I listened to NJs summing up of yesterdays poor result, and he said many times in parrot fashion that we were not relentless enough etc etc etc. I say bollocks I say we need a proper strike force as we squandered chances as always We cannot shoot and cannot score goals 👎👎👎
I think the most tragic thing is the familiarity with it all. On the way up my mate rang me and said 'you're playing Stevenage today, should be a win for yous right' and I had to explain to him how it's nowhere near as simple as that.
We dwarf them in every aspect, yet the last 3 times I've been there, we haven't looked better on the pitch. Even when we beat them on pens in the carabao, they were the better team that night. No disrespect to Stevenage, as I'm sure they've got some nice fans and decent people associated with the club, but for a club of our size and the alleged money involved, to go there and look like the worse team, is well and truly unacceptable.
I'm looking at the players more than Jones. I've always had the belief that we don't have the right owners and management setup (generally speaking) in place. We obviously don't have much money, hence why we have tried to sell any decent player we have had in May, CBT and Dobson. I am still concerned about the people pulling the strings and what their aim is. Any of us can see that this football is getting us nowhere.
We go 1 down and you can pretty much guarantee we are getting a draw at best, it's abysmal. The only players I truly like the look of are Jones, Mitchell, Ramsay, Coventry and sometimes TC. The rest I'd happily see sold or loaned out. In some cases (Edwards & Dixon) I haven't seen enough to form a proper opinion.
Either way, I want the season over now. It's clear we got the transfer window wrong again, looks like we are gonna need another 2 or 3 (how many times has this been said), all that awaits is now is probably a mid-table ish finish and watching clubs we should dwarf, finish above us as usual.
It's a very depressing cycle. I've not lost hope in Jones just yet, but I am having doubts about my vote of confidence, and I am starting to think him and Luton are just a match made in heaven.
The football we play is no different to the likes of Slade, Adkins, Holden etc. Sideways crap passing, until we run out of options and start lumping it long. Then Chuks comes on and we hope he can pull a rabbit out the hat. Woeful.
Sold the best striker we've had since Yann to end the game with Lloyd Jones playing as a striker. Pass me the fkn cyanide
Jones got the players he wanted, he didn’t want May. The owners and board backed.. the buck stops with Jones in my opinion.. sorry, we had all pre season, with most of the squad in place, and all we have done is learnt to lump the ball forward.
It is the worst football I have ever seen from Charlton, maybe since the Parkinson relegation season!
As much as a wet weekend Appleton was, we tried to play football..
Na I'm sorry but he didn't. He may say he did, but he simply has to, to keep his job. No manager in the world completely goes against the board unless they have a certain pull. He probably got what he could, but there's no way he would have been completely happy with the outcome of the transfer window, no top manager in their right mind would.
It isn't the first time he has told a white lie to protect the higher ups in the club, it won't be the last:
It was common knowledge that Dobson was heavily linked with the Hungarian club, but he lied almost immediately before he'd even set foot in the club properly. This is the nature of football.
The football is awful, but it's no different from his predecessors. The difference being, he has proven he can get results, even at a higher level unlike most of the managers we have had.
I just think he needs time and a few transfer windows with some actual cash to secure quality, not chump change.
Got a few solid players with Coventry, Jones, Mitchell, Ramsay etc. Tie them down to better contracts, build slowly. That's the solution. His hands are tied right now imo, he just won't say it for obvious reasons.
If you offered me for the season to end now, mid-table finish, keep Jones and all the players I've mentioned, all the dross out of the club, with more freedom in the transfer market, I'd snap your hand off. This is going to be a slow and ugly process, unless we get cash strapped owners.
As disheartening as the last few weeks have been, I'm not sure binning Jones is the right move forward, part of how we have found ourselves where we are is by a constant chopping and changing of managers. The style & performances are shit at the moment, we can't hide from that, but will we benefit from upheaval again? I'm not so sure, there actually isn't a lot of talent on the market at the moment as far as I can see either. I really do hope Jones can weather this storm and in a few months we can look back at this period as a turning point where our rigid defense starts to transition into a more fluid side who look like they'd actually fancy a touch of the ball. Got to have hope, I suppose.
I think the most tragic thing is the familiarity with it all. On the way up my mate rang me and said 'you're playing Stevenage today, should be a win for yous right' and I had to explain to him how it's nowhere near as simple as that.
