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Post-Match Thread | Charlton Athletic v Cheltenham Town | 11/09/21

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    Now let's look at Curbs. What I feel was a great quality amongst many qualities was his ability, like Powell to see what needed doing and do it. So players were brought in that improved us season on season and he could be ruthless about it which is a sign of a winner IMO. It was a slower way of achieving success than Powell's but it was a more challenging one given that the target was the premier League.

    The Curbs era wasn't gradual progression upwards though, there were dips along the way before 97/98. 96/97 was pretty poor.

    91/92 - great success under rookies Gritt and Curbs
    92/93 - great success until we had to sell players, then average
    93/94 - great success until we lost at Old Trafford, then a massive end of season slump
    94/95 - average despite finally having a goalscorer in Whyte, and Murray changed things at the end by removing Gritt - the "Left Foot Forward" season
    95/96 - successful under Curbs and Les Reed, but we slightly ran out of steam at the end - the "Bowyer season"
    96/97 - pretty disappointing as the team struggled to cope after losing Bowyer, we were nearer relegation than promotion; signing Kinsella eventually was the best thing really

    The things is that promotion from the Championship for a club our size is an aspiration, rather than an expectation, whereas in L1 it's much more of an expectation.
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    edited September 2021
    Taylor and Leko looked decent in the Championship. No reason why Stockley and Leko won't. I would prefer proper wing backs and a holding midfielder sitting in front of the defence, but we have spent a lot of money on wide players and so your central midfield has to be spot on. Watson and Morgan is not the answer and never will be with the formation and personnel we have. Clare isn't either IMO,
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    Croydon said:
    I was pretty pissed off on saturday(like the rest of you).But the worst thing to me was,the total lack of effort from Kirk and DJ in helping out our full backs,time after time on both sides,they were esposed to a wave of attackers.Neither full back had the best of games but surely a helping hand would not have gone amiss.In contrast,Leeds v Liverpool,Game won,Leeds 10 men,Mo Salah,back in his own half helping out his colleagues,if the top players are not afraid to get their hands dirty,why not ours.
    DJ is a dud. 3 good runs against MK Dons, but has offered very little else since he's been here.
    He needs to improve but our awful central midfield really doesn’t help him. They need to be capable of:

    - winning the ball
    - covering runs forward with by the full backs
    - keeping possession
    - starting attacks
    - scoring a few goals

    No combination in the league so far has done any of those things to the required standard.

    Central midfield is so important, what chance does the rest of the team have?

    Really hope Arter starts on Saturday and makes an instant impact and Gilbey isn’t far behind.
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    Richard J said:
    I think that the Adkins Out noises are premature.My own view is that he needs two seasons before the axe should fall.

    I agree that in L1 a Play Off place is expected . I see last season's failure as Bowyer rather than Nige. Sacking him after ten games would be ridiculous. 

    I suspect that Jackson is being groomed to be his successor , but if Nigel did get dumped then an older head is more likely to be appointed. 
    I usually agree with a lot of what you post Richard J .. BUT two more SEASONS under Adkins ??? .. that could see us on the brink of the National League .. personally, I wouldn't give him 2 more games.
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    Taylor and Leko looked decent in the Championship. No reason why Stockley and Leko won't. I would prefer proper wing backs and a holding midfielder sitting in front of the defence, but we have spent a lot of money on wide players and so your central midfield has to be spot on. Watson and Morgan is not the answer and never will be with the formation and personnel we have. Clare isn't either IMO,
    Taylor was a lot more mobile than Stockley. We need to get Stockley to start pulling the CB's out of position to make space for others. 
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    Croydon said:
    I was pretty pissed off on saturday(like the rest of you).But the worst thing to me was,the total lack of effort from Kirk and DJ in helping out our full backs,time after time on both sides,they were esposed to a wave of attackers.Neither full back had the best of games but surely a helping hand would not have gone amiss.In contrast,Leeds v Liverpool,Game won,Leeds 10 men,Mo Salah,back in his own half helping out his colleagues,if the top players are not afraid to get their hands dirty,why not ours.
    DJ is a dud. 3 good runs against MK Dons, but has offered very little else since he's been here.
    It has p***ed me off how much stick our full backs got given how little cover DJ and Kirk gave. It was pretty obvious early on this was happening and Cheltenham were free to get crosses in with little pressure.

