Season in brief:
It has not gone well, to be short and the owners are receiving the short end of things. In a similar situation to Blues in the Carson Yeung/Peter Pannu days, with results on the field failing to provide any reason for excitement, the frustration needed to be directed towards one entity and the decision to appoint a man whose managerial experience was limited to the third and fourth tiers of Belgian football, it was clear that the owners had much to answer for.
While I would be unable to make a definitive judgement on who is in charge of the transfers at the club, it seems pretty clear that the owners hold plenty of cards when it comes to dealing with who comes in and who departs Charlton Athletic. The lack of clarity has led to widespread anger and with team performances and results bordering on the horrific as relegation almost became a certainty, Jose Riga has been re-employed to do the same job he did two seasons before – keep them in the second tier.
Style:
Despite their lofty position in the table, Middlesbrough are very similar to Blues when it comes to style. They like to keep things very tight, have a midfielder they trust to run things from a possession point of view and an attacking midfield trio capable of tearing any opposition apart on their day but can struggle to get the better of sides that sit on the edge of their own box. Judging Charlton on their recent victory over Boro may be a good starting point.
They set up in a 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 system that looked slightly imbalanced from the outside. An experienced right-back was in the middle of the defence, a left-back playing on the left-wing (and the right side later on in the game) and a left-winger playing up front with a 17 year-old. Yet, it worked. Admittedly they were playing against a Middlesbrough that did not have Aitor Karanka on the sidelines for the game following internal issues up north but it still represented an impressive point.
Charlton gave the opposition plenty of possession but hit just as many shots, particularly the lively Callum Harriott, and in Jordan Cousins, they had a midfielder capable of not just breaking up play but keeping possession to – 87% of his 61 passes went to a team-mate. They were very tenacious down the right hand with the experience of Fanni, Motta and Diarra key in that department while they intercepted plenty of balls through the centre of the pitch. It is also worth mentioning that Nick Pope made 7 saves – impressive.
Yet it has not been like this all season. The inconsistencies of Charlton are best summed up by the knowledge that only four players have started over 25 matches this season. They have not won back to back matches since beating Sheffield Wednesday and, erm, Blues. They have the third worst discipline of any side at home and regular changes to the side this season have no doubt helped a side that have conceded 14 shots per game on average this season – only Fulham concede more efforts on goal at home.
As an attacking force Charlton are not much better. That Makienok is top scorer with five goals suggests as much with the youthful Lookman scoring four. Yaya Sanogo has played only five games, two from the start, and his hat-trick against Reading has already made him joint third in the scoring ranks. Their shots on goal is much better compared to the rest of the division in home fixtures and set-pieces are a relatively solid source of goals, particularly as they struggle to score from open play.
Only MK Dons play less crosses per game on average at home, interesting considering 40% of their play at home this season has come down the left-hand side – the highest percentage in the division. That Blues are high on the right hand side makes for intrigue.
How do Blues beat Charlton?
It is one of those odd games where the balance needs to be struck right between expectation and honesty. Given the respective league positions of the two sides, those in the away end are going to expect Blues to get right at Charlton, make life difficult immediately and try to win the game early. It doesn’t always work like that though and following victory over Middlesbrough at home, Charlton are going to fancy their chances.
Rowett may choose to go 4-3-3 once more and try to frustrate the Addicks, make life difficult from the off and frustrate the crowd. Give Charlton few options when they attack and let the crowd begin to vent their anger towards the board and some of the players. One thing that cannot be accounted for is that the fans actually do not mind Jose Riga, so the team may possibly receive some leeway on this side.
The other factor in this is that Riga has the option of either fielding a front pairing of Harriott and Lookman with raw pace the aim of getting at Blues or somebody like Makienok whose natural power and height can make him awkward – he is a similar style player to Adhte Nuhiu who came on to great effect for Sheffield Wednesday at St.Andrews.
This is a difficult one to call. I would expect us to try and isolate Cotterill against Morgan Fox who can be gotten at. Rod Fanni may have great experience at a much higher level but you suspect he will have faced few strikers as awkward as Clayton Donaldson and Teixeira remains raw after years of sitting in Stoke City’s reserves. If Charlton do go 4-4-2, you would suspect space would be available for Toral or Gleeson to get on the ball and dictate things if the chance allows. Later on in the game, the substitutes could have a huge impact in what should be a close fixture.
Few definitives on this occasion.
April 1, 2016 Ryan Deeney
3
Comments
I doubt if Rowett will change from his usual 4-2-3-1 system. The line up could be;
Kuzczak
Caddis......Morrison.......Robinson......Grounds
Kieftenbeld.......Gleeson
Cotterill..........Toral....... Maghoma
Donaldson
I assume someone has watched Birmingham, either the head coach, one of the staff or a scout. The Birmingham v Hull game was on Sky recently, so they should have a recording of the game. There are no excuses for poor planning at this level.
Lots of set plays in the region of the penalty area should probably do the trick.
To be fair I am referring to the era of Karel where it seemed he had absolutely no clue about adapting his strategy for each opponent. I use the word strategy in the loosest possible sense.
Probably, yes.
I wouldn't mind betting that the same thing happened with Luzon after the Huddersfield game earlier in the season. He probably thought he was fire-proof after the good start to the season. However a dressing room at this level is never going to suffer, "it wasn't my fault it was the players" type criticism in the press.
A trait with all of these coaches coming across to England has been "It wasn't my fault" type interviews when it's gone wrong. None of them have taken responsibility and all have been proven to be "out of their depth" when the pressure has come on. (Before anyone cites Riga's first spell, we all know that Alex Dyer organised the attacking and defensive set plays for CP. We can assume he carried that on up to the end of the season and was heavily involved in the tactical planning at selection/planning coaches meetings. He must have been, as Riga & Carol had little or no knowledge of the other teams and their players in this league when they arrived).