We dwarf them in every aspect, yet the last 3 times I've been there, we haven't looked better on the pitch. Even when we beat them on pens in the carabao, they were the better team that night. No disrespect to Stevenage, as I'm sure they've got some nice fans and decent people associated with the club, but for a club of our size and the alleged money involved, to go there and look like the worse team, is well and truly unacceptable.
I'm looking at the players more than Jones. I've always had the belief that we don't have the right owners and management setup (generally speaking) in place. We obviously don't have much money, hence why we have tried to sell any decent player we have had in May, CBT and Dobson. I am still concerned about the people pulling the strings and what their aim is. Any of us can see that this football is getting us nowhere.
We go 1 down and you can pretty much guarantee we are getting a draw at best, it's abysmal. The only players I truly like the look of are Jones, Mitchell, Ramsay, Coventry and sometimes TC. The rest I'd happily see sold or loaned out. In some cases (Edwards & Dixon) I haven't seen enough to form a proper opinion.
Either way, I want the season over now. It's clear we got the transfer window wrong again, looks like we are gonna need another 2 or 3 (how many times has this been said), all that awaits is now is probably a mid-table ish finish and watching clubs we should dwarf, finish above us as usual.
It's a very depressing cycle. I've not lost hope in Jones just yet, but I am having doubts about my vote of confidence, and I am starting to think him and Luton are just a match made in heaven.
The football we play is no different to the likes of Slade, Adkins, Holden etc. Sideways crap passing, until we run out of options and start lumping it long. Then Chuks comes on and we hope he can pull a rabbit out the hat. Woeful.
Sold the best striker we've had since Yann to end the game with Lloyd Jones playing as a striker. Pass me the fkn cyanide
Jones got the players he wanted, he didn’t want May. The owners and board backed.. the buck stops with Jones in my opinion.. sorry, we had all pre season, with most of the squad in place, and all we have done is learnt to lump the ball forward.
It is the worst football I have ever seen from Charlton, maybe since the Parkinson relegation season!
As much as a wet weekend Appleton was, we tried to play football..
Na I'm sorry but he didn't. He may say he did, but he simply has to, to keep his job. No manager in the world completely goes against the board unless they have a certain pull. He probably got what he could, but there's no way he would have been completely happy with the outcome of the transfer window, no top manager in their right mind would.
It isn't the first time he has told a white lie to protect the higher ups in the club, it won't be the last:
It was common knowledge that Dobson was heavily linked with the Hungarian club, but he lied almost immediately before he'd even set foot in the club properly. This is the nature of football.
The football is awful, but it's no different from his predecessors. The difference being, he has proven he can get results, even at a higher level unlike most of the managers we have had.
I just think he needs time and a few transfer windows with some actual cash to secure quality, not chump change.
Got a few solid players with Coventry, Jones, Mitchell, Ramsay etc. Tie them down to better contracts, build slowly. That's the solution. His hands are tied right now imo, he just won't say it for obvious reasons.
Compared to the budgets of most of the clubs in this division, Stevenage for example, the budget Jones has to work with is definitely not “chump change”.
As stated earlier I am away for a short break and within an hour's drive from Bristol. I couldnt even be arsed to see the score till I got back to our cottage till the evening as the result was inevitable.
Can't be bothered to go Tuesday even though I am quite close and the other half wants to visit Bristol this week.
We have had many ups and downs over the years and in the past I would have made this trip.
Shows how bad we have become. Spoke to a few mates who were there yesterday and basically said it was dross as I have witnessed so far.
Midweek in front of about 300 away fans are exactly the games we’ll go and win Chips
I think the most tragic thing is the familiarity with it all. On the way up my mate rang me and said 'you're playing Stevenage today, should be a win for yous right' and I had to explain to him how it's nowhere near as simple as that.
We dwarf them in every aspect, yet the last 3 times I've been there, we haven't looked better on the pitch. Even when we beat them on pens in the carabao, they were the better team that night. No disrespect to Stevenage, as I'm sure they've got some nice fans and decent people associated with the club, but for a club of our size and the alleged money involved, to go there and look like the worse team, is well and truly unacceptable.
I'm looking at the players more than Jones. I've always had the belief that we don't have the right owners and management setup (generally speaking) in place. We obviously don't have much money, hence why we have tried to sell any decent player we have had in May, CBT and Dobson. I am still concerned about the people pulling the strings and what their aim is. Any of us can see that this football is getting us nowhere.
