Wasn't there so expect to be told to shut up. But I think there may have been a bit of an overreaction to yesterday's result/performance (me included). I listened to it and yes it sounded bad, very bad. But for most of the game we sounded solid defensively and we conceded a couple of goals from set plays that are frustrating given our troubles with corners last year. Our CBs had not played together before and the keeper hadn't played behind either of them. In time those partnerships and understanding will develop (hopefully with lennon/Bauer in for Rojo). When that happens we should have a solid base to build from which should be enough to see us finish mid table.
Yes midfield and attack are worrying and we are desperately in need of reinforcements but there were good signs. Holmes sounded decent good, Crofts should be a useful CDM (at least until Kashi or Diarra are fit) but will need a Cousins type energy, box to box CM alongside him. There is something to be built on. We are not gonna walk the league and I think top six is a long shot. If we do get the 4 signings Russel says he wants then I don't think we will be in any danger.
Need a minimum of 1 CM, 1 winger that can play on both wings and 1 back up striker.
Ideally I would like another CM and also a keeper so Phillips can have his loan. But that's not gonna happen.
If anyone was optimistic about the season before the game, then they probably need to wake up. If anyone is optimistic about the season today - then there's absolutely no hope for you and I'd consider seeing a doctor.
I really was optimistic before the game but yesterday was really odd, we weren't just rubbish - I'm used to that - but yesterday we were just so passive, no impetus at all. That's really worrying.
That is exactly how we've been all pre-season.
For me the problem stems from central midfield. There is no energy there. Its the position that should set the tempo for the team. It is doing that at the moment, unfortunately it is pedestrian and it is affecting all the players. Perhaps Thompson will solve the issue.
This has been the problem for the last few seasons, really. Jackson isn't up to the pace and Cousins, for all his good qualities, was awful in possession. Diarra's great in DM and Ba had his moments (defensively) but it's been so long since we had someone in there capable of dictating play
Not since Yoni Buyens. I know not everyone liked him because he didn't tackle but his passing was good more often than not and he'd walk straight into the team now.
From a Bury fan perspective, a poor game with two poor teams. We mysteriously started with the useless Mellis and Soares in midfield which should have allowed Charlton to dominate. That you didn't was more down to your inability than a tactical master stroke from our manager. We had more of the first half, more shots but didn't trouble your keeper. Second half after the first 10 which you dominated, we brought on our better players, Soares kept as far away from the ball as possible so he couldn't screw anything up, and we got the goals. Clear pen, and clearly over the line for the second, should have had a third when ref bottled another clear pen. Only the first match, but if I was a Charlton fan, unless things change a lot, I'd worry. Sorry, hope I'm wrong for you. Shame about the thugs. Appears some of you were a bit tasty, but for a club with the smallest crowds in the division, we do have a high percentage of idiots. Good luck for the rest of the sesson
Never ever a lack of desire but a lack of quality in terms how to deal with a team like that at this level. We need to use it a positive learning curve.
Never ever a lack of desire but a lack of quality in terms how to deal with a team like that at this level. We need to use it a positive learning curve.
Wait - you don't think we showed a lack of desire ?
From a Bury fan perspective, a poor game with two poor teams. We mysteriously started with the useless Mellis and Soares in midfield which should have allowed Charlton to dominate. That you didn't was more down to your inability than a tactical master stroke from our manager. We had more of the first half, more shots but didn't trouble your keeper. Second half after the first 10 which you dominated, we brought on our better players, Soares kept as far away from the ball as possible so he couldn't screw anything up, and we got the goals. Clear pen, and clearly over the line for the second, should have had a third when ref bottled another clear pen. Only the first match, but if I was a Charlton fan, unless things change a lot, I'd worry. Sorry, hope I'm wrong for you. Shame about the thugs. Appears some of you were a bit tasty, but for a club with the smallest crowds in the division, we do have a high percentage of idiots. Good luck for the rest of the sesson
Cheers. We had Soares a while back, we remember.
