Team organised and worked hard. Lacking quality in midfield. In training Charlton need to look at way of defending the area just out of the box to prevent a strike on goal. Strikers not looking great, but may complement a fit and inform Myles Leaburn. A draw was a fair result and both teams were organised, competitive but distinctly average. Both teams looking top 10 but need more quality to sustain a play off place.
We would have all taken an average of two points per game at this point but it feels we have to improve our attacking play. That isn't just on the strikers. At this level, even the best teams don't score worldies every other game so whilst there is a criticism in regards of closing down, we have been very unlucky and defensively it is chalk and cheese from last season. Jones has to find a way to get the attacking game right and that is probably the key to our season.
He does, but glad he has sorted out the defensive game first. Next project must be to get the three central midfielders working together and producing a lot more for the strikers.
Ahadme is a good target man, so far a hopeless 'striker'
Same was said about Leaburn (Snr) early on in his career.
Well pointed out Golfie. I thought Ahadme was a threat yesterday, he won most of the ariel duals and yes it was a bad miss but he made another chance for himself that flashed across the six yard box. I think he is worth sticking with but we must provide him with crosses, I think he had one cross to him in the first half, ironically from Small's only successful cross.
And our corners this season have been pretty poor.
We would have all taken an average of two points per game at this point but it feels we have to improve our attacking play. That isn't just on the strikers. At this level, even the best teams don't score worldies every other game so whilst there is a criticism in regards of closing down, we have been very unlucky and defensively it is chalk and cheese from last season. Jones has to find a way to get the attacking game right and that is probably the key to our season.
He does, but glad he has sorted out the defensive game first. Next project must be to get the three central midfielders working together and producing a lot more for the strikers.
Don’t disagree on the midfield three but I think it’s improving our attacking play more generally. More passes from the GK and CBs to the midfield three would help them. We need the wing backs to add more in attack too. Set pieces is another clear area for improvement as well.
Just being able to nick a goal from a corner or free kick could change games and open up space. These late goals we’ve scored don’t leave much time to score a second or third.
We would have all taken an average of two points per game at this point but it feels we have to improve our attacking play. That isn't just on the strikers. At this level, even the best teams don't score worldies every other game so whilst there is a criticism in regards of closing down, we have been very unlucky and defensively it is chalk and cheese from last season. Jones has to find a way to get the attacking game right and that is probably the key to our season.
He does, but glad he has sorted out the defensive game first. Next project must be to get the three central midfielders working together and producing a lot more for the strikers.
Don’t disagree on the midfield three but I think it’s improving our attacking play more generally. More passes from the GK and CBs to the midfield three would help them. We need the wing backs to add more in attack too. Set pieces is another clear area for improvement as well.
Just being able to nick a goal from a corner or free kick could change games and open up space. These late goals we’ve scored don’t leave much time to score a second or third.
The midfield three have to be there to receive the ball - so often the only out is through Coventry.
I think it is more about the strikers than the midfield. I liked that Campbell dominated defenders when he came on yesterday. I think the way we play can work but that needs to happen.
Having watched the highlights, there's more I've ruminated on.
Ahadme's miss is a LOT worse on a second, actual viewing. Being at the other end of the pitch and at full speed, I simply assumed he had more bodies/pressure on him. Should have really buried it at that range. This might be rather scathing, but on current performances, his performances are more like a centre-back being put up front for the last 10 minutes. Part of me feels like if you replaced him with one of our other defenders up front, you'd get a similar result. I want to back and support the lad - he just needs to bring more. Part of this is a team issue, as I feel we aren't having our WB bomb on in games like this, but that's a separate issue. We're not seeing the best of him without getting crosses into the box. Definitely don't want to see more of the comical falling over and NJ is absolutely right to flag it as a boots issue, because it certainly looked that way. With our current XG/creativity/quality/<whatever you want to call it>, he needs to put chances like that away. A simple chance/finish against someone like Shrewsbury would help so much.