We go 1 down and you can pretty much guarantee we are getting a draw at best, it's abysmal. The only players I truly like the look of are Jones, Mitchell, Ramsay, Coventry and sometimes TC. The rest I'd happily see sold or loaned out. In some cases (Edwards & Dixon) I haven't seen enough to form a proper opinion.
Either way, I want the season over now. It's clear we got the transfer window wrong again, looks like we are gonna need another 2 or 3 (how many times has this been said), all that awaits is now is probably a mid-table ish finish and watching clubs we should dwarf, finish above us as usual.
It's a very depressing cycle. I've not lost hope in Jones just yet, but I am having doubts about my vote of confidence, and I am starting to think him and Luton are just a match made in heaven.
The football we play is no different to the likes of Slade, Adkins, Holden etc. Sideways crap passing, until we run out of options and start lumping it long. Then Chuks comes on and we hope he can pull a rabbit out the hat. Woeful.
Sold the best striker we've had since Yann to end the game with Lloyd Jones playing as a striker. Pass me the fkn cyanide
Jones got the players he wanted, he didn’t want May. The owners and board backed.. the buck stops with Jones in my opinion.. sorry, we had all pre season, with most of the squad in place, and all we have done is learnt to lump the ball forward.
It is the worst football I have ever seen from Charlton, maybe since the Parkinson relegation season!
As much as a wet weekend Appleton was, we tried to play football..
Na I'm sorry but he didn't. He may say he did, but he simply has to, to keep his job. No manager in the world completely goes against the board unless they have a certain pull. He probably got what he could, but there's no way he would have been completely happy with the outcome of the transfer window, no top manager in their right mind would.
It isn't the first time he has told a white lie to protect the higher ups in the club, it won't be the last:
It was common knowledge that Dobson was heavily linked with the Hungarian club, but he lied almost immediately before he'd even set foot in the club properly. This is the nature of football.
The football is awful, but it's no different from his predecessors. The difference being, he has proven he can get results, even at a higher level unlike most of the managers we have had.
I just think he needs time and a few transfer windows with some actual cash to secure quality, not chump change.
Got a few solid players with Coventry, Jones, Mitchell, Ramsay etc. Tie them down to better contracts, build slowly. That's the solution. His hands are tied right now imo, he just won't say it for obvious reasons.
Compared to the budgets of most of the clubs in this division, Stevenage for example, the budget Jones has to work with is definitely not “chump change”.
We didn't spend enough. For the amount of issues we had, we didn't spend enough to cover it. All there is to it really.
Top sides don't have centre backs playing up top cause their strikers can't do a job, and have to rely on academy lads who aren't good enough for the team.
It's the same as every season, groundhog day. Our squad isn't as good as made out, takes a few games for people to figure it out, then the manager takes the hit.
The players who some people think are overrated, or were part of the problem go on to pastures new, and usually do better away from us, aka CBT, May and Dobson. The players that were obviously pretty crap from the get go, can't get clubs or drop down a level, too many to name.
I've said it for a decade now. We have, pound for pound, the worst recruitment team in the whole of the EFL. No one comes close. Big stadium, big-ish London based club, huge potential, good history, but we can't seem to get transfer windows right. Clubs like Peterborough and Oxford United consistently make better use of their budgets and transfer windows.
I said fair dos to them when we brought in Ahadme, Godden, Berry and Docherty, as they were players with a bit about them on paper, unfortunately, the scouting couldn't have been much more than looking at their transfermarkt value, as all 4 have failed to make much of an impact so far. When at least 3 of them should be making this league look comfortable for them. We have a terrible track record of signing players from the league above, honestly terrible.
It’s easy to go overboard after a(nother) defeat but what is deflating me most is not seeing signs of improvement.
I wasn’t impressed at all with us in pre season and at the start of season, but I was balanced enough to appreciate it takes time for new arrivals to settle and the team to bed down, and if we were nicking a few results then great.
But we’ve stopped nicking results and the team hasn’t bedded down yet.
What is really disappointing is Jones has brought in a lot of players yet before we’ve even got to the end of September…
Doherty (Captain) - dropped Ahadme - dropped Mitchell - dropped Berry - dropped Godden - can’t get in Small - dropped A Campbell - still not in T Campbell striker experiment - abandoned
We’ve a big squad with what seems like a lot of averageness and already look like we are just shuffling the pack around hoping something works differently to the last game.
It’s easy to go overboard after a(nother) defeat but what is deflating me most is not seeing signs of improvement.
