Was a good competitive game, a draw fair result for both sides although not sure how either didn't score. The positives, I liked the front 3, pace and always wanted to be involved. Lennon was superb as was Hendo, he is key if we are to do anything this season.
The negatives, as much as I liked the team that was put out I didn't enjoy the tactics. Everything was too direct, I'm not necessarily talking long balls although there were a few and with the starting 3 I'm not sure what the point was. It seemed every time we got the ball it was looking to go froward as soon as possible and that was exactly what brought the problems in the final 25 mins or so. A more patient thought out approach would be more welcome by me and it would also get the midfield involved more. Gudmundsson did not look interested at all, he needs to pull his finger out. Finally the fans. I completely understand the protests (although I won't take part) but there's no point in bringing that negativity into the ground for example booing when the ball is passed backwards or ironically cheering when Makienok wins a header. In what way is that helping a team low on confidence?
A poor first half quality-wise, although I thought we had the better of it and Leeds didn't feature at all as an attacking force. The second half was more open, with some decent play at times, but we were really clinging on during the last 20 minutes after we ran out of legs and they threatened to overwhelm us. A better side than Leeds (and there are many in this division) would have finished us off. Steve Evans' assertion that his team "annihilated" us is well wide of the mark, unless he's talking about the clogging stakes.
Lookman was again our best player, although our lack of decent possession higher up the field meant that we couldn't get the ball to him as often as we'd like. THD and Henderson were also very good and there were sound contributions as well from Solly, Harry Lennon and Diarra.
I felt that we struggled in midfield, although that was, in part, a result of the lack of balance in the side, with four offensive players in the line up. Jacko hasn't played much football this season and is just coming back, whilst Cousins has been out of sorts for some time. We missed Diarra in the middle and, regrettably, it looks like Kashi is out for the foreseeable future.
Up front, I thought that Vaz Te did reasonably well until he understandably ran out of steam. Reza showed excellent movement for his chance ten minutes in and worked hard but, for me, he is too lightweight for this division.
On the positive side, we kept a clean sheet, got something out of the game and our home grown lads performed very well - without them, we'd be totally up the creek. The downside is that the paucity of our squad was again exposed and, in the final analysis, a point at home against a mediocre, lower mid-table side at home is not going to get us out of trouble. Still, we've certainly had worse days at the Valley this season.
The Bristol City game on Boxing Day represents the mid-point of the season and I think we're unlikely to get anything at Burnley. It's far too early for 'must win' games but Tuesday's against Bolton is as close as you're ever going to get to one at this stage of the season.
To be honest I thought were just incredibly average. Which is admittedly an improvement on the utter crap we've been before that but not precisely inspiring stuff. The first 20-odd minutes of the second half were as good as we've been under Fraeye but then promptly totally ran out of juice and were hanging on for all we were worth (about tuppence ha'penny on current evidence). If either of those two chances had fallen to Wood we would have lost, no question in my mind.
Poor game between two poor teams bur Imo we got lucky and escaped with an undeserved point. Their finishing was woeful. Cant see things improving unless we get a proper manager and some better players.
Large why did you not go yesterday. It was a very entertaining game of football. Good spirited but competitive. Both goalkeepers played really well and typical Charlton end of seat stuff at the end. Whats more apart from JJ a very young 11. Sad to read this post and attacking KF for no good reason is getting boring but worse still are the 5 other fans who have liked your post so far
Poor game between two poor teams bur Imo we got lucky and escaped with an undeserved point. Their finishing was woeful. Cant see things improving unless we get a proper manager and some better players.
Large why did you not go yesterday. It was a very entertaining game of football. Good spirited but competitive. Both goalkeepers played really well and typical Charlton end of seat stuff at the end. Whats more apart from JJ a very young 11. Sad to read this post and attacking KF for no good reason is getting boring but worse still are the 5 other fans who have liked your post so far
Come off it. The first half was about as exciting as a game of chess. Both teams of limited ability and ambition, too scared to attack and lose their shape.
