We're without a win in ten.
Michael Appleton is no miracle worker,and he can only work with the players in the squad.
However, he has demonstrated so few of the characteristics needed to be a successful manager.
No wins in 10. We would be ridiculed for hoping for a clean sheet given the state of the defence.
The Board clearly have to make some positive decisions soon, but if you were in the boardroom where would you be putting your energy. Into bettering the squad, the manager or change both?
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Pep would struggle with so few senior attacking players.
We looked a different proposition early doors under Appleton, the fact we've struggled without Aneke or Leaburn under either him or Holden speaks volumes.
Its also the players who need to have better mentality at covering team mates when they're out of position, and having the sense to not dive into challenges at the when they don't need to.
The Manager can drill it into individuals as much as they want, but they cant force a player to listen to them, as there will be high pressure moments that can get to anyone.
At the same time there are no doubt decisions Appleton could be making to help himself a bit more.
Injuries obviously make things more difficult but Appleton hasn't shown anything to suggest he can get the best out of what he's got.
with cbt out with a derby county injury, we needed to play to the strengths of the players available and that was 3-5-2.
Clearly this is another non season, and next season may not be a lot better, we might just make the playoffs, we have been well and truly shafted by a lot of clown owners, and a period of stability is whats required now, not another knee jerk change the manager at least until the end of the season...
So far Appleton has had a bad hand and then played it badly. He is underperforming. Even our depleted squad should have picked up more points from the poor, poor teams we have played in the last 10.
The issue is that Scott is not going to move him on as it will be a second admission of failure on a manager in a short space of time. Put that together with all the shite players he has bought in so far and it does not look great on him does it.
Therefore Apple's will almost certainly have the season and it will be down to whether we change up in the summer. I still think unlikely.
That being said, the manager has to take lots of responsibility for the results over the last 11 games as well.
We are devoid of confidence and buckle easily under pressure, and that is very much in the manager and coaching teams remit to address and sort out.
I do think we some quality coming back into the team our results will improve.
Performances have been poor for so long it can't really be that we have simply hired too many poor managers.
Think Chelsea. They have supposedly the best (or close to being) players and managers, yet are still failing after spending Half a Billion. Money and reputation are not the only factors in success, otherwise less wealthy clubs wouldn't achieve promotion. Organisation and a commited unit throughout the club is the key. I'm thinking Chris Wilder at United, Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, even Curbs back in the day. Success was built by no nonsense managers that had time to create something great over a decade or longer.
All three of those mentioned are ordinary blokes that were integral to their clubs, from the tea lady to the ball boys and parents of kids in their academies, they all were pushing in the same direction. If our club is to sort out this mess, that is what needs to happen. Top to bottom, there must be unity. The divides in our club makes it easy for other clubs to conquer both on the pitch, in the stands and the boardrooms.
He then sets up the way we should have started the game. Not the first time this season he’s done this especially when it comes to the position of May. He does not learn
There is another element and that's the atmosphere at matches. Many of our long-suffering fans have grown quite impatient and are extremely quick to let the players know when they are dissatisfied. I fully understand why, but I don't think this helps when one of the issues with the squad is a lack of confidence.
Manager isn't good enough to get the 9th or 10th best squad in the league to play like the 9th or 10th best team in the league. Yesterday is an irrelevance, Peterborough are better than us. The problem is the huge amount of points we've gifted to the likes of Cambridge, Port Vale, Burton, Orient, etc, all of whom have far less to work with them we do.
We have played some really poor teams and have been unable to get results. We've also played some utterly dogshit football.
I was lol'd and called out when I said that our defense was poor, we are missing a few players and that I could identify players that would improve us at the likes of Carlisle, Stevenage and Northampton etc.
Stevenage, Blackpool, Bristol Rovers, Lincoln, Leyton Orient and Northampton all sit above us. Wigan would be above us by 6 points if not for their deduction. We then have the likes of Wycombe, Port Vale, Cambridge and Shrewsbury on level points with us.
As of December 15th, we have the 5th highest squad value in the league in market terms, it's probably gone up since the addition of Coventry and Gillesphey, plus the loans.
It is a bit of both, as certain players aren't performing or not avaliable, market value doesn't always equate to the table as it's all based on potential, however, it's mainly Appleton. There won't be many sides with our resources underachieving like this. Only Reading are the other side massively underachieving but they've had a points deduction and have off field issues.
He needs to go, it's genuinely about 90% the manager.
Or alternatively people can say the likes of Wycombe and Port Vale have a similar calibre squad to us.
Get him gone.
I find it hard to believe that the players we have can't be coached into being a better, more solid and secure, defensive unit.
Opposition wide players seem to have the luxury of one-to-one battles whereas our wide players face two defenders generally.
Opposition short corners often have two strikers v Dobbo rushing out last minute with the "Surprise" spare man lurking on the edge of our box ready to fire in a shot.
The overriding problem has been with the stream of managers we have endured over the past few years, none of whom have developed either a settled first team selection or a coherent set of tactics.
To digress a little, the scouting network is also failing it seems. For example I mentioned here a few posts back the fact that Peterborough have signed a few players from Barnet, including Lambeth born and raised Mason-Clark who played over 150 games for Barnet before Posh signed him. Why are players like him not being picked up by our scouts or are our scouts nowadays more like girl guides ?
Going to be lazy and say both. I wanted to give the new man the chance when he replaced Holden. Regardless of squad depth, the manager instills a mentality onto his team and Ive seen little to suggest Appleton has been a positive influence.
Also, there's no competition for places in the team. Pattern for several years at Charlton seems to be that you play until you're injured, and then we scramble to find someone to take their place.
Would any of our players be worried about someone taking their place in the first 11?
Appleton hasn’t covered himself in glory during this stretch of games, definitely not. We could’ve and should’ve got a few more points that we have.
Unfortunately for us, as neither of their performances so far give me much confidence they won’t waste the opportunity, I mean it’s taken them both months to even realise the best formation to use with these players