I wasn’t impressed at all with us in pre season and at the start of season, but I was balanced enough to appreciate it takes time for new arrivals to settle and the team to bed down, and if we were nicking a few results then great.
But we’ve stopped nicking results and the team hasn’t bedded down yet.
What is really disappointing is Jones has brought in a lot of players yet before we’ve even got to the end of September…
Doherty (Captain) - dropped Ahadme - dropped Mitchell - dropped Berry - dropped Godden - can’t get in Small - dropped A Campbell - still not in T Campbell striker experiment - abandoned
We’ve a big squad with what seems like a lot of averageness and already look like we are just shuffling the pack around hoping something works differently to the last game.
Even though Small has his faults, imo he's about the only player we have who can put a decent ball in.
Let's face it NJ is proving to be a bit of a tactical dud! Can anyone recall a team that has not been promoted getting rid of the top 3 players in their poty results and replacing them with inferior players! Alfie was the best striker in this league for 3 years running, Dobson never gave less than 100% in every game, the hoofball crap we are playing now is never going to get us promoted and is so dull it will turn fans away, if NJ does take the Cardiff job he has done a great job of screwing our season before he goes, pressure is on him now as lose the next 2 games and we will probably be in the bottom half, don't really see what Docherty, Berry and Ahadme bring to the team and as for Hylton..jobs for the boys spring to mind..rant over
If we had nicked that 1-0, which could as easily happened as Stevenage who nicked it 1-0, the post match thread would be different.
However we lost.
That now puts us three points behind our quest for automatic promotion.
Even if we win at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday (a tough ask) and against Birmingham on Saturday (a very tough ask) we would still end up one point behind the target for automatic promotion.
We are quickly slipping into that psychological space that say we need to ‘go on a run’ (of wins) in order to make up ground. At this rate we will not be far away from play Casey/M’bick/Leaburn/Dixon/Taylor/Zach Mitchell/Rylah territory, after that we get to sack the manager land.
For me the only thing that matters this season is getting results, not the style of play.
On yesterday, one stand out was for a club with a set piece coach I would’ve thought the first task would be to choose a player that can actually take a set piece.
Anderson played better yesterday than the usual showing of Docherty. I believe Berry has already had five bookings and faces a suspension which is pathetic.
For a little bloke Potts was surprisingly good challenging for headers, Jones was so dominating he won all of his headed duels as far as I remember (he should be captain), and I am warming to Mannion.
Having been to Stevenage away I feel very sorry for our sell out support who dragged themselves to that dreary concrete wonderland and had to endure humiliation from the Stevenage fans. They were let down after a good turn out, just as we were let down at Reading.
We are in a pretty depressing psychological place at the moment. Desperately in need of a talisman to rally round.
I think the most tragic thing is the familiarity with it all. On the way up my mate rang me and said 'you're playing Stevenage today, should be a win for yous right' and I had to explain to him how it's nowhere near as simple as that.
We dwarf them in every aspect, yet the last 3 times I've been there, we haven't looked better on the pitch. Even when we beat them on pens in the carabao, they were the better team that night. No disrespect to Stevenage, as I'm sure they've got some nice fans and decent people associated with the club, but for a club of our size and the alleged money involved, to go there and look like the worse team, is well and truly unacceptable.
I'm looking at the players more than Jones. I've always had the belief that we don't have the right owners and management setup (generally speaking) in place. We obviously don't have much money, hence why we have tried to sell any decent player we have had in May, CBT and Dobson. I am still concerned about the people pulling the strings and what their aim is. Any of us can see that this football is getting us nowhere.
We go 1 down and you can pretty much guarantee we are getting a draw at best, it's abysmal. The only players I truly like the look of are Jones, Mitchell, Ramsay, Coventry and sometimes TC. The rest I'd happily see sold or loaned out. In some cases (Edwards & Dixon) I haven't seen enough to form a proper opinion.
Either way, I want the season over now. It's clear we got the transfer window wrong again, looks like we are gonna need another 2 or 3 (how many times has this been said), all that awaits is now is probably a mid-table ish finish and watching clubs we should dwarf, finish above us as usual.
It's a very depressing cycle. I've not lost hope in Jones just yet, but I am having doubts about my vote of confidence, and I am starting to think him and Luton are just a match made in heaven.
The football we play is no different to the likes of Slade, Adkins, Holden etc. Sideways crap passing, until we run out of options and start lumping it long. Then Chuks comes on and we hope he can pull a rabbit out the hat. Woeful.