I've been relatively impressed with the business done by Bury. Seems like you have a decent first 11. Danns will be a very good signing. Kay and Barnett should be very good at this level as well (assuming Barnett is ever fit).
Apropos of nothing I find myself missing Viewfinder's poetic visioncompletely bonkers uniquely skewed take on things. It's more entertaining than the reality and altogether less depressing than the bigger picture. Besides, there's something very Charlton about him, you wouldn't find a Viewfinder anywhere else. And it's better than any shit I can come up with.
It was pointed out before the game, no foreigners in the team.
Good thing, would hate for someone to come along and have technical quality and say, a range of passing and vision. At least we got stuck in and had and commitment and desire to fight for the shirt...oh.
Because things were so much better when we had the foreign legion playing weren't they.
Oh how I miss the range of passing and vision of Sarr, Reza, Polish Pete, Anal Cock, George Millwall Miss, Simon Big Girls Blouse ......
Brutus said: "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him". One thousand of our troops marched to Bury - and Charlton mustered one single shot on target.
What on earth has happened to us? Ten years ago in the Prem we beat Liverpool at The Valley. I was there, and examined our game at Orient two weeks ago: for vast periods of the 90 minutes we bumbled around in a no-man's-land of defensive midfield, slamming balls back to a hopeful clearance - wildly over-hit to a five-foot-six striker. Our keeper places the ball for a goal-kick, breathes in and out, waves the team from left to right, players troop dutifully - any imagined momentum evaporates into the ether - and the ball is received unchallenged by our opponents. This, against Orient, a minor team in a lower division.
As several posters correctly remind us on this thread, our midfield is utterly vapid: has been for years. No strength, no guts for a tackle, and - even worse - not the slightest flicker of imagination how to get round our opponents and advance. Nothing. Absent men at Bury, a team who - remember - lost 4-0 at Morecambe in their pre-season friendly.
What gets me, after 51 seasons of watching Charlton, is this supine weakness. Of course Duchatelet is an idiot - but he isn't a monster. When Carol Fraeye pitched up in his nylon shirt and O-level swimming certificate, Jackson, Solly and the seniors should have bonded and by-passed him. Fuck it! - We will play this way, and score. It's a conceit to think our academy players are blessed with a special sort of talent, a wonderful quality nurtured only in SE7. Every professional club has them. That is one of the many reasons why we lost last season, and were relegated.
I enjoy watching our opponents at The Valley: swift, accurate forward moves: all are strong, and the best have delicious cunning intelligence. Kermorgant with Reading, hanging back from a cross to head past Henderson. Then his second goal, deftly placed. And the third, his perfectly weighted pass slicing through our central defence for the striker to make it 3-0.
Our owner, our manager - and our players especially - should learn. Bury, for us fans, was not just a piss-up to Manchester in the sun. It was a pilgrimage, a homage, an act of faith. We have scored a paltry three goals in the last seven games.
Isn't it about bloody time we put it in the onion-bag?
It was pointed out before the game, no foreigners in the team.
Good thing, would hate for someone to come along and have technical quality and say, a range of passing and vision. At least we got stuck in and had and commitment and desire to fight for the shirt...oh.
Because things were so much better when we had the foreign legion playing weren't they.
Oh how I miss the range of passing and vision of Sarr, Reza, Polish Pete, Anal Cock, George Millwall Miss, Simon Big Girls Blouse ......
...JBG, Kashi, Diarra, Bauer, Buyens, Igor, Motta, etc. I'm not saying there weren't bad foreign players, but I think that a lot of what we have now is much of a muchness.
0.5% Top two ......... 12.5% 3rd-6th ......... 50% 7th-12th ......... 34% 13th-20th ........ 3% Unchartered footballing territory for Charlton as the apologists continue to lap up the freaks experiment
Get out of our club
Can't be many apologists left, surely ?