    I do wonder what our tactics are?
    Exactly my point,our backs get stick for not overlapping,but how can they when they know there will be no cover,I would get hold of Blackett Taylor and say,your in for the next  3 games show me what you can do.
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    Taylor and Leko looked decent in the Championship. No reason why Stockley and Leko won't. I would prefer proper wing backs and a holding midfielder sitting in front of the defence, but we have spent a lot of money on wide players and so your central midfield has to be spot on. Watson and Morgan is not the answer and never will be with the formation and personnel we have. Clare isn't either IMO,
    Taylor was a lot more mobile than Stockley. We need to get Stockley to start pulling the CB's out of position to make space for others. 
    Space for who? 

    No-one moves.
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    I believe that cross was Matthews unless mistaken. 

    The problem is, we don't have time to constantly rearrange the midfield so it will click for one player, even if homegrown or grown in Crystal Palace.
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    felix_31 said:
    Just watched highlights back and I think it is worth mentioning that Morgan put the ball on a plate for Stockley (should have scored) from a cross from the right and it was his inch perfect pass to Washington (incredible touch and control) who assisted for Leko. I'm not saying he had a great game but his passing makes things happen, I think he had come in for a lot of unfair criticism. I think with the right midfield partner (hopefully After, maybe another in a diamond or something similar) the middle will click with him in it.
    The highlights of misplaced passes would probably run a lot longer.

    I appreciate people are desperately trying to cling on to him being a good player but he just isn't. 


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    Belv said:
    felix_31 said:
    Just watched highlights back and I think it is worth mentioning that Morgan put the ball on a plate for Stockley (should have scored) from a cross from the right and it was his inch perfect pass to Washington (incredible touch and control) who assisted for Leko. I'm not saying he had a great game but his passing makes things happen, I think he had come in for a lot of unfair criticism. I think with the right midfield partner (hopefully After, maybe another in a diamond or something similar) the middle will click with him in it.
    The highlights of misplaced passes would probably run a lot longer.

    I appreciate people are desperately trying to cling on to him being a good player but he just isn't. 


    I understand that, I did watch the game - however football is a low-scoring game, passes like that lead to goals which win games. They won't all come off, but when they do, they make a difference. I'm not clinging on to him and I'm definitely not desperate, I'm looking at the evidence. In sport you have try, and if you fail, try again etc. 
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    mendonca said:
    I believe that cross was Matthews unless mistaken. 

    The problem is, we don't have time to constantly rearrange the midfield so it will click for one player, even if homegrown or grown in Crystal Palace.
    It was Morgan
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    mendonca said:
    I believe that cross was Matthews unless mistaken. 

    The problem is, we don't have time to constantly rearrange the midfield so it will click for one player, even if homegrown or grown in Crystal Palace.
    Nope definitely Morgan. Go to 1:20 on the sky sports highlights. Stockely should have scored. Matthews was shite all game, took an age to pass the ball forward 
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    edited September 2021
    Just seen it was Morgan - good whipped cross. I gave Matthews (some) credit thinking it was him at the game.

    A few too many players have no identity and game plan.
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    Morgan can deliver quality balls but he can't do so reliably at the moment. 
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    Clarky said:
    mendonca said:
    Without being too scientific, the main difference between this game and one last season:

    Aneke

    He would have come on as a sub once we'd pulled the first goal back, driven us forward and out-beefed their lumps and I would put my money on it being 2-2 or 3-2 as suddenly midfield runners have confidence to join attacks. Quite sad but true imo.
    The trouble with Aneke is he chose to fuck off.
    The question I have in relation to that was how hard we tried to keep him. I don't know but it was all very hush hush and then he went. Whether we could have done more or not, he was a key loss not just in terms of the goals we lost but the direction of the club.

    People will decry the strength of the squad last season, but we had a basis for a top two push when we ended it. Sure, we lost a couple of key players to illness/ injury and another left but we were playing catch up from that point. It isn't impossible that we won't catch up, but we have certainly made it a lot harder for ourselves.