Unsurprised by NJ hooking Berry straight after the goal. I would not want to have been Berry after that game - NJ was just about to change it with Chuks/TC and he sat way too far back. He would have been seething. I expect Anderson to be back in for the Shrewsbury game as a result, almost a given. Somehow we need to figure out how to be on the front foot in games like this where we are expected to have a decent amount of possession.
Still feeling OK about our starting 5. If the next 5 go similar, I think we'll be in the mix, but we'll need to remain somewhat fortunate.
Disappointing to only draw at home, given our good start, but 10 points from 5 games is a decent return and IF sustained over the whole season almost certain to guarantee automatic promotion.
I would like to say we are missing Edwards. For me Small was a weak link yesterday. In my opinion he is the one throwback to the lack of quality that we had last year.
A few people been saying this. I know he kicked the ball out a couple of times, but he also put in the best couple of crosses of the match and I don’t remember defensively him being exposed / beaten at any stage.
He hasn’t been at the standard this year he was last season, and he was notably below the level of Ramsey, but I didnt see him being a weak link yesterday in any way.
The one moment that stuck out for me with Small was in the first half where he got caught out of position, so Gillesphey was having to cover for him, and when the ball rebounded kindly off Gillesphey for the Rotherham man, Small tracked him for couple of paces and then just gave up. (It's at about 1:05 on the Sky highlights). And just before that on the highlights you can see he gets caught in two minds about sticking with the man he's marking or going towards the man with the ball, and ends up caught in no man's land between the two. He wasn't terrible yesterday, but he definitely wasn't firing on all cylinders going forward, and that meant his defensive deficiencies were given more weight I think.
Overall the game wasn't the best, and seemed to bypass the midfield quite a lot from what I can remember, but despite the absolutely glaring miss from Ahadme I thought he was more involved than he was in the previous games I've seen. Not sure about Godden yet, but it's not like we really created that many chances for him to get on the end of. Cracking goal from Chuks, and I loved the persistence from Tyreece in the build up, when 9 times out of 10 last season he would have got bullied off the ball there. Not sure about Allan Campbell yet - great work in the build up to the equaliser, but he also flattened his man in a really dangerous position just before the final whistle, but luckily the free kick came to nothing. Man of the Match for me, as for everyone else it seems, was Kayne Ramsay. He's fast becoming a favourite.
Finally, the award for "Unintentional Comic Timing on the Match Thread" goes to @Wheresmeticket, who obviously started typing this comment just before Chuks scored, but must have hit post just afterwards.
Small got my nerves at one particular point - I don’t remember if it was just before or just after we scored but either way it was a point in the game where we had some momentum and he completely killed a promising move by not being positive enough on the ball.
It’s really minuscule details rather than glaring mistakes and he’s far from the worst left back we’ve had in the last 5 years. But he has had a noticeable drop off from the promise he showed last season IMO.
Crowd showed its frustration with Small after he kicked the ball out of play in the final 10 mins. Saw Jones turn around and tell the West Stand to calm down.
A big chance to start to put distance between the points we picked up last season and this current season’s efforts.
Comparing this season to last & being happy with the improvement is a very low bar to set.
I'd be apoplectic if we do worse this season. Looking at the next 4 games coming up I'd be looking at no less than 7 points.
We got 53 points last season. I agree that’s a really low bar.
If we improve by four points every five games this season, we’ll end up on in the right range for automatic promotion after 46 played. That’s all I was trying to say.
Thinking about this again. Going to keep track of it until I get bored / we start underperforming and I get too depressed to work it out after we lose multiple games in a row that we shouldn’t have.
I feel we sometimes forget that Small has only just turned 20. He's going to have spells where he's below his best, which is why Jones bought Edwards. The fact we're complaining shows how much better the team/squad is than last year...we're hardly talking Kirk or Tedic levels of performance here!
