Thing is Methven has hoodwinked the owners. He’s told them the club just needs to be run properly by a professional SMT and we’ll get promoted. No need for silly money. So no new funds are incoming, a budget has been set and we’ll get two more quality first team players, and a few kids on loan. This is what Methven ownership looks like. Pretty much the same as TS.
Holden still not addressed the main problem and that is wingers who can cross the ball .. loads of good positions we got into and wasted .. no point in a new striker if we can’t get the ball in .. Dobson miss in 99 th was poor yet there was people clapping him if that had been Payne or Kirk would they have clapped ?? Ref was awful another red card missed and the handball in the 99 th min ..
but today was down to Holden he let PV crowd mid and them really feed Asiimwe to the wolfs the kid was shot after 35 mins why he kept him on ???? Poor management
Funnily enough the one time CBT went wide right he delivered the cross for Kanu's equaliser - playing him as an inverted winger on the left means he is always trying to cut in on his right and PV sussed that out eventually and closed him down. Me I'm just an old fashioned 442 man who wants a left footer on the left and a right footer on the right to cross the ball into the box.
All these modern fluid formations might work well at the top level but with a bunch of kids and useless third div players you are better off going back to basics with a solid formation where everyone knows their role.
I feel so.sorry for Assimwe. He was our best player by some distance and ran his heart out. Why in.God's name was he left one on one with their fresh sub when he was clearly knackered?
We risk destroying the confidence of our best young players if this fiasco continues.
Because the arseholes in charge chose to sell our only other right back without getting a replacement so there were no full backs or players capable of playing at full back on the bench - criminal lack of squad depth but why am I surprised when it happens every season.
a) We're not fit enough. Holden promised that they would be the fittest they've ever been, but that's clearly not the case. And because we signed unfit players, we're 2 weeks into the season, and many are still nowhere near 100%. b) Our defence is a mess, whether individually or as a unit. We seem to play a different combination of CBs each game, whether in a 2 or a 3, and still don't seem to have the right blend.
Anybody focusing on the three kids, Dobson or CBT after today needs their head checking, if the rest of the team performed to their level then we would not only have 3pts on the board so far this season.
Port Vale looked a physically stronger side, but devoid of any quality. When we scored I thought that was it, because they couldn't just sit back in their low block. It did force them to play out, but we totally failed to capitalise and instead let them grow into the game.
To me, that looked like a mentality issue. We took our foot off the gas, and the moment Vale scored their two goals in quick succession, the foot was immediately put straight back onto the pedal, and once again we looked the much more dominant team.
That is not fecking good enough. The team should be motivated for ninety minutes. For the past few seasons I've watched Charlton teams who seem to think winning should be easy. They go a goal up and then ease off. Or they go a goal down and fail to come back and win for what.... two years or something. What I can't understand, is so many players have come and gone, and yet this mentality prevails. Where is it coming from?
I was looking at some fascinating stats yesterday about Ipswich & Plymouth's promotion-winning seasons last year. They both had clean sheets in around 50% of their games. (Ours was around 21%). So in order to get anywhere near the top, we need to improve our defensive record by more than 2x.
We've signed Jones, who looks OK, but absolutely not like a gamechanger or dominant defensive force.
We've kept Hector, who is reminding me of Adam Matthews - goes hunting for a new club in the off-season, and then returns, unfocused, wishing he was somewhere else.
Where is this 2x defensive improvement coming from? I can't see that it's coming from anywhere. And for as long as we continue to ship goals every game (5 goals in 2 home games), we are going to have another midtable season, at best.
Hamilton Bohannon's "Let's start the dance again" sums it up for me. "It's not a question of getting down, but actually how low you can go." For youngsters on here, look it up. Tune (of it's day)
Great tune!
I'll be scouring some Gil Scott-Heron lyrics next for some pearls 😉
My best friend is a Leeds fan who have the San Francisco 49's as the main shareholder and there issues are almost the same as ours...
There new owners have said nothing for over 5 weeks whilst a shitstorm has raged around the club. No word on any new players and last night was frustrating as even with a severity weakened team and only 5 outfield subs they were all over WBA for much of the game but just lack quality everywhere. They can’t see where a win will come from with there remnant of a squad and he thinks the Board can survive on a few talented players. It's uncanny and worrying, two great clubs, with dreadful takeovers and no lessons learnt from previous seasons.
I predicted 8th spot. Think I might have over cooked it a bit. Feel for those there today. Got an invite and decided to come to visit poorly family. I chose right.
Words, when they come from Holden are futile right now. His talking needs to be done on the pitch. But if he has any balls, hell call out the owners and say that this squad is where it should be. Anything better, will require better players. End of discussion!
Holden still not addressed the main problem and that is wingers who can cross the ball .. loads of good positions we got into and wasted .. no point in a new striker if we can’t get the ball in .. Dobson miss in 99 th was poor yet there was people clapping him if that had been Payne or Kirk would they have clapped ?? Ref was awful another red card missed and the handball in the 99 th min ..
but today was down to Holden he let PV crowd mid and them really feed Asiimwe to the wolfs the kid was shot after 35 mins why he kept him on ???? Poor management
Funnily enough the one time CBT went wide right he delivered the cross for Kanu's equaliser - playing him as an inverted winger on the left means he is always trying to cut in on his right and PV sussed that out eventually and closed him down. Me I'm just an old fashioned 442 man who wants a left footer on the left and a right footer on the right to cross the ball into the box.
All these modern fluid formations might work well at the top level but with a bunch of kids and useless third div players you are better off going back to basics with a solid formation where everyone knows their role.
