Another Saturday, another defeat. Starting to get a bit regular this.
Will be good to try and keep this thread loosely based to thoughts on the match. I’ll start another one on the general downturn if you want to comment on that
General downturn - it's maybe one or two games early for that. This is our second hardest fixture of the season on paper and we did ok in the second half. A couple of players are really letting us down though
Comments taken from the end of the First Half One word to describe that half ... Meh!!
We're not attacking in numbers; Magennis isnt a winger and once again we're simply hoofing the ball forwards in hope to win the second balls but whats ludicrous is we're barely challenging for the second balls in the first place - Only plus side is I'm not overly impressed with Blackburn and reckon we can still sneak a draw if they let their guard down yet do see another goal from them
Second Half Much better from Reeves who was one of the key players in ensuring the ball got forward and would like to see more of the same
Blackburn though I felt watched all the videos from our defeats; saw that we cant break teams down if they remain disciplined at the back and simply closed up for the second half (Might be partly because they had the extra game against Crewe on Wednesday) yet thats exactly what happened, likewise against Plymouth | Gillingham etc. we just cant break teams down and had no answer; Ricky Holmes not being there wouldnt have been the answer in my opinion either
We need a plan B which for me should be 4-4-2 with someone running off shoulder of the Centre Back so they can receive the pretty flick on's, our awareness for the second ball was better today yet only when it fell in front of them rather than a Charlton player needing to run in behind which was happening a good few times in turn
Will the dreaded 'R' word feature in at @oohaahmortimer 's percentages?
For me it's 7th to 12th or 13th to 20th now.
Our limitations have been exposed.
Top four / five places are assured... I still fail to see who that 6th placed team will be (Not straight away thinking it might be us)
The biggest irony is everyone has been waiting for Shrewsbury to implode yet they havent and its apparently one of the biggest budget sides at this level that have
Money counts for squat outside the Premier League!! - You need talent ALONG WITH guts | determination not just the former!!
There will be a mesh of reasons and excuses. However they were not good enough yet again in a game that was not impossible. Much better in the second half, and Leon Best was better than I expected him to be. da Silva was easily our best player, with a shout out to Pearce coming back from injury, but the result today indicates to me a poor remainder of the season, an especially poor remainder with the usual Duchatelet transfer window shenanigans. Going further, if we fail to go up, how many of the decent players we have will want to stay next season?
Our league standing will be telling in the next two weeks with 4 quick games coming up.Either we get back in it or slide down into league one purgatory.
I hope Kashi, Holmes, and Fosu are all fit for Blackpool.
I'm going to do an awful, pretensious thing where I quote myself, but sod it I'm American I don't have to have all this modesty and whatnot the rest of you all are culturally saddled with: "This is a really important time in the season for Robinson. This is really where he is going to need to spend a lot of time on the training ground with players working on their roles, their defensive shape, and their movement without the ball. It should be noted that pretty much everyone had a bad game yesterday, and that we've had a lot of injuries. But it clearly feels like we've sort of hit a brick wall. All teams go through it, good teams find a way past it. He has to get us playing more intelligently and more quickly in the final third. We have to stop lumping balls to Josh. We have to get that self-belief with the ball at our feet back."
Think this summed up the first half perfectly. In the second half, to his credit, Robinson tweaked things, shifted JFC deeper and let Aribo drive forward with the ball. But it's still that last pass, that quality with the ball, the intelligence to make a run to drag a defender out of position. Sometimes we want everything to feet in the final third and it makes us too easy to defend against.
Agree with Leuth that it's maybe 1-2 games too early to declare all-out panic, though I'm sure many will. But there are worrying signs not just that teams are stopping us scoring, all teams go through bad patches, but that we're making the same mistakes over and over again and we don't seem to have the subtly or intelligence to get ourselves out of it.
Lastly, I desperately wish Robinson had a coach on the coaching staff with more experience. It seems Bowyer and Jackson have done a good job, but both have been coaching for less than a year. This is the time of year where having an assistant who has a little bit of insight, who can tweak things a little or challenge Robinson a bit would be so helpful.
Our league standing will be telling in the next two weeks with 4 quick games coming up.Either we get back in it or slide down into league one purgatory.
