with only six points, Riga was sacked.
His replacement was Lee Clark, who joined the club only 10 days after being sacked from the Birmingham job.
So far, Blackpool have picked up six points under Clark including a 1-0 victory over his old side Birmingham last weekend.
ONE TO WATCH – JAMIE O'HARAMy player to watch this weekend is Blackpool midfielder: Jamie O’Hara.
This pick is not based purely on ability, but also because of his experience and his reputation.
The 28-year-old was once a promising member of a Tottenham side, but in recent years has seen him fall “out of favour” with the game especially with the number of injury problems that he suffered.
He had a miserable spell at Wolves during 2011-2014, where he experienced relegation twice and at some points, clashed with his own fans.
The England under-21 international who joined Blackpool last month, will be hoping that his spell at the Seasiders can resurrect his career and help him return to the best of his ability starting with a performance at The Valley this Saturday.
LINE-UPWith only two goals in four games, I can see Bob changing back to a 4-4-2 system this weekend, especially as skipper Johnnie Jackson is out with a calf injury.
In goal, Nick Pope should continue if Stephen Henderson is still out with a shoulder problem.
In defence, Chris Solly, Tal Ben Haim, Andre Bikey and Morgan Fox are likely to continue.
If it is indeed a 4-4-2 formation, then Callum Harriott may be deployed on the left, rather than behind the striker as he has been in recent weeks.
On the right, Johann Berg Gudmundsson should occupy, while Yoni Buyens will be in contention to play as well as Francis Coquelin and Jordan Cousins, for the centre of midfield.
Upfront, Igor Vetokele, who seems to prefer a striker partner, may be kept company by George Tucudean, despite the Romanian not even being on the bench last weekend.
PREDICTIONA comfortable and assured victory.
Charlton Athletic 2-0 Blackpool
Comments
Hopefully this is our opportunity to change that. That said I like Lee Clark and the pool haven't lost in a few games.
Charlton 0-1 Blackpool
The beast scores early on and we push backwards searching for a clean sheet
Will we score first and then sit back to draw 1-1 ?
Or will they score first and we press forward to draw 1-1 ?
This is what living in Belgium must feel like. You have a nice little country full of polite, well-educated people and well managed towns and cities but you still want to kill yourself.
2-1 charlton
Vetokele to score first
0-1 to Blackpool
However I would do one thing if I was Bob and rest Igor for a week. I'm not convinced that he's properly recovered from his recent injury. If you can't do that at home against the bottom club then the squad needs seriously looking at. Although that may well be the opinion of most of us we really should be seeing off this lot with or without Igor.
As I can't see Blackpool scoring, a 2- 0 win for us.
3-0 Charlton.
Coq, Bikey and Pigott
COYA!
Deja vu all over again.
1-1
Deja-vu all over again all over again.
2-1 to the Addicks and back in the play-off hunt
0-1 Blackpool