Been saying that for ages. 4 4 2 with good players is all you need. So we need still two full backs, two wide midfielders and a centre forward.
We need to sign a quality leader at the back and change how we coach our defending or the season really will be over before it even starts.
Really like Holden, hoped his no nonsense straight talking would mean he would be a manager who focused on the defence but seems like potentially another "modern" manager who believes decent defending is boring.
Holden’s strength is his interviews. Beyond that, who knows.
And yet again I’ve been naively optimistic before the season started (after the signing of May I thought that was a sign of good times ahead), had a few punts at 16/1, and now I feel like yet again I’ve screwed up. 😩
Holden still not addressed the main problem and that is wingers who can cross the ball .. loads of good positions we got into and wasted .. no point in a new striker if we can’t get the ball in .. Dobson miss in 99 th was poor yet there was people clapping him if that had been Payne or Kirk would they have clapped ?? Ref was awful another red card missed and the handball in the 99 th min ..
but today was down to Holden he let PV crowd mid and them really feed Asiimwe to the wolfs the kid was shot after 35 mins why he kept him on ???? Poor management
Funnily enough the one time CBT went wide right he delivered the cross for Kanu's equaliser - playing him as an inverted winger on the left means he is always trying to cut in on his right and PV sussed that out eventually and closed him down. Me I'm just an old fashioned 442 man who wants a left footer on the left and a right footer on the right to cross the ball into the box.
All these modern fluid formations might work well at the top level but with a bunch of kids and useless third div players you are better off going back to basics with a solid formation where everyone knows their role.
Been saying that for ages. 4 4 2 with good players is all you need. So we need still two full backs, two wide midfielders and a centre forward.
We went to 442 for 10 minutes on Tuesday and got roasted by their 3-man midfield down the middle
Holden still not addressed the main problem and that is wingers who can cross the ball .. loads of good positions we got into and wasted .. no point in a new striker if we can’t get the ball in .. Dobson miss in 99 th was poor yet there was people clapping him if that had been Payne or Kirk would they have clapped ?? Ref was awful another red card missed and the handball in the 99 th min ..
but today was down to Holden he let PV crowd mid and them really feed Asiimwe to the wolfs the kid was shot after 35 mins why he kept him on ???? Poor management
Funnily enough the one time CBT went wide right he delivered the cross for Kanu's equaliser - playing him as an inverted winger on the left means he is always trying to cut in on his right and PV sussed that out eventually and closed him down. Me I'm just an old fashioned 442 man who wants a left footer on the left and a right footer on the right to cross the ball into the box.
All these modern fluid formations might work well at the top level but with a bunch of kids and useless third div players you are better off going back to basics with a solid formation where everyone knows their role.
Been saying that for ages. 4 4 2 with good players is all you need. So we need still two full backs, two wide midfielders and a centre forward.
We went to 442 for 10 minutes on Tuesday and got roasted by their 3-man midfield down the middle
Comments
Methven...METHVEN..?
Where the fuck is he?
All these modern fluid formations might work well at the top level but with a bunch of kids and useless third div players you are better off going back to basics with a solid formation where everyone knows their role.
Unfortunately I don't think it's coming!
a) We're not fit enough. Holden promised that they would be the fittest they've ever been, but that's clearly not the case. And because we signed unfit players, we're 2 weeks into the season, and many are still nowhere near 100%.
b) Our defence is a mess, whether individually or as a unit. We seem to play a different combination of CBs each game, whether in a 2 or a 3, and still don't seem to have the right blend.
He’s adored whatever he goes!
To me, that looked like a mentality issue. We took our foot off the gas, and the moment Vale scored their two goals in quick succession, the foot was immediately put straight back onto the pedal, and once again we looked the much more dominant team.
That is not fecking good enough. The team should be motivated for ninety minutes. For the past few seasons I've watched Charlton teams who seem to think winning should be easy. They go a goal up and then ease off. Or they go a goal down and fail to come back and win for what.... two years or something. What I can't understand, is so many players have come and gone, and yet this mentality prevails. Where is it coming from?
I was looking at some fascinating stats yesterday about Ipswich & Plymouth's promotion-winning seasons last year. They both had clean sheets in around 50% of their games. (Ours was around 21%). So in order to get anywhere near the top, we need to improve our defensive record by more than 2x.
We've signed Jones, who looks OK, but absolutely not like a gamechanger or dominant defensive force.
We've kept Hector, who is reminding me of Adam Matthews - goes hunting for a new club in the off-season, and then returns, unfocused, wishing he was somewhere else.
Where is this 2x defensive improvement coming from? I can't see that it's coming from anywhere. And for as long as we continue to ship goals every game (5 goals in 2 home games), we are going to have another midtable season, at best.
After that it's very hard to see anything positive from the game today
There new owners have said nothing for over 5 weeks whilst a shitstorm has raged around the club. No word on any new players and last night was frustrating as even with a severity weakened team and only 5 outfield subs they were all over WBA for much of the game but just lack quality everywhere. They can’t see where a win will come from with there remnant of a squad and he thinks the Board can survive on a few talented players. It's uncanny and worrying, two great clubs, with dreadful takeovers and no lessons learnt from previous seasons.
Apart from two games in four days, injuries and the squad still coming up to speed - all of which sound like excuses!
League 2 here we come
I knew that ex Sunderland con man would add
further disappointment and disaster to my once premiership team 👎👎👎👎👎
Words, when they come from Holden are futile right now. His talking needs to be done on the pitch. But if he has any balls, hell call out the owners and say that this squad is where it should be. Anything better, will require better players. End of discussion!