    And I think what Masicat has said makes some sense, so maybe we haven't got that all pulling together vibe that we had under Curbs and Powell. Adkins needs a bit of time to sort it out but he needs to sort it out. I am not interested in the bollocks he talks to fans, and that isn't a criticism because all I am interested in is what I see on the pitch.
    I am not denying Aneke is a loss but it is time we moved on, he has gone and that's that. People banging on that he hasn't been replaced is tiresome as you can't replace a player who scores 15 goals from the bench, besides I am still waiting for Taylor to be replaced who is a bigger loss and scored more.
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    But we lost Taylor long before Aneke. It isn't Aneke per se, it is just we had a squad at the end of last season which was borderline automatic promotion quality. It isn't always possible, but surely you try to improve on that rather than throw important chunks of it away. I have acknowledged that illness and injury is something that hasn't helped either.

    Given that we possibly couldn't have kept Aneke, where were the goals we lost being put back in? And Goals we lost from Gilbey and JFC too! And that could have been in different positions. We seemed to hope that players that throughout their careers have shown they are goal a season merchants would suddenly find the net. Even now, some people are calling for Clare to come in!
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    DOUCHER said:
    Went there saturday expecting to see us win comfortably - first half was probably as bad as i have ever seen. Don't want to see Watson or Gunter in that team again unless its an absolute emergency. Jaysemi and Kirk need dropping - passengers, the pair of them. Leko and Washington need to start. I like Lee. Stockley needs a strike partner and i'd say that should be Leko. We need a plan b though coz when stockley gets bossed like he did saturday, he might as well be subbed off. For the occassional hollywood ball morgan does, there is so much else missing from his game, i'd be happy not to see him feature for a while. Hopefully Arter can start next game, possibly with Dobson. If Arter does the business, we might just be able to turn this crap around - if he is no use either then i think its game over for the season and a thorough inquest into our recruitment needs to be undertaken coz we can't repeat this again. I feel sorry for TS - he deserves better.       
    Hard to judge players until the tactics are sorted.
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    DOUCHER said:
    Went there saturday expecting to see us win comfortably - first half was probably as bad as i have ever seen. Don't want to see Watson or Gunter in that team again unless its an absolute emergency. Jaysemi and Kirk need dropping - passengers, the pair of them. Leko and Washington need to start. I like Lee. Stockley needs a strike partner and i'd say that should be Leko. We need a plan b though coz when stockley gets bossed like he did saturday, he might as well be subbed off. For the occassional hollywood ball morgan does, there is so much else missing from his game, i'd be happy not to see him feature for a while. Hopefully Arter can start next game, possibly with Dobson. If Arter does the business, we might just be able to turn this crap around - if he is no use either then i think its game over for the season and a thorough inquest into our recruitment needs to be undertaken coz we can't repeat this again. I feel sorry for TS - he deserves better.       
    Hard to judge players until the tactics are sorted.
    Agree partly, but we can judge a lack of effort, a lack of doing the basics, like stopping a cross, or tracking a man... Stuff that a certain section of this group have been doing for two seasons or more now. 
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    Chunes said:
    DOUCHER said:
    Went there saturday expecting to see us win comfortably - first half was probably as bad as i have ever seen. Don't want to see Watson or Gunter in that team again unless its an absolute emergency. Jaysemi and Kirk need dropping - passengers, the pair of them. Leko and Washington need to start. I like Lee. Stockley needs a strike partner and i'd say that should be Leko. We need a plan b though coz when stockley gets bossed like he did saturday, he might as well be subbed off. For the occassional hollywood ball morgan does, there is so much else missing from his game, i'd be happy not to see him feature for a while. Hopefully Arter can start next game, possibly with Dobson. If Arter does the business, we might just be able to turn this crap around - if he is no use either then i think its game over for the season and a thorough inquest into our recruitment needs to be undertaken coz we can't repeat this again. I feel sorry for TS - he deserves better.       
    Hard to judge players until the tactics are sorted.
    Agree partly, but we can judge a lack of effort, a lack of doing the basics, like stopping a cross, or tracking a man... Stuff that a certain section of this group have been doing for two seasons or more now. 
    DJ and Kirk weren't tracking back - tactics or lack of effort?