I suppose the 2nd half was better, so compared to a chess match, you could call it entertaining. But compared to most games of football, entertaining it was not.
It was the worst Leeds team I've ever seen at The Valley. They were poor, but better than us and should have won.
We were hanging on for dear life from the 70th minute and they would have won, if not for one of the worst misses ever seen at The Valley.
KF has done ok, as well as Powell, Peters & Luzon, but not as well as Riga.
I can live with KF, but yes I'd rather have a manager like Paul Lambert.
Having seen your scores out of 10 for the game I am a little confused you seem to let your views of RD cloud your judgement which is a shame. Yes I was there and saw a better game than a lot this season
Having seen your scores out of 10 for the game I am a little confused you seem to let your views of RD cloud your judgement which is a shame. Yes I was there and saw a better game than a lot this season
It was a better game than our 0-3 drubbings to Brentford, Preston & Ipswich.
It was a better game than our 0-2 was it ? drubbing against Huddersfield and better than our awful draw with Rotherham.
Fulham game so/so.
It wasn't as good as the QPR, Hull, & Sheff W games.
However, the first 5 games I mentioned were absolutely dire and originally, you said the game was entertaining, now you've changed it to good.
There was about a 20 minute 2nd half spell, when you could call it entertaining, the rest was pretty poor.
I don't think you should call a game entertaining, because we didn't lose 0-3 like usual.
I can say players played well, without the game being entertaining.
I can watch a really boring Test Match in cricket and score the players well, but it can still be very boring and unentertaining. I hope you can understand, what I am saying.
Anyway, it's all about opinions & you obviously are more easily entertained than me. C'est la vie.
Having seen your scores out of 10 for the game I am a little confused you seem to let your views of RD cloud your judgement which is a shame. Yes I was there and saw a better game than a lot this season
It was a better game than our 0-3 drubbings to Brentford, Preston & Ipswich.
It was a better game than our 0-2 was it ? drubbing against Huddersfield and better than our awful draw with Rotherham.
Fulham game so/so.
It wasn't as good as the QPR, Hull, & Sheff W games.
However, the first 5 games I mentioned were absolutely dire and originally, you said the game was entertaining, now you've changed it to good.
There was about a 20 minute 2nd half spell, when you could call it entertaining, the rest was pretty poor.
I don't think you should call a game entertaining, because we didn't lose 0-3 like usual.
I can say players played well, without the game being entertaining.
I can watch a really boring Test Match in cricket and score the players well, but it can still be very boring and unentertaining. I hope you can understand, what I am saying.
Anyway, it's all about opinions & you obviously are more easily entertained than me. C'est la vie.
What do you mean they were poor but better than us
I thought we were the better side for 70 minutes but our threats were only sporadic. Lookman was excellent, but he needed more ball - I was surprised we didn't change tactically to play him on the last man in the second half. Surprised Maikienok didn't come on a bit sooner as well. I thought there was a lack of willingness to try something else from the manager, although he is picking the right players. Not sure why we fell away so markedly on 70 minutes, but we defended like a Sunday league team from that point and were lucky to hold onto the point. I thought there were some excellent performances - Lookman looked unplayable, Solly was excellent, as was Diara and Holmes-Dennis Cousins did the busy unspectatcular role in the middle I like.
It's a decent result for a team over reliant on youth. If we want to stay up we will have to play better though which will mean investment in the team/manager etc.
Particular praise for Lennon (thank god he's stepped up) and Lookman (and him).
Having seen your scores out of 10 for the game I am a little confused you seem to let your views of RD cloud your judgement which is a shame. Yes I was there and saw a better game than a lot this season
It was a better game than our 0-3 drubbings to Brentford, Preston & Ipswich.
It was a better game than our 0-2 was it ? drubbing against Huddersfield and better than our awful draw with Rotherham.
Fulham game so/so.