Next week against Blackpool is a must win match. Their form is as bad as ours
Just leaving. Luckily I only live an hour away across the Yorkshire border.
First half we were awful. We can't do anything with possession in the final third and struggle to create clear cut chances. Play in the first half was too slow and unimaginative. No pace, no movement and too predictable. And boring.
Second half was better, felt like it was all us, all the possession but again, did nothing with it. Did we have a shot on target? I can't remember one. We're really struggling to create chances because the build up is too slow, the support isn't there and we overplay it.
Some really good team moves, Reeves, Marshall and Solly keeping them ticking over only for Magennis to let them down and give it away. He was terrible today. I don't know why Robinson took Marshall off and not Magennis. Drop him and start Best.
Fair play to anyone who went, I was hopeful when I saw Pearce in the team but it wasn't to be. We turned it round after a stumble in September but it's looking pretty jaded st the moment.
Most if not all of our problems stem from Robinson. Now his weaknesses are really starting to show.
In the summer he decided that his limited transfer budget would be solely spent on midfield players. He brought. In Marshall, Reeves, Clarke and Fosu.
Importantly despite virtually every fan knowing that we were chronically short of Strikers, Robinson decided that Magennis and Lee. Novak would be our forwards. However at 5.00pm on transfer deadline day he allows Novak to leave and join Scunthorpe, without having a replacement for him in place. At 10.00pm he signs Dodoo who must rank as one of the worst players ever to pull on a Charlton shirt, We are in crisis and cannot score goals but Dodoo is so bad that hasn’t appeared on the pitch for weeks.
Now for Reeves. Today 1 week from Christmas is the first time this season that Reeves has completed 90 minutes on the pitch. What a waste of money he has been.
A lack of a plan B, I could go on and on.
In my opinion Robinson has taken this team as far as he can and although I don’t like to keep changing managers iI think it is now time for Robinson to go.
Most if not all of our problems stem from Robinson. Now his weaknesses are really starting to show.
In the summer he decided that his limited transfer budget would be solely spent on midfield players. He brought. In Marshall, Reeves, Clarke and Fosu.
Importantly despite virtually every fan knowing that we were chronically short of Strikers, Robinson decided that Magennis and Lee. Novak would be our forwards. However at 5.00pm on transfer deadline day he allows Novak to leave and join Scunthorpe, without having a replacement for him in place. At 10.00pm he signs Dodoo who must rank as one of the worst players ever to pull on a Charlton shirt, We are in crisis and cannot score goals but Dodoo is so bad that hasn’t appeared on the pitch for weeks.
Now for Reeves. Today 1 week from Christmas is the first time this season that Reeves has completed 90 minutes on the pitch. What a waste of money he has been.
A lack of a plan B, I could go on and on.
In my opinion Robinson has taken this team as far as he can and although I don’t like to keep changing managers iI think it is now time for Robinson to go.
With this clown in charge we are fucked!
Like I said, I've seen better managers sucking on a slug pellet.
Comments
11 shots/ 5 on target
And yet Blackburn only had 2 shots on target - yet scored 2 goals (including the og)
No point dominating play if you can't put the ball in the net.
Worrying that we didn't score again, 3 defeats in 4 matches with no goals scored.
Worrying times for us I think
16 total goals
Scored only 1 goal in 5 matches
Scored no goals in 5 matches
In 2/3 of our matches in the last three months, we have scored 1 or 0. Ain't making the playoffs like that!
BTW, Palace have scored 16 goals in their last 12 matches.
For me it's 7th to 12th or 13th to 20th now.
Our limitations have been exposed.
Let’s play Magennis again, the least effective striker the club has had since Pawel Abbott
One word to describe that half ... Meh!!