Sold the best striker we've had since Yann to end the game with Lloyd Jones playing as a striker. Pass me the fkn cyanide
Jones got the players he wanted, he didn’t want May. The owners and board backed.. the buck stops with Jones in my opinion.. sorry, we had all pre season, with most of the squad in place, and all we have done is learnt to lump the ball forward.
It is the worst football I have ever seen from Charlton, maybe since the Parkinson relegation season!
As much as a wet weekend Appleton was, we tried to play football..
Anything to not criticise the ownership I guess
Yes Jones has his faults but if this doesn't work out that's two seasons of failure under this ownership.
"I don’t like the football under Jones, but all the work he has done behind the scenes, and the position we are in, it would be criminal for him to go!" - DubaiCAFC
In a brief summary. We are not under performing, this is exactly the level of this squad. As each player came in we were doubtful on their quality to take us up the table. Unfortunately our doubts were correct, I just cannot see a top 6 side from any combination within this squad.
We have built a side that won’t get relegated. The only question who will be managing them at the end of the season, as we finished 14th.
I think there is a lot of truth in this.
This is league one and realistically there are probably only a handful of stattos who are familiar with all of the players that move around this league in respect of signings and therefore added to an inflated sense of optimism (and desperate hope) we tend to apply confirmation bias in respect of those coming through the door in the transfer windows.
We do the opposite and do Simone Biles- levels of mental gymnastics to argue why losing the likes of CBT, Dobson and May leaving are 'good' for the team and squad or at least not a massive blow.
It then takes a couple of months for the truth to emerge that whilst not appalling the team is not going to do much beyond make up numbers.
The mental gymnastics and arguments then carry on til January, too much hope is placed on players like Leaburn and Terry Taylor returning from long term injuries and becoming the second incarnations of Alan Shearer and Rodri and that 'it'll be sorted in the January window' until it's not.
It looked like we were moving in the right direction after the clusterfuck of the Dobson saga by getting some bods in early but then the May debacle happened and we stopped signing players with the usual smoke and mirrors of missing out on targets etc.
It's happened pretty much every season since Bowyer put a team together and will probably be the same this year.
Too much expectation being placed on Aneke who wont be available all season and Leaburn who hasnt kicked a ball in months and will need a good while to get up to speed.
Need to throw a ton of money at the squad to get out of this league and simultaneously recruit properly. We haven't been capable of doing both simultaneously and the Charlton way of late clearly doesnt work as we are seeing.
No doubt more 888 PR horeseshit will be spun at future fans forums and PR briefings to cover the abject failure to get it right in the hope that us fans don't cotton on that there's no real masterplan and it's again just hit n hope dice rolling. But to be fair maybe that's the case for most clubs nowdays.
It’s easy to go overboard after a(nother) defeat but what is deflating me most is not seeing signs of improvement.
I wasn’t impressed at all with us in pre season and at the start of season, but I was balanced enough to appreciate it takes time for new arrivals to settle and the team to bed down, and if we were nicking a few results then great.
But we’ve stopped nicking results and the team hasn’t bedded down yet.
What is really disappointing is Jones has brought in a lot of players yet before we’ve even got to the end of September…
Doherty (Captain) - dropped Ahadme - dropped Mitchell - dropped Berry - dropped Godden - can’t get in Small - dropped A Campbell - still not in T Campbell striker experiment - abandoned
We’ve a big squad with what seems like a lot of averageness and already look like we are just shuffling the pack around hoping something works differently to the last game.
Even though Small has his faults, imo he's about the only player we have who can put a decent ball in.
It’s easy to go overboard after a(nother) defeat but what is deflating me most is not seeing signs of improvement.
I wasn’t impressed at all with us in pre season and at the start of season, but I was balanced enough to appreciate it takes time for new arrivals to settle and the team to bed down, and if we were nicking a few results then great.
But we’ve stopped nicking results and the team hasn’t bedded down yet.
What is really disappointing is Jones has brought in a lot of players yet before we’ve even got to the end of September…
Doherty (Captain) - dropped Ahadme - dropped Mitchell - dropped Berry - dropped Godden - can’t get in Small - dropped A Campbell - still not in T Campbell striker experiment - abandoned
We’ve a big squad with what seems like a lot of averageness and already look like we are just shuffling the pack around hoping something works differently to the last game.
Even though Small has his faults, imo he's about the only player we have who can put a decent ball in.
