I feel like the 'move Clare to midfield' thing is the same as how highly rated players become when they're injured or have left. Inniss was basically Cannavaro when he was hurt, you'd swear Conor Washington had scored 50 goals in 6 games for us the way he's mooned over, and Chuks is never more lethal than when he's sat down recovering. The reality is we signed Clare with the specific intention of playing him in midfield and he was terrible. You can't really legislate for how bad a three of him, Dobson and Albie as 10 was but it even made Dobson look rubbish. We didn't win a single league match where Clare played in central midfield and while the whole team was awful around then, he was a contributor to why that was. It's notable that every manager since then has seen the value of Dobson in the middle, or even Albie playing deeper, but never Clare.
I just think Clare isn't able to read a game that's happening around him. When it's all in front of him and he just has to run or tackle he's a good player. He's athletic, he's not bad on the ball and he has an eye for an intelligent overlapping run. He falls apart on the second phase though. We saw him lose his marker for Pompey's goal because he'd gone to sleep after the initial ball, and I think I lost a year of my life getting angry at him being unable to protect the corridor between him and the RWB when he played at CB for us. Most of the goals scored against us came through that gap and he wasn't ever able to adjust and react. When the ball turns over or there's any kind of off the ball movement from attacking opposition players he may as well be a scarecrow. Now transfer that to midfield, where the game constantly moves around you and you have to adjust every second to what's happening around you. All you'll get is him using that great engine to trail behind attackers moving in on goal. There's a reason we more or less got him handed to us by Oxford; he didn't want to play right back and a team looking to win promotion isn't having him in midfield.
Excellent assessment, as I said he hasn't got a football brain.
Too slow to react, leaves players unmarked, doesn't get tight enough.
He's decent when he can charge forward without too much thinking.
Connor Wickham anyone? Just left FGR and has scored 9 goals in 20 games.
That's interesting, I hadn't realised he'd left FGR. Doesn't seem to have played for a few weeks though
Looking at the reaction of their fans it seems to have been a mutual exchange - he needed fitness and they needed a striker. Fans seem confident he'll be moving on to a bigger club.
Connor Wickham anyone? Just left FGR and has scored 9 goals in 20 games.
That's interesting, I hadn't realised he'd left FGR. Doesn't seem to have played for a few weeks though
Looking at the reaction of their fans it seems to have been a mutual exchange - he needed fitness and they needed a striker. Fans seem confident he'll be moving on to a bigger club.
He's been injury free for FGR, but you can guarantee that within 5 minutes of his first game for us he'll break down,
Connor Wickham anyone? Just left FGR and has scored 9 goals in 20 games.
That's interesting, I hadn't realised he'd left FGR. Doesn't seem to have played for a few weeks though
Looking at the reaction of their fans it seems to have been a mutual exchange - he needed fitness and they needed a striker. Fans seem confident he'll be moving on to a bigger club.
He's been injury free for FGR, but you can guarantee that within 5 minutes of his first game for us he'll break down,
Chuks and Connor making eye contact in the physio room, April 2023.
Allowed? Sounds like legally binding confidentiality agreement between some ghost person and Sam Wheatland. Is it best to say nothing if you’re not ‘allowed’ to say something?
What’s the bad thing that happens if something is said anyway? Speaking personally my stance is ‘don’t tell me or don’t write it to me, I will try to figure things out for myself’. I can keep a confidence, but only on terms I accept and agree to, not because some force out there decides for me what I should or shouldn’t reveal. Would it be better to say something like ‘I have decided to say no more for my own reasons, not because of some external constraint’?
I think it's quite obvious that his "source" has given him info, but asked him to keep the players names quiet.
Yes of course. So in that context why say anything at all? Is it some convoluted way of engendering hopefulness in a hopeless situation?
In what possible sense is it convoluted? It couldn't be more simple; tell people there's something good on the horizon without revealing too much. By not revealing too much you keep your source happy, and by doing that you can get more information in the future. If he's made it up then he's a weirdo, we can't control that. If not then we know more than we did before. I wonder if other football fans are so hostile to the concept of leaks or if it's just a Charlton thing?
Connor Wickham anyone? Just left FGR and has scored 9 goals in 20 games.
That's interesting, I hadn't realised he'd left FGR. Doesn't seem to have played for a few weeks though
Would be a very good signing, heard a podcast the other day and he was interviewed, he said it is the fittest he has been in his career, and playing the best so far. Having said that, we can soon turn that record around for him
Comments
Too slow to react, leaves players unmarked, doesn't get tight enough.
He's decent when he can charge forward without too much thinking.
CDM - Steve Brown
CM - Alan Curbishley
LB - Scott Minto
Replaced on Charlton TV by Thomas Sandgaard, Raelynn and Martin
Morgan Fox is far far too good for us
Chuks and Connor making eye contact in the physio room, April 2023.
Britain's Got Talent?!
One is definitely Leko.
He could sing for his supper.
(Subject to medical)