It wasn't as good as the QPR, Hull, & Sheff W games.
However, the first 5 games I mentioned were absolutely dire and originally, you said the game was entertaining, now you've changed it to good.
There was about a 20 minute 2nd half spell, when you could call it entertaining, the rest was pretty poor.
I don't think you should call a game entertaining, because we didn't lose 0-3 like usual.
I can say players played well, without the game being entertaining.
I can watch a really boring Test Match in cricket and score the players well, but it can still be very boring and unentertaining. I hope you can understand, what I am saying.
Anyway, it's all about opinions & you obviously are more easily entertained than me. C'est la vie.
I enjoyed the second half - I think it could be classed as entertaining - not so sure about the first half though.
Fraeye should have made at least one substitution, around the 65th minute mark. Putting subs on around 80 mins doesn't given players much of a chance to make an impact. To me, Reza faded badly and I cannot understand why it took so long to a decision.
I could see the levels dropping and he took far too long. Was lucky not to cost us a goal. That was a bit poor IMO. Although I think he picked the right starting team. We were having problems breaking them down and mixing it up by putting Mackieknok on should have happened at the start of the second. Lookman was causing all sorts of problems and should have then been playing closer to Mackieknock. If one thing isn't working, you have to try something else. Not that Lookman wasn't working, but he looked dangerous every time he had the ball, so you have to get him more ball if you are trying to win a tight game.
Fraeye should have made at least one substitution, around the 65th minute mark. Putting subs on around 80 mins doesn't given players much of a chance to make an impact. To me, Reza faded badly and I cannot understand why it took so long to a decision.
Agree with this but also why does it take our subs so long to get ready, real bugbear of mine. Big Mac must have taken nearly 5 minutes from the time he was called over to actually being ready, unprofessional IMHO.
Fraeye should have made at least one substitution, around the 65th minute mark. Putting subs on around 80 mins doesn't given players much of a chance to make an impact. To me, Reza faded badly and I cannot understand why it took so long to a decision.
Agree with this but also why does it take our subs so long to get ready, real bugbear of mine. Big Mac must have taken nearly 5 minutes from the time he was called over to actually being ready, unprofessional IMHO.
Probably had to wait for a dizzy spell from bending down that far to put his shin pads in, to pass.
Fraeye should have made at least one substitution, around the 65th minute mark. Putting subs on around 80 mins doesn't given players much of a chance to make an impact. To me, Reza faded badly and I cannot understand why it took so long to a decision.
Agree with this but also why does it take our subs so long to get ready, real bugbear of mine. Big Mac must have taken nearly 5 minutes from the time he was called over to actually being ready, unprofessional IMHO.
Probably had to wait for a dizzy spell from bending down that far to put his shin pads in, to pass.
Fraeye should have made at least one substitution, around the 65th minute mark. Putting subs on around 80 mins doesn't given players much of a chance to make an impact. To me, Reza faded badly and I cannot understand why it took so long to a decision.
Agree with this but also why does it take our subs so long to get ready, real bugbear of mine. Big Mac must have taken nearly 5 minutes from the time he was called over to actually being ready, unprofessional IMHO.
Probably had to wait for a dizzy spell from bending down that far to put his shin pads in, to pass.
I really shouldn't "lol" that .
I strained my back doing a jigsaw puzzle today !
How on earth did you manage that, trying to put the last piece in before Mr FF grabbed it due to your competitive nature?
Fraeye should have made at least one substitution, around the 65th minute mark. Putting subs on around 80 mins doesn't given players much of a chance to make an impact. To me, Reza faded badly and I cannot understand why it took so long to a decision.
Agree with this but also why does it take our subs so long to get ready, real bugbear of mine. Big Mac must have taken nearly 5 minutes from the time he was called over to actually being ready, unprofessional IMHO.
Ball wasn't going out of play though was it?
