Wolverhampton Wanderers v Charlton Athletic
3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Andy D’Urso (Essex)IntroductionWell… The Guy Luzon era at Charlton Athletic could not have got off to a worse start could it, with Charlton getting ready to face Watford their plans would be hampered 24-hours before kick-off with the news that Guy Luzon’s Work Permit had failed to come through and that he would be forced to keep away from the dugout, and it didn’t end there, the Addicks never really got going in Hertfordshire and would fall to their heaviest defeat in England’s 2nd Tier since 1984… Of course a week is a long time in Football and all could change this Saturday (after all Birmingham lost 8-0 to Bournemouth early in the season only to be mid-table and ahead of Charlton now), ultimately the players must put the Watford performance behind them and concentrate on our next fixture away at
Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The OppositionOf course these two sides have already faced each other once this season… Back on September 16th on a Tuesday night, Charlton would play host to Wolves in a tight match that would end all square (1-1) with goals from Andre Bikey and Danny Batth deciding the tie, back on that day the Full-Time whistle placed Wolves in fourth spot whilst the Addicks would sit directly behind on one point less…
Since them Wolves have had a bit of an up and down season as they’ve struggled for consistency… five losses on the trot in November saw them drop to 13th yet since their last defeat (a 2-1 loss at league leaders AFC Bournemouth), Wolves have begun to climb back up the table, failing to win only once in the last six matches (with that match resulting in a draw against Brighton) has seen them climb back up to eighth spot and just a point behind the final Play-Off spot.
One final stat for you… At home this season, Wolves have lost just the three matches winning on seven occasions – A win for Charlton this Saturday could be a huge boost in their attempts to re-ignite our season…
Key Player
Links between the Addicks and Wolves for this match should be few and far between with an International feel very much on the cards in South East London these days, lining up for the Home side though will be ex-Charlton loanee:
Carl Ikeme whilst spearheading the Wolves attack could be ex-Striker:
Leon Clarke – Thankfully I decided to research my key player this week though as I was due to pick Bakary Sako who terrorised the Charlton defence earlier this season (thankfully he is currently away on International Duty with Mali for the African Nations Cup)… Instead my player to watch this week is another with South East London connections:
James Henry.
Midfielder by trade; James Henry began his career in Berkshire with Reading, despite making only 10-appearances for the Royals, Henry would go on to have loans at Nottingham Forest, AFC Bournemouth and Norwich City before joining our rivals
Millwall, there he would make over 120-appearances in a four year spell and with Kenny Jackett moving from Millwall to Wolves it would make sense for his tricky winger to join him in moving to Molineux.
Line-UpWith the Work Permit issues apparently yet to be sorted it once again remains to be seen who takes charge of Charlton this weekend, should there be more problems for Guy Luzon then Damien Matthew and Ben Roberts will be taking charge once more.
With all the uncertainty its difficult to try and predict a starting eleven but with last Saturdays result being so bad you’d surely expect to see changes...
Dmitrovic
Solly – Ben-Haim – Bikey – Wiggins
Gudmundsson – Veljković – Jackson – Cousins
Watt – Church
Substitutes Bench: Etheridge – Gomez – Fox – Buyens – Harriott – Tucudean – Vetokele
PredictionWolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Charlton Athletic
Comments
The first set of people who I would award the knighthood to would be anyone with a home season ticket who went to Watford last weekend and is still planning to go to Wolves tomorrow. Unbelievable commitment. Wolverhampton is an absolute dump, so much so that there are apparently only 4 bigger dumps on the entire planet - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8435823.stm - it's a chore going there if you're expecting to win, but to go there to most probably witness a convincing defeat is the absolute pinnacle of loyalty/insanity.
Sadly, aside from my mythical knighthood, there's to be no reward for your admirable devotion as Guy get's off to a Luzon start, somewhere between 0-3 and 0-7. A miserable train journey home, particularly for that mysterious lady who got on at the first class carriage and then immediately locked herself in the toilet for the entire journey.
0-2
COYA!
we're not that bad
the worlds biggest joke club continue the boring belgian berks experiment to squeeze the life out of fans , players and staff
6-0 to Wolves
0-1 0-3 0-5 ?-? Oh Shite.
it's ok, giving this one a miss, Well done to the 300 who go. (or 250)
1) Ben Haim didn't play much as they had better - they don't rate him like we do - Ben Haim and Luzon have the same agent?
2) Bulot isn't here right now and I dont see any compelling evidence that Luzon fell out with him nor Buyens. Neither were ever present but they both played a fair bit in a team which was, after all top of their league this time last year.
3) M.Duchatelet is not predictable but he kept Luzon on the payroll for a reason. The idea that he would parachute Luzon in (work permit allowing) if Luzon had a poor relationship with three of our top players suggests he's out to destroy squad unity.
I'm not saying Luzon will bring pit the best with these three as I don't know but I think it's worth a thread of its own. Not only does this have a very strong impact on the second half of our season but it is also critical to M.Duchatelet's ability to run our club.
If this a screw up and he doesn't fund immediate replacements then this tail spin can only continue. However if Luzon can work with the squad and deliver a first win vs Rotherham then we have a very different outlook. And M.Duchatelet can be loaded as the man who brought the coach and three senior players across from Liege... For free!
I'm not saying all Liege fans are wrong but they do appear very hurt from the fact they lost a play-off and the title to Anderlecht. As well as RD refusing to communicate enough with them.
GIFSoup
4-0 to Wolves