I seem to encounter a lot of them - the friends I sat with at the Valley are all renewing (and not grudgingly but because they can't see why I'm protesting)
I also met a few at Bury - which did surprise me. However, I was pleased when Roland Out chants started 2 mins after kick off.
0.5% Top two ......... 12.5% 3rd-6th ......... 50% 7th-12th ......... 34% 13th-20th ........ 3% Unchartered footballing territory for Charlton as the apologists continue to lap up the freaks experiment
Get out of our club
Can't be many apologists left, surely ?
I seem to encounter a lot of them - the friends I sat with at the Valley are all renewing (and not grudgingly but because they can't see why I'm protesting)
I also met a few at Bury - which did surprise me. However, I was pleased when Roland Out chants started 2 mins after kick off.
It was pointed out before the game, no foreigners in the team.
Good thing, would hate for someone to come along and have technical quality and say, a range of passing and vision. At least we got stuck in and had and commitment and desire to fight for the shirt...oh.
Because things were so much better when we had the foreign legion playing weren't they.
Oh how I miss the range of passing and vision of Sarr, Reza, Polish Pete, Anal Cock, George Millwall Miss, Simon Big Girls Blouse ......
...JBG, Kashi, Diarra, Bauer, Buyens, Igor, Motta, etc. I'm not saying there weren't bad foreign players, but I think that a lot of what we have now is much of a muchness.
Fanni, Bulot/Thuram, Bergdich we've had our fair share of decent/shit foreign players haven't we?
Personally I think we could really do with a couple of technically gifted Johnnie foreigners in midfield, and I'd have Bauer and Teixeira over Lennon and Johnson every day of the week.
I'm not going to judge us either way on this game, as we haven't got the final squad yet and the first game was always going to be iffy what with the off pitch turmoil and the power struggle concerning players coming in and going out.
Saturday will be interesting, (Tuesday won't be, there's nothing interesting about playing Cheltenham on a Tuesday in a cup that no-one gives a shit about)
0.5% Top two ......... 12.5% 3rd-6th ......... 50% 7th-12th ......... 34% 13th-20th ........ 3% Unchartered footballing territory for Charlton as the apologists continue to lap up the freaks experiment
Get out of our club
Can't be many apologists left, surely ?
I seem to encounter a lot of them - the friends I sat with at the Valley are all renewing (and not grudgingly but because they can't see why I'm protesting)
I also met a few at Bury - which did surprise me. However, I was pleased when Roland Out chants started 2 mins after kick off.
At Orient in the friendly, when Phillips retrieved the ball for a goal-kick, Roger Johnson was close and shouted: "Wait, Dill! Wait!" He was firmly authoritative. Both teams were shuffling into their narrow default positions, setting up on the half-way line, like stilted guests at an Edwardian wedding.
I like Johnson. He was conveying orders, ran to midfield before "Dill" actually took this goal-kick. Everybody frozen, the ball landed to Orient, because even in the fourth division our opponents jump higher than we do. We shuffled around - a flimsy pass, a deflection for a throw-in, thrown to our man who can't control the ball: it ricochets off his knee, another throw-in - and we are bogged down in a peripheral area on the wing for thirty minutes with this sheer lack of ability.
All those losing games since Kermorgant and Bradley Wright-Phillips! - us dripping around like pansies and pooftahs. We can't make the simplest triangles with each other, our star striker has crabs in his pubes and goes to St Trinian's - and we were relegated a month before even Rotherham stayed up.
That is precisely why we need Roger Johnson. He has guts. Fire. "Fuck off" to his manager and the fans. I would give him authority, make him captain.
Im guessing Bury are going to be typical of the teams we meet. High energy pressing game, stop the opposition having any time on the ball, by-pass midfield, where they attack every second ball in the opponents third at high tempo fair or foul, as long as they get a share of 50:50 ref decisions they get dead ball opportunities in opponents half, their main chance of getting lucky in front of goal. Not a pretty sight.