    We looked very disjointed on Saturday and I'm sure this team can do better. Not all our signings can be duds... 
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    I think if Adkins has got anything about him he’ll make changes to personnel and the line up on Sat 

    Mac

    Matthews Lavelle Famewo Souare (if fit)

    Leko Clare Lee Blackett Taylor 

    Stockley Washington 

    Be good to see him shake it up and let the players know if they aren’t up to it they’ll be dropped 

    I’m sure he’ll probably do something more like 

    Mac

    Matthews Lavelle Famewo Gunter 

    Morgan Watson Lee 

    Washington Stockley Leko

    and revert back to the 4-3-3 or whatever it is he prefers 

    The other thing I wanted to point out, was that I am beginning to think that 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 type formations are only really for the top teams.  In all honesty, I don’t think teams/players at League one level are good enough to adopt anything other than 4-4-2.  I am sure there are teams that get promoted that can play in more modern formations, but for the majority of league one and two teams, I think 4-4-2 is the most they are capable of playing in effectively 
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    edited September 2021
    Relationships and link up play is paramount and without it, mediocre opposition in League1 will just play through you and around you and without having Midfielders to link all the positions, you are screwed. 
    It really isn't rocket science, but we had too passengers in that 1st half and a bold manager would have made a tactical switch before the 2nd goal went in. You can't have Kirk and DJ both wide when your midfield are being over ran.

    @Cafc43v3r you had a good little dig at me last week about "mates in the park", You are correct in many ways. Interesting you are now saying my mantra about formations mean nothing if you can't link the play up.

    Well grass routes is where I started my love affair with Football (didn't everyone ?) 
    But talking football tactics with academy pro coaches from Man City, *( the guy started at my local club) to the head coach and owner of a successful Foundation in South London, who is waiting for his 50th young player to sign a Pro deal soon; two lads are near to getting a deal with Championship and top Scottish Premier. (Amazing amount of hoops to get through) Joe Aribo, Joe Maja, Norrington-Davies, Kwendo Baah, all came through. Deji Elerewe confirmed on Saturday with me that he was only in the foundation for 3 months as Charlton got in quick. 

    I was at Charlton Saturday and watched the inept 1st half by Cafc, and after Leko came on a bit of energy came to the side 2nd half but the damage had been done, and an FA vase game yesterday where the Kent side midfield dominated the game and dovetailed with Forwards, attacking full backs, and being step 5, the execution of the moves break down on many occasions but over the 90 + minutes you can see the plan. Kent winning in Essex 3-1 is always sweet even if the drinking on the coach with many new players singing their initiation song may not be a good idea 48 hours before a League match to stay top of the table !
    That's Part time football and why the Ex Palace defender, Millwall strikers in their mid 20's enjoy the craic (they miss the full time money !) The 18 year old attacking midfielder released by Cafc at 15 (after 5 years) is tea total as still hoping to make it. 

    *The guy doesn't give much away about Man City other than you have to be an athlete as well as top skills to make it at the UAE club in England. High performance is demanded by Pep at all ages and the sports science is racked up each year the academy scholars go up to the next year. Man City are just more stringent than most clubs when it's comes to medicals. 

    No drinking on the Coach at City games.
    I just can't imagine Raheen Stirling drinking Stella and Singing a Bob Marley song after a victory !
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    We've filled our squad with wingers, but I'm starting to wonder if we can afford to have 2 lightweight wingers in our 4231/433 formation, and whether we'd be better playing a Powell style 442, but with one just one winger and a more defensive wide midfielder on the other side. 

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    edited September 2021
    Chunes said:
    DOUCHER said:
    Went there saturday expecting to see us win comfortably - first half was probably as bad as i have ever seen. Don't want to see Watson or Gunter in that team again unless its an absolute emergency. Jaysemi and Kirk need dropping - passengers, the pair of them. Leko and Washington need to start. I like Lee. Stockley needs a strike partner and i'd say that should be Leko. We need a plan b though coz when stockley gets bossed like he did saturday, he might as well be subbed off. For the occassional hollywood ball morgan does, there is so much else missing from his game, i'd be happy not to see him feature for a while. Hopefully Arter can start next game, possibly with Dobson. If Arter does the business, we might just be able to turn this crap around - if he is no use either then i think its game over for the season and a thorough inquest into our recruitment needs to be undertaken coz we can't repeat this again. I feel sorry for TS - he deserves better.       
    Hard to judge players until the tactics are sorted.
    Agree partly, but we can judge a lack of effort, a lack of doing the basics, like stopping a cross, or tracking a man... Stuff that a certain section of this group have been doing for two seasons or more now. 
    DJ and Kirk weren't tracking back - tactics or lack of effort?