It’s easy to go overboard after a(nother) defeat but what is deflating me most is not seeing signs of improvement.
I wasn’t impressed at all with us in pre season and at the start of season, but I was balanced enough to appreciate it takes time for new arrivals to settle and the team to bed down, and if we were nicking a few results then great.
But we’ve stopped nicking results and the team hasn’t bedded down yet.
What is really disappointing is Jones has brought in a lot of players yet before we’ve even got to the end of September…
Doherty (Captain) - dropped Ahadme - dropped Mitchell - dropped Berry - dropped Godden - can’t get in Small - dropped A Campbell - still not in T Campbell striker experiment - abandoned
We’ve a big squad with what seems like a lot of averageness and already look like we are just shuffling the pack around hoping something works differently to the last game.
Even though Small has his faults, imo he's about the only player we have who can put a decent ball in.
Based on last season? He's been DJ Mk2 when I've seen him play recently.
It feels to me Jones has been backed to an accetable level. Yes, he needs time. He strikes me as being a bit of a nut job but his record is decent. He has improved us defensively but offensively we are as poor as we have ever been. He has a couple of players near the team who may change that. We need to wait and see. For me there is winning football and losing football. That's all I care about.
Well that was depressing. Thought we started ok and moved the ball about well but other than the long range shot from Edwards we created nothing in the first half. Coventrys free kick from just outside of the box was way too high and all his free kicks and corners were equally poor - didn’t we recruit a free kick coach recently?? I really want Kanu to do well but he looked like a boy against men today, couldn’t control the ball, poor use of it when he did keep it and never looked like scoring - mind you nor did Godden whose main ability today was to pass the ball out of play. One consistent theme today was the inability of our players to cross a ball - they either hit the first defender or sailed out of play. I didn’t boo at the end but a number did and I fully understand why as this was poor today
No free kick coach can make Coventry strike the ball better. We should probably have signed a midfielder who is better at taking free kicks.
Berry 32 and Godden 33 (admittedly striker) seem to be past their sell-by, while Docherty and Allan Campbell both look extremely underwhelming. I'm guessing none can stike a dead ball particularly well, or we would have seen evidence by now. At least in Tyreece 21 and Kayroy 19 we have players who are quality on their day and have room for improvement. But before the season began I questioned the lack of a creative midfielder (like a Barry Bannon) but was told we wouldn't need one because it wouldn't fit the type of football we were going to be playing. Well I'd still rather have a Ricky Holmes type of player in the side, no matter what style of play we employ.
Well that was depressing. Thought we started ok and moved the ball about well but other than the long range shot from Edwards we created nothing in the first half. Coventrys free kick from just outside of the box was way too high and all his free kicks and corners were equally poor - didn’t we recruit a free kick coach recently?? I really want Kanu to do well but he looked like a boy against men today, couldn’t control the ball, poor use of it when he did keep it and never looked like scoring - mind you nor did Godden whose main ability today was to pass the ball out of play. One consistent theme today was the inability of our players to cross a ball - they either hit the first defender or sailed out of play. I didn’t boo at the end but a number did and I fully understand why as this was poor today
No free kick coach can make Coventry strike the ball better. We should probably have signed a midfielder who is better at taking free kicks.
Berry 32 and Godden 33 (admittedly striker) seem to be past their sell-by, while Docherty and Allan Campbell both look extremely underwhelming. I'm guessing none can stike a dead ball particularly well, or we would have seen evidence by now. At least in Tyreece 21 and Kayroy 19 we have players who are quality on their day and have room for improvement. But before the season began I questioned the lack of a creative midfielder (like a Barry Bannon) but was told we wouldn't need one because it wouldn't fit the type of football we were going to be playing. Well I'd still rather have a Ricky Holmes type of player in the side, no matter what style of play we employ.
I think you was told right. We don't need a creative midfielder as much as strikers who can put the ball in the net and unsettle defenders. Yes, if we could get one great but they are not easy to find. I'd love a Ricky Holmes where we can play shit and he would score from 25 yards. There is more than one way to skin a cat but too many of our players coudn't hit a barn door with a banjo. That is a big problem.
It’s easy to go overboard after a(nother) defeat but what is deflating me most is not seeing signs of improvement.
I wasn’t impressed at all with us in pre season and at the start of season, but I was balanced enough to appreciate it takes time for new arrivals to settle and the team to bed down, and if we were nicking a few results then great.
But we’ve stopped nicking results and the team hasn’t bedded down yet.