Lookman and Holmes were the only players who ever put Bury on the back foot, Holmes had no support from midfield and ended up in dead ends, and Lookman came on too late when Bury were just more intent on breaking up play, doubt if we put three passing moves together in last 20 minutes.
On this display Charlton haven't got the players to compete on these terms. Bury had a rock solid bank of defenders some in the Bikey mould of shit house doors, and their midfield all knew how to put in a tackle but not employed to do much else. If we don't have the guile/pace in midfield and up front to counter this sort of set up, or (depressingly) we match up with similar players, we will follow the all too familiar pattern of relegated higher league teams going into freefall. Only hope is that this is still a "transition" period and Slade will put a team together before all is lost.
The Bury players didn't leave anything on the field, they were going down with cramp towards the end, they were clear winners, and we need to get used to what it takes to win in League 1 very quickly.
At Orient in the friendly, when Phillips retrieved the ball for a goal-kick, Roger Johnson was close and shouted: "Wait, Dill! Wait!" It was firmly authoritative. Both teams were shuffling into their narrow default positions, setting up on the half-way line, like stilted guests at an Edwardian wedding.
I like Johnson. He was obeying orders, ran to midfield before "Dill" actually took this goal-kick. Everybody frozen, the ball landed to Orient, because even in the fourth division our opponents jump higher than we do. We shuffled around - a flimsy pass, a deflection for a throw-in, thrown to our man who can't control the ball: it ricochets off his knee, another throw-in - and we are bogged down in a peripheral area on the wing for twenty minutes with this sheer lack of ability.
All those losing games since Kermorgant and Bradley Wright-Phillips! - Us dripping around like pansies and pooftahs. We can't make the simplest triangles with each other, our star striker has crabs in his pubes - and we are relegated a month before even Rotherham stay up.
That is precisely why we need Roger Johnson. Guts. Fire. "Fuck off" to the manager and the fans. I would give him authority, make him captain.
There isn't a button for this. There ought to be....somewhere way above "Like" and "LOL"
PS...if you happen to be in Heathrow T4 at the moment and see a bloke sitting on his own laughing.....that's me.
At Orient in the friendly, when Phillips retrieved the ball for a goal-kick, Roger Johnson was close and shouted: "Wait, Dill! Wait!" It was firmly authoritative. Both teams were shuffling into their narrow default positions, setting up on the half-way line, like stilted guests at an Edwardian wedding.
I like Johnson. He was obeying orders, ran to midfield before "Dill" actually took this goal-kick. Everybody frozen, the ball landed to Orient, because even in the fourth division our opponents jump higher than we do. We shuffled around - a flimsy pass, a deflection for a throw-in, thrown to our man who can't control the ball: it ricochets off his knee, another throw-in - and we are bogged down in a peripheral area on the wing for twenty minutes with this sheer lack of ability.
All those losing games since Kermorgant and Bradley Wright-Phillips! - us dripping around like pansies and pooftahs. We can't make the simplest triangles with each other, our star striker has crabs in his pubes and goes to St Trianian's - and we are relegated a month before even Rotherham stay up.
That is precisely why we need Roger Johnson. Guts. Fire. "Fuck off" to the manager and the fans. I would give him authority, make him captain.
At Orient in the friendly, when Phillips retrieved the ball for a goal-kick, Roger Johnson was close and shouted: "Wait, Dill! Wait!" It was firmly authoritative. Both teams were shuffling into their narrow default positions, setting up on the half-way line, like stilted guests at an Edwardian wedding.
I like Johnson. He was obeying orders, ran to midfield before "Dill" actually took this goal-kick. Everybody frozen, the ball landed to Orient, because even in the fourth division our opponents jump higher than we do. We shuffled around - a flimsy pass, a deflection for a throw-in, thrown to our man who can't control the ball: it ricochets off his knee, another throw-in - and we are bogged down in a peripheral area on the wing for twenty minutes with this sheer lack of ability.