    We looked very disjointed on Saturday and I'm sure this team can do better. Not all our signings can be duds... 
    Curbs commented before the Crewe game that our wingers are a luxury and aren't doing a job if not tracking back. He was explicit that to have these players in that position they MUST track back, but time and time again, both wingers failed to help out the defence. Adkins and his team are so called Super-analysts, so surely they can see that these players are not doing as instructed. 

    I was delighted that for the first time this season (following a loss) Adkins has come out post-match and word for word reiterated the points made by Curbs and Minto etc. Nothing makes my blood boil more that a manager that refuses to say what is really going on.

    Adkins has previously said that there is a great atmosphere in the camp, but again there were 11 strangers on that pitch and I wonder if they really want to get to know each other. The way they accused everyone else of being at fault (during an injury break) speaks volumes. 
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    Belv said:
    Taylor and Leko looked decent in the Championship. No reason why Stockley and Leko won't. I would prefer proper wing backs and a holding midfielder sitting in front of the defence, but we have spent a lot of money on wide players and so your central midfield has to be spot on. Watson and Morgan is not the answer and never will be with the formation and personnel we have. Clare isn't either IMO,
    Taylor was a lot more mobile than Stockley. We need to get Stockley to start pulling the CB's out of position to make space for others. 
    Space for who? 

    No-one moves.
    Against Cheltenham we were like statues , but Vs Crewe we had good movement. 

    I would hope that going forwards we are a lot busier making runs into the spaces that Stockley can create.
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    Belv said:
    Taylor and Leko looked decent in the Championship. No reason why Stockley and Leko won't. I would prefer proper wing backs and a holding midfielder sitting in front of the defence, but we have spent a lot of money on wide players and so your central midfield has to be spot on. Watson and Morgan is not the answer and never will be with the formation and personnel we have. Clare isn't either IMO,
    Taylor was a lot more mobile than Stockley. We need to get Stockley to start pulling the CB's out of position to make space for others. 
    Space for who? 

    No-one moves.
    Against Cheltenham we were like statues , but Vs Crewe we had good movement. 

    I would hope that going forwards we are a lot busier making runs into the spaces that Stockley can create.
    We're in L1 and we're making basic errors in terms of tactics - that's what I find most worrying. We shouldn't be getting overrun by Cheltenham - this was purely down to the way we were setup rather than the players we have.

    It was pretty obvious inside 10 minutes we were being overrun yet we didn't make changes. Lucky to be 2-0 down at half time.

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    Belv said:
    Taylor and Leko looked decent in the Championship. No reason why Stockley and Leko won't. I would prefer proper wing backs and a holding midfielder sitting in front of the defence, but we have spent a lot of money on wide players and so your central midfield has to be spot on. Watson and Morgan is not the answer and never will be with the formation and personnel we have. Clare isn't either IMO,
    Taylor was a lot more mobile than Stockley. We need to get Stockley to start pulling the CB's out of position to make space for others. 
    Space for who? 

    No-one moves.
    Leko moves. That was one of the major differences when he came on. Running across their back four, pulling them all over the shop. Think he was disappointed when his runs didn’t result in players passing to him, or playing through balls. He made a difference, and gave us the sliver of hope that we always seem to get when things are looking bleak. 
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    In the cold light of day …. As pissed off as I was on Saturday, I still think there’s a long way to go and the season is far from over. With the right tactics and the right formation, we still have a squad that’s capable of at least getting into the play offs. What we need is the right players, in the right positions doing the right jobs. That means no Gunter at left back, PS looked more than better in his cameo. Washington up front in a 442 with Leko out wide. Once Arter is up to speed, he needs to be in the centre with Elliot Lee and give Blackett-Taylor a go. He looked more than useful against Crawley. Let’s not panic. We’ve got some big games coming up and it’s still all to play for COYR
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