We're not attacking in numbers; Magennis isnt a winger and once again we're simply hoofing the ball forwards in hope to win the second balls but whats ludicrous is we're barely challenging for the second balls in the first place - Only plus side is I'm not overly impressed with Blackburn and reckon we can still sneak a draw if they let their guard down yet do see another goal from them
Second Half
Much better from Reeves who was one of the key players in ensuring the ball got forward and would like to see more of the same
Blackburn though I felt watched all the videos from our defeats; saw that we cant break teams down if they remain disciplined at the back and simply closed up for the second half (Might be partly because they had the extra game against Crewe on Wednesday) yet thats exactly what happened, likewise against Plymouth | Gillingham etc. we just cant break teams down and had no answer; Ricky Holmes not being there wouldnt have been the answer in my opinion either
We need a plan B which for me should be 4-4-2 with someone running off shoulder of the Centre Back so they can receive the pretty flick on's, our awareness for the second ball was better today yet only when it fell in front of them rather than a Charlton player needing to run in behind which was happening a good few times in turn
The biggest irony is everyone has been waiting for Shrewsbury to implode yet they havent and its apparently one of the biggest budget sides at this level that have
Money counts for squat outside the Premier League!! - You need talent ALONG WITH guts | determination not just the former!!
There will be a mesh of reasons and excuses.
However they were not good enough yet again in a game that was not impossible.
Much better in the second half, and Leon Best was better than I expected him to be.
da Silva was easily our best player, with a shout out to Pearce coming back from injury, but the result today indicates to me a poor remainder of the season, an especially poor remainder with the usual Duchatelet transfer window shenanigans.
Going further, if we fail to go up, how many of the decent players we have will want to stay next season?
We are so predictable I should be able to earn a living betting on us.
I'm going to do an awful, pretensious thing where I quote myself, but sod it I'm American I don't have to have all this modesty and whatnot the rest of you all are culturally saddled with:
"This is a really important time in the season for Robinson. This is really where he is going to need to spend a lot of time on the training ground with players working on their roles, their defensive shape, and their movement without the ball. It should be noted that pretty much everyone had a bad game yesterday, and that we've had a lot of injuries. But it clearly feels like we've sort of hit a brick wall. All teams go through it, good teams find a way past it. He has to get us playing more intelligently and more quickly in the final third. We have to stop lumping balls to Josh. We have to get that self-belief with the ball at our feet back."
Think this summed up the first half perfectly. In the second half, to his credit, Robinson tweaked things, shifted JFC deeper and let Aribo drive forward with the ball. But it's still that last pass, that quality with the ball, the intelligence to make a run to drag a defender out of position. Sometimes we want everything to feet in the final third and it makes us too easy to defend against.
Agree with Leuth that it's maybe 1-2 games too early to declare all-out panic, though I'm sure many will. But there are worrying signs not just that teams are stopping us scoring, all teams go through bad patches, but that we're making the same mistakes over and over again and we don't seem to have the subtly or intelligence to get ourselves out of it.
Lastly, I desperately wish Robinson had a coach on the coaching staff with more experience. It seems Bowyer and Jackson have done a good job, but both have been coaching for less than a year. This is the time of year where having an assistant who has a little bit of insight, who can tweak things a little or challenge Robinson a bit would be so helpful.
First half we were awful. We can't do anything with possession in the final third and struggle to create clear cut chances. Play in the first half was too slow and unimaginative. No pace, no movement and too predictable. And boring.
Second half was better, felt like it was all us, all the possession but again, did nothing with it. Did we have a shot on target? I can't remember one. We're really struggling to create chances because the build up is too slow, the support isn't there and we overplay it.
Some really good team moves, Reeves, Marshall and Solly keeping them ticking over only for Magennis to let them down and give it away. He was terrible today. I don't know why Robinson took Marshall off and not Magennis. Drop him and start Best.
Unless we sign someone to convert the chances we are creating nothing will change
In the summer he decided that his limited transfer budget would be solely spent on midfield players. He brought. In Marshall, Reeves, Clarke and Fosu.
Importantly despite virtually every fan knowing that we were chronically short of Strikers, Robinson decided that Magennis and Lee. Novak would be our forwards.
However at 5.00pm on transfer deadline day he allows Novak to leave and join Scunthorpe, without having a replacement for him in place.
At 10.00pm he signs Dodoo who must rank as one of the worst players ever to pull on a Charlton shirt,
We are in crisis and cannot score goals but Dodoo is so bad that hasn’t appeared on the pitch for weeks.
Now for Reeves.
Today 1 week from Christmas is the first time this season that Reeves has completed 90 minutes on the pitch. What a waste of money he has been.
A lack of a plan B, I could go on and on.
In my opinion Robinson has taken this team as far as he can and although I don’t like to keep changing managers iI think it is now time for Robinson to go.
With this clown in charge we are fucked!