What is really disappointing is Jones has brought in a lot of players yet before we’ve even got to the end of September…
Doherty (Captain) - dropped Ahadme - dropped Mitchell - dropped Berry - dropped Godden - can’t get in Small - dropped A Campbell - still not in T Campbell striker experiment - abandoned
We’ve a big squad with what seems like a lot of averageness and already look like we are just shuffling the pack around hoping something works differently to the last game.
This. We've all been round the block with this club for many many years and are more than qualified to know when a certain side has got something about it. This one like so many others really hasn't!
With the impact some of our new signings have made I do wonder, given the apparent pedigree of these players, if weve just repeated the "trick" we pulled when signing the likes of Ben Watson, Gunter and Arter - only this year weve signed them all at the same time.
Well that was depressing. Thought we started ok and moved the ball about well but other than the long range shot from Edwards we created nothing in the first half. Coventrys free kick from just outside of the box was way too high and all his free kicks and corners were equally poor - didn’t we recruit a free kick coach recently?? I really want Kanu to do well but he looked like a boy against men today, couldn’t control the ball, poor use of it when he did keep it and never looked like scoring - mind you nor did Godden whose main ability today was to pass the ball out of play. One consistent theme today was the inability of our players to cross a ball - they either hit the first defender or sailed out of play. I didn’t boo at the end but a number did and I fully understand why as this was poor today
But before the season began I questioned the lack of a creative midfielder (like a Barry Bannon) but was told we wouldn't need one because it wouldn't fit the type of football we were going to be playing. Well I'd still rather have a Ricky Holmes type of player in the side, no matter what style of play we employ.
Alex Mitchell running back for their goal is how I used to run from monsters in my dreams.
He's a great battling defender, but he does look quite ponderous at times. I'm starting to see why he never broke through at Millwall, he's fine in L1 but maybe not athletic enough for the Championship
Alex Mitchell running back for their goal is how I used to run from monsters in my dreams.
He's a great battling defender, but he does look quite ponderous at times. I'm starting to see why he never broke through at Millwall, he's fine in L1 but maybe not athletic enough for the Championship
He's a defender, not a winger or forward, and as such not expected to be Usain Bolt, he was starting his run back long after the ball had reached the winger from the Keepers quick release almost on the half way line, he did well to get where he did I feel. It was just a well worked release and break into our area, and a well taken goal, sometimes you just have to accept it...
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I say bollocks I say we need a proper strike force as we squandered chances as always
We cannot shoot and cannot score goals 👎👎👎
It isn't the first time he has told a white lie to protect the higher ups in the club, it won't be the last:
https://x.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1756380825841508858?t=lb7gtbs7dDGKlkaUNuXdlw&s=19
It was common knowledge that Dobson was heavily linked with the Hungarian club, but he lied almost immediately before he'd even set foot in the club properly. This is the nature of football.
The football is awful, but it's no different from his predecessors. The difference being, he has proven he can get results, even at a higher level unlike most of the managers we have had.
I just think he needs time and a few transfer windows with some actual cash to secure quality, not chump change.
Got a few solid players with Coventry, Jones, Mitchell, Ramsay etc. Tie them down to better contracts, build slowly. That's the solution. His hands are tied right now imo, he just won't say it for obvious reasons.
If you offered me for the season to end now, mid-table finish, keep Jones and all the players I've mentioned, all the dross out of the club, with more freedom in the transfer market, I'd snap your hand off. This is going to be a slow and ugly process, unless we get cash strapped owners.
Top sides don't have centre backs playing up top cause their strikers can't do a job, and have to rely on academy lads who aren't good enough for the team.
It's the same as every season, groundhog day. Our squad isn't as good as made out, takes a few games for people to figure it out, then the manager takes the hit.
The players who some people think are overrated, or were part of the problem go on to pastures new, and usually do better away from us, aka CBT, May and Dobson. The players that were obviously pretty crap from the get go, can't get clubs or drop down a level, too many to name.
I've said it for a decade now. We have, pound for pound, the worst recruitment team in the whole of the EFL. No one comes close. Big stadium, big-ish London based club, huge potential, good history, but we can't seem to get transfer windows right. Clubs like Peterborough and Oxford United consistently make better use of their budgets and transfer windows.