All those losing games since Kermorgant and Bradley Wright-Phillips! - us dripping around like pansies and pooftahs. We can't make the simplest triangles with each other, our star striker has crabs in his pubes and goes to St Trianian's - and we are relegated a month before even Rotherham stay up.
That is precisely why we need Roger Johnson. Guts. Fire. "Fuck off" to the manager and the fans. I would give him authority, make him captain.
0.5% Top two ......... 12.5% 3rd-6th ......... 50% 7th-12th ......... 34% 13th-20th ........ 3% Unchartered footballing territory for Charlton as the apologists continue to lap up the freaks experiment
Get out of our club
Can't be many apologists left, surely ?
I seem to encounter a lot of them - the friends I sat with at the Valley are all renewing (and not grudgingly but because they can't see why I'm protesting)
I also met a few at Bury - which did surprise me. However, I was pleased when Roland Out chants started 2 mins after kick off.
Words fail me. At what point will these numpties notice something is wrong?
Yay, Viewfinder's back. The worse we get the more he seems to look like a visionary and the more perplexed I get at my own judgement. All I know, or think I know, is that Charlton are shit and there is no end in sight. What do they do all day at Sparrows Lane? What would Hales and Flanagan think? Why are our players standing like statues at an attacking throw-in whilst the thrower dithers and loses all attacking momentum while he ponders his share portfolio? Where are our neat passing triangles? Where are the green triangles in the quality street box? What is happening to me?
Comments
Yes midfield and attack are worrying and we are desperately in need of reinforcements but there were good signs. Holmes sounded decent good, Crofts should be a useful CDM (at least until Kashi or Diarra are fit) but will need a Cousins type energy, box to box CM alongside him. There is something to be built on. We are not gonna walk the league and I think top six is a long shot. If we do get the 4 signings Russel says he wants then I don't think we will be in any danger.
Need a minimum of 1 CM, 1 winger that can play on both wings and 1 back up striker.
Ideally I would like another CM and also a keeper so Phillips can have his loan. But that's not gonna happen.
Consider your post liked
Only the first match, but if I was a Charlton fan, unless things change a lot, I'd worry. Sorry, hope I'm wrong for you.
Shame about the thugs. Appears some of you were a bit tasty, but for a club with the smallest crowds in the division, we do have a high percentage of idiots.
Good luck for the rest of the sesson
I've been relatively impressed with the business done by Bury. Seems like you have a decent first 11. Danns will be a very good signing. Kay and Barnett should be very good at this level as well (assuming Barnett is ever fit).
poetic visioncompletely bonkersuniquely skewed take on things.It's more entertaining than the reality and altogether less depressing than the bigger picture.
Besides, there's something very Charlton about him, you wouldn't find a Viewfinder anywhere else.
And it's better than any shit I can come up with.
Oh how I miss the range of passing and vision of Sarr, Reza, Polish Pete, Anal Cock, George Millwall Miss, Simon Big Girls Blouse ......
What on earth has happened to us? Ten years ago in the Prem we beat Liverpool at The Valley. I was there, and examined our game at Orient two weeks ago: for vast periods of the 90 minutes we bumbled around in a no-man's-land of defensive midfield, slamming balls back to a hopeful clearance - wildly over-hit to a five-foot-six striker. Our keeper places the ball for a goal-kick, breathes in and out, waves the team from left to right, players troop dutifully - any imagined momentum evaporates into the ether - and the ball is received unchallenged by our opponents. This, against Orient, a minor team in a lower division.
As several posters correctly remind us on this thread, our midfield is utterly vapid: has been for years. No strength, no guts for a tackle, and - even worse - not the slightest flicker of imagination how to get round our opponents and advance. Nothing. Absent men at Bury, a team who - remember - lost 4-0 at Morecambe in their pre-season friendly.