Supposably Jones said we will only buy players that are better than we have, and can play in the championship if we get promoted. At the moment we are seeing players that can't perform at League 1 level. Ahadme,Berry,Doherty,even Small has fallen away. The style of play is terrible, you would hate to be a midfield player in this team,as everything bypasses you.As most supporters have been saying, a creative midfield player and a goal scorer were urgently needed before the season started Obviously Dobson and May weren't yes men,by the way both players are performing very well for there new teams,plus they are better than we have got.Even Glen Hoddle,Rodney Marsh,Stan Bowles,Tony Curry, Trevor Brooking or George Best would never get in a Jones team.Just need to run around a lot and pretend to be busy. But we are a division 1 club,one League above Bromley!!
it is getting more and more obvious that our strikers are not up to the job with the exception of Aneke and he is still just a 45 minute maximum man Seems we'll have to wait for the new year window to strengthen as I can't see there any many, if any decent goal scoring freelancers looking for a job at the moment
Taking a step back. I looked at the first five games before the start of the season and thought it looked a tough one. Orient at home looked the most straightforward. But they had a good season in 23/24. I expect Rotherham and Bolton to be up there challenging and Reading and Wigan top half but with strong home records.
Now looking back. I would have absolutely taken 10 points from those games. I have been very impressed with the defence, happy with the midfield and a tad disapointed with the attack. We now go into a run of five games that look much easier on paper but this is Charlton we are talking about.
it is getting more and more obvious that our strikers are not up to the job with the exception of Aneke and he is still just a 45 minute maximum man Seems we'll have to wait for the new year window to strengthen as I can't see there any many, if any decent goal scoring freelancers looking for a job at the moment
Not wanting to put too much pressure on him but Miles isn't miles away.
The thing about Miles is we don't know the effect the long lay off will have had on him. Logic says he needs a few U21 games o get up to speed including fitness wise. Hopefully that will happen soon. If I was the club I would be saying don't expect too much too soon from the lad. But we definitely need him.
We presumably travel to Shrewsbury on Friday (incidentally what was the late arrival of Rotherham all about, don’t they stay in a local hotel?), yet on Friday evening we are due to play an U21 game at home to Leeds United with a 7pm kick off at the Valley. Clearly there will be significance regarding the team for Saturday when we see the Friday line up. Things are further complicated by international absentees and when they return and in what shape. So I make the U21 game tomorrow afternoon at Dartford a particularly interesting one in terms of the players selected, we might get more of an idea about what’s what at the weekend after tomorrow.
We presumably travel to Shrewsbury on Friday (incidentally what was the late arrival of Rotherham all about, don’t they stay in a local hotel?), yet on Friday evening we are due to play an U21 game at home to Leeds United with a 7pm kick off at the Valley. Clearly there will be significance regarding the team for Saturday when we see the Friday line up. Things are further complicated by international absentees and when they return and in what shape. So I make the U21 game tomorrow afternoon at Dartford a particularly interesting one in terms of the players selected, we might get more of an idea about what’s what at the weekend after tomorrow.
I don't know but the Blackwall Tunnel being closed may have affected them traffic wise even if they stayed in a hotel, depending on where it was. I think the constant closures and restrictions to the tunnel is affecting gates to a certain degree too.
We presumably travel to Shrewsbury on Friday (incidentally what was the late arrival of Rotherham all about, don’t they stay in a local hotel?), yet on Friday evening we are due to play an U21 game at home to Leeds United with a 7pm kick off at the Valley. Clearly there will be significance regarding the team for Saturday when we see the Friday line up. Things are further complicated by international absentees and when they return and in what shape. So I make the U21 game tomorrow afternoon at Dartford a particularly interesting one in terms of the players selected, we might get more of an idea about what’s what at the weekend after tomorrow.
I don't know but the Blackwall Tunnel being closed may have affected them traffic wise even if they stayed in a hotel, depending on where it was. I think the constant closures and restrictions to the tunnel is affecting gates to a certain degree too.