I said fair dos to them when we brought in Ahadme, Godden, Berry and Docherty, as they were players with a bit about them on paper, unfortunately, the scouting couldn't have been much more than looking at their transfermarkt value, as all 4 have failed to make much of an impact so far. When at least 3 of them should be making this league look comfortable for them. We have a terrible track record of signing players from the league above, honestly terrible.
I wasn’t impressed at all with us in pre season and at the start of season, but I was balanced enough to appreciate it takes time for new arrivals to settle and the team to bed down, and if we were nicking a few results then great.
Doherty (Captain) - dropped
Ahadme - dropped
Mitchell - dropped
Berry - dropped
Godden - can’t get in
Small - dropped
A Campbell - still not in
T Campbell striker experiment - abandoned
We’ve a big squad with what seems like a lot of averageness and already look like we are just shuffling the pack around hoping something works differently to the last game.
However we lost.
Even if we win at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday (a tough ask) and against Birmingham on Saturday (a very tough ask) we would still end up one point behind the target for automatic promotion.
We are quickly slipping into that psychological space that say we need to ‘go on a run’ (of wins) in order to make up ground.
At this rate we will not be far away from play Casey/M’bick/Leaburn/Dixon/Taylor/Zach Mitchell/Rylah territory, after that we get to sack the manager land.
For me the only thing that matters this season is getting results, not the style of play.
On yesterday, one stand out was for a club with a set piece coach I would’ve thought the first task would be to choose a player that can actually take a set piece.
Anderson played better yesterday than the usual showing of Docherty. I believe Berry has already had five bookings and faces a suspension which is pathetic.
Having been to Stevenage away I feel very sorry for our sell out support who dragged themselves to that dreary concrete wonderland and had to endure humiliation from the Stevenage fans. They were let down after a good turn out, just as we were let down at Reading.
We are in a pretty depressing psychological place at the moment. Desperately in need of a talisman to rally round.
Yes Jones has his faults but if this doesn't work out that's two seasons of failure under this ownership.
"I don’t like the football under Jones, but all the work he has done behind the scenes, and the position we are in, it would be criminal for him to go!" - DubaiCAFC
I think there is a lot of truth in this.
This is league one and realistically there are probably only a handful of stattos who are familiar with all of the players that move around this league in respect of signings and therefore added to an inflated sense of optimism (and desperate hope) we tend to apply confirmation bias in respect of those coming through the door in the transfer windows.
We do the opposite and do Simone Biles- levels of mental gymnastics to argue why losing the likes of CBT, Dobson and May leaving are 'good' for the team and squad or at least not a massive blow.
It then takes a couple of months for the truth to emerge that whilst not appalling the team is not going to do much beyond make up numbers.
The mental gymnastics and arguments then carry on til January, too much hope is placed on players like Leaburn and Terry Taylor returning from long term injuries and becoming the second incarnations of Alan Shearer and Rodri and that 'it'll be sorted in the January window' until it's not.
It looked like we were moving in the right direction after the clusterfuck of the Dobson saga by getting some bods in early but then the May debacle happened and we stopped signing players with the usual smoke and mirrors of missing out on targets etc.
It's happened pretty much every season since Bowyer put a team together and will probably be the same this year.
Too much expectation being placed on Aneke who wont be available all season and Leaburn who hasnt kicked a ball in months and will need a good while to get up to speed.
Need to throw a ton of money at the squad to get out of this league and simultaneously recruit properly. We haven't been capable of doing both simultaneously and the Charlton way of late clearly doesnt work as we are seeing.
No doubt more 888 PR horeseshit will be spun at future fans forums and PR briefings to cover the abject failure to get it right in the hope that us fans don't cotton on that there's no real masterplan and it's again just hit n hope dice rolling. But to be fair maybe that's the case for most clubs nowdays.
And to top it off my mate said on the train home ‘cheer up, it’s Birmingham at The Valley next Saturday’ 🙄
Berry 32 and Godden 33 (admittedly striker) seem to be past their sell-by, while Docherty and Allan Campbell both look extremely underwhelming. I'm guessing none can stike a dead ball particularly well, or we would have seen evidence by now.
At least in Tyreece 21 and Kayroy 19 we have players who are quality on their day and have room for improvement.
But before the season began I questioned the lack of a creative midfielder (like a Barry Bannon) but was told we wouldn't need one because it wouldn't fit the type of football we were going to be playing. Well I'd still rather have a Ricky Holmes type of player in the side, no matter what style of play we employ.
This one like so many others really hasn't!
It was just a well worked release and break into our area, and a well taken goal, sometimes you just have to accept it...