What gets me, after 51 seasons of watching Charlton, is this supine weakness. Of course Duchatelet is an idiot - but he isn't a monster. When Carol Fraeye pitched up in his nylon shirt and O-level swimming certificate, Jackson, Solly and the seniors should have bonded and by-passed him. Fuck it! - We will play this way, and score. It's a conceit to think our academy players are blessed with a special sort of talent, a wonderful quality nurtured only in SE7. Every professional club has them. That is one of the many reasons why we lost last season, and were relegated.
I enjoy watching our opponents at The Valley: swift, accurate forward moves: all are strong, and the best have delicious cunning intelligence. Kermorgant with Reading, hanging back from a cross to head past Henderson. Then his second goal, deftly placed. And the third, his perfectly weighted pass slicing through our central defence for the striker to make it 3-0.
Our owner, our manager - and our players especially - should learn. Bury, for us fans, was not just a piss-up to Manchester in the sun. It was a pilgrimage, a homage, an act of faith. We have scored a paltry three goals in the last seven games.
Isn't it about bloody time we put it in the onion-bag?
I also met a few at Bury - which did surprise me. However, I was pleased when Roland Out chants started 2 mins after kick off.
Personally I think we could really do with a couple of technically gifted Johnnie foreigners in midfield, and I'd have Bauer and Teixeira over Lennon and Johnson every day of the week.
I'm not going to judge us either way on this game, as we haven't got the final squad yet and the first game was always going to be iffy what with the off pitch turmoil and the power struggle concerning players coming in and going out.
Saturday will be interesting, (Tuesday won't be, there's nothing interesting about playing Cheltenham on a Tuesday in a cup that no-one gives a shit about)
I like Johnson. He was conveying orders, ran to midfield before "Dill" actually took this goal-kick. Everybody frozen, the ball landed to Orient, because even in the fourth division our opponents jump higher than we do. We shuffled around - a flimsy pass, a deflection for a throw-in, thrown to our man who can't control the ball: it ricochets off his knee, another throw-in - and we are bogged down in a peripheral area on the wing for thirty minutes with this sheer lack of ability.
All those losing games since Kermorgant and Bradley Wright-Phillips! - us dripping around like pansies and pooftahs. We can't make the simplest triangles with each other, our star striker has crabs in his pubes and goes to St Trinian's - and we were relegated a month before even Rotherham stayed up.
That is precisely why we need Roger Johnson. He has guts. Fire. "Fuck off" to his manager and the fans. I would give him authority, make him captain.
Lookman and Holmes were the only players who ever put Bury on the back foot, Holmes had no support from midfield and ended up in dead ends, and Lookman came on too late when Bury were just more intent on breaking up play, doubt if we put three passing moves together in last 20 minutes.
On this display Charlton haven't got the players to compete on these terms. Bury had a rock solid bank of defenders some in the Bikey mould of shit house doors, and their midfield all knew how to put in a tackle but not employed to do much else. If we don't have the guile/pace in midfield and up front to counter this sort of set up, or (depressingly) we match up with similar players, we will follow the all too familiar pattern of relegated higher league teams going into freefall. Only hope is that this is still a "transition" period and Slade will put a team together before all is lost.
The Bury players didn't leave anything on the field, they were going down with cramp towards the end, they were clear winners, and we need to get used to what it takes to win in League 1 very quickly.
PS...if you happen to be in Heathrow T4 at the moment and see a bloke sitting on his own laughing.....that's me.
The worse we get the more he seems to look like a visionary and the more perplexed I get at my own judgement.
All I know, or think I know, is that Charlton are shit and there is no end in sight.
What do they do all day at Sparrows Lane?
What would Hales and Flanagan think?
Why are our players standing like statues at an attacking throw-in whilst the thrower dithers and loses all attacking momentum while he ponders his share portfolio?
Where are our neat passing triangles?
Where are the green triangles in the quality street box?
What is happening to me?