I think people just have unrealistic expectations in terms of attendances. That was probably 11-12,000, which is not unreasonable for an early home game with Rotherham in a fifth consecutive L1 season. The uncertainty over the game being on and people making other plans in the meantime may have trimmed the crowd more than the tiny number coming through the tunnel.
I feel we sometimes forget that Small has only just turned 20. He's going to have spells where he's below his best, which is why Jones bought Edwards. The fact we're complaining shows how much better the team/squad is than last year...we're hardly talking Kirk or Tedic levels of performance here!
Shouldn't discount him from criticism, when he misplaces as many passes as he did on Saturday. Defensively though I thought he was better. Ramsey twice I heard, probably more times, gave him instructions on where to be when we were in dead ball situations. He's only 23 himself.
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The Charlton fans who did the quiz this week were great entertainment
Just being able to nick a goal from a corner or free kick could change games and open up space. These late goals we’ve scored don’t leave much time to score a second or third.
Ahadme's miss is a LOT worse on a second, actual viewing. Being at the other end of the pitch and at full speed, I simply assumed he had more bodies/pressure on him. Should have really buried it at that range. This might be rather scathing, but on current performances, his performances are more like a centre-back being put up front for the last 10 minutes. Part of me feels like if you replaced him with one of our other defenders up front, you'd get a similar result. I want to back and support the lad - he just needs to bring more. Part of this is a team issue, as I feel we aren't having our WB bomb on in games like this, but that's a separate issue. We're not seeing the best of him without getting crosses into the box. Definitely don't want to see more of the comical falling over and NJ is absolutely right to flag it as a boots issue, because it certainly looked that way. With our current XG/creativity/quality/<whatever you want to call it>, he needs to put chances like that away. A simple chance/finish against someone like Shrewsbury would help so much.
Unsurprised by NJ hooking Berry straight after the goal. I would not want to have been Berry after that game - NJ was just about to change it with Chuks/TC and he sat way too far back. He would have been seething. I expect Anderson to be back in for the Shrewsbury game as a result, almost a given. Somehow we need to figure out how to be on the front foot in games like this where we are expected to have a decent amount of possession.
Still feeling OK about our starting 5. If the next 5 go similar, I think we'll be in the mix, but we'll need to remain somewhat fortunate.
It’s really minuscule details rather than glaring mistakes and he’s far from the worst left back we’ve had in the last 5 years. But he has had a noticeable drop off from the promise he showed last season IMO.
Until then…
Played 5 - 10 points & 4 points better off
PPG: 2.0 => 92 points (46*2)
PPG+: 0.8 (4/5) => 90 points (46*0.8 + 53)
Ahadme,Berry,Doherty,even Small has fallen away. The style of play is terrible, you would hate to be a midfield player in this team,as everything bypasses you.As most supporters have been saying, a creative midfield player and a goal scorer were urgently needed before the season started Obviously Dobson and May weren't yes men,by the way both players are performing very well for there new teams,plus they are better than we have got.Even Glen Hoddle,Rodney Marsh,Stan Bowles,Tony Curry, Trevor Brooking or George Best would never get in a Jones team.Just need to run around a lot and pretend to be busy. But we are a division 1 club,one League above Bromley!!
Seems we'll have to wait for the new year window to strengthen as I can't see there any many, if any decent goal scoring freelancers looking for a job at the moment
Now looking back. I would have absolutely taken 10 points from those games. I have been very impressed with the defence, happy with the midfield and a tad disapointed with the attack. We now go into a run of five games that look much easier on paper but this is Charlton we are talking about.
Clearly there will be significance regarding the team for Saturday when we see the Friday line up. Things are further complicated by international absentees and when they return and in what shape.
So I make the U21 game tomorrow afternoon at Dartford a particularly interesting one in terms of the players selected, we might get more of an idea about what’s what at the weekend after tomorrow.