Which in turn didn't help because it took so long to go out, Karel decided that he needed to send Ba on so Big Mac then had to wait for Ba to get ready so that the double substitution could be made
Comments
The negatives, as much as I liked the team that was put out I didn't enjoy the tactics. Everything was too direct, I'm not necessarily talking long balls although there were a few and with the starting 3 I'm not sure what the point was. It seemed every time we got the ball it was looking to go froward as soon as possible and that was exactly what brought the problems in the final 25 mins or so. A more patient thought out approach would be more welcome by me and it would also get the midfield involved more. Gudmundsson did not look interested at all, he needs to pull his finger out. Finally the fans. I completely understand the protests (although I won't take part) but there's no point in bringing that negativity into the ground for example booing when the ball is passed backwards or ironically cheering when Makienok wins a header. In what way is that helping a team low on confidence?
Berg - has been saving himself ever since Iceland qualified for the Euros
Looky - first class
Solly - excellent
Diarra - excellent
We were very lucky to get a point.
Lookman was again our best player, although our lack of decent possession higher up the field meant that we couldn't get the ball to him as often as we'd like. THD and Henderson were also very good and there were sound contributions as well from Solly, Harry Lennon and Diarra.
I felt that we struggled in midfield, although that was, in part, a result of the lack of balance in the side, with four offensive players in the line up. Jacko hasn't played much football this season and is just coming back, whilst Cousins has been out of sorts for some time. We missed Diarra in the middle and, regrettably, it looks like Kashi is out for the foreseeable future.
Up front, I thought that Vaz Te did reasonably well until he understandably ran out of steam. Reza showed excellent movement for his chance ten minutes in and worked hard but, for me, he is too lightweight for this division.
On the positive side, we kept a clean sheet, got something out of the game and our home grown lads performed very well - without them, we'd be totally up the creek. The downside is that the paucity of our squad was again exposed and, in the final analysis, a point at home against a mediocre, lower mid-table side at home is not going to get us out of trouble. Still, we've certainly had worse days at the Valley this season.
The Bristol City game on Boxing Day represents the mid-point of the season and I think we're unlikely to get anything at Burnley. It's far too early for 'must win' games but Tuesday's against Bolton is as close as you're ever going to get to one at this stage of the season.
I suppose the 2nd half was better, so compared to a chess match, you could call it entertaining. But compared to most games of football, entertaining it was not.
It was the worst Leeds team I've ever seen at The Valley. They were poor, but better than us and should have won.
We were hanging on for dear life from the 70th minute and they would have won, if not for one of the worst misses ever seen at The Valley.
KF has done ok, as well as Powell, Peters & Luzon, but not as well as Riga.
I can live with KF, but yes I'd rather have a manager like Paul Lambert.
I know Large was there, was you ?
It was a better game than our 0-2 was it ? drubbing against Huddersfield and better than our awful draw with Rotherham.
Fulham game so/so.
It wasn't as good as the QPR, Hull, & Sheff W games.
However, the first 5 games I mentioned were absolutely dire and originally, you said the game was entertaining, now you've changed it to good.
There was about a 20 minute 2nd half spell, when you could call it entertaining, the rest was pretty poor.
I don't think you should call a game entertaining, because we didn't lose 0-3 like usual.
I can say players played well, without the game being entertaining.
I can watch a really boring Test Match in cricket and score the players well, but it can still be very boring and unentertaining. I hope you can understand, what I am saying.
Anyway, it's all about opinions & you obviously are more easily entertained than me. C'est la vie.
Or is this an attempt to troll a few people?
Particular praise for Lennon (thank god he's stepped up) and Lookman (and him).
We looked tired, they looked shite.
And that's just from the highlights.
To me, Reza faded badly and I cannot understand why it took so long to a decision.
I strained my back doing a jigsaw puzzle today !
Which in turn didn't help because it took so long to go out, Karel decided that he needed to send Ba on so Big Mac then had to wait for Ba to get ready so that the double substitution could be made