Ignoring how utterly shit we are and basically Bolton apart we have been all season i sat in the Stevenage end with petrol heads mate and dad (spurs fans who live near Stevenage) cos nephew had my ticket Damian Matthew was scouting , don’t know who for . Chuks kept shouting ‘dig’ in the second half when we were moving forward 🤷♂️ Gary Nelson was there and gave me a nod of recognition as I waited outside the away end for my twunts to come out , I prolly look like an old pro (brass) also saw Covered End and I think the other fella with him was East terrace ?? who I shook hands with and he said I’m 60% oohaah
I do smile at people bemoaning the loss of George Dobson and his replacements not being up to his standard - when George Dobson was dropped 6,7,8 games into his career at Charlton, for not being good enough to be a replacement for the midfielders that came before him.
This example is becoming a bit overused. He was dropped by Adkins for a mistake. When he came back he was never out of the team.
Well, I’m not blaming Chuks, but he has to bury that chance
He's missed a couple of easy headers as well recently.
I'm not blaming Chuks either for our recent performances but he 's got to be more clinical when he gets a chance.
Maybe only playing 20/30 minutes at most every game he's just not at his sharpest & never will be. Despite scoring the occasional great goal how many easy chances has he been missing ?
8 games in to the season we’ve score 7 and conceded 6 now where have I seen that before what an incredibly dull team we have become we’d have drawn that match last season 🙄 in our worst season in 98 years
That we are equal on points with 6th after 8 games compared to last season is a positive still for me. The only real concern is that after a brief respite last season we are again without a goalscorer. Leaburn could be the answer. Looks like Ahadme and Godden are not.
Doesn't matter who you have up front if you don't give them chances they won't score.
So how did May manage it last year? I don't remember too many comments about what a fricking great midfield we had.
Because he shoots at every opportunity whereas our forwards are shot shy
A couple of musings following our trip to Stevenage this afternoon & after reading just the 1st page of posts on this thread.
I was a NJ "cheerleader" when feelers were put out for a new manager. And whilst I haven't given up the hope that my nomination was a legitimate one, I confess that I am beginning to somewhat doubt its validity.
You might say it's early days to question whether we have the manager to lead us upwards & onwards and in some ways, I agree, especially when reviewing the results from the first 3 games of this season. They weren't memorable victories but as I think the majority of us would say, its the results that count/this squad needs more time to gel/the positive signs are definitely there/the defence looks 100% better etc etc.
A buzz, a feeling of excitement was almost palpable amongst Addicks at that point. Just look back on the Post Match threads from those games. And, dare I whisper it, the question on our lips was "could this be THE season ?"
It's abundantly clear that the back line has been vastly improved. And, possibly as the by product of its strength, our new young 'keeper has rarely been troubled. All tickety boo there, then....except to ask is the gaffer spoilt for choice ? Does he know his best combination for the defensive roles ?
Next, midfield. An area which appears to be lightweight, to say the least. IMO, Conor Coventry is the only player that looks comfortable on the ball & who puts his heart & soul into his game. Dare I say Dobsonesque? However, I was also impressed by Terry Taylor's endeavour when he was finally given his opportunity to show what he could do at Cambridge recently. But on the whole, I am not wonderfully impressed by the remaining candidates....just my opinion.
Finally, the forwards. En route to today's match, when we were stranded for an hour on the M25 due to an accident, it was decided that we have SEVEN ( Ah, Len Goodman!) players in the squad to cover those postions....but of course only Kanu, TC, Gassan & Godden are currently fit enough to play for a full 90 minutes and thus far, none of the combinations used has provided a huge amount of end product. Yes, we have Chuks as a bit part player and Miles hopefully on the brink of consideration but the proof of the pudding ....and meanwhile we are giving the opposition 'keepers a fairly quiet time.
My over riding feeling is to question whether NJ has too many options available to him when he sits down to choose his matchday squad & in particular, his starting eleven. And, whether he has chosen wisely when selecting players to bring in ie "prioritising" those who he's worked with at his former clubs, indicating that he knows their strengths & trusts them to not let him down....THAT was then. THIS is now....
It's clear that I have no solutions to the current dilemma, purely questions. The solutions are in Nathan's remit. And I agree with fellow Lifers that are wondering how the faithful will react should the current malaise continue....
I will always be honest & add that I have no personal experience of the Beautiful Game.
However, I will always comment on what I see out there on the pitch ..what I like or dislike.
And I fervently hope that the "recipe" for success is found sooner rather than later, for the sake of all concerned.
We do not Score goals and we need a decent strike force, otherwise we will never leave this horrible league 👎👎👎
We had at least half a decent strike force but apparently he didn't follow instructions & ran around in an unpredictable fashion. Is it just me that thinks maybe he managed to score 20+ goals for the last few seasons BECAUSE he ran around in an unpredictable fashion & defenders found him difficult to mark ? Still what do I know, in jones we trust
Another awful performance. Very little to get excited about. Big respect to anyone who went, because it had a such a high chance of being a terribad game.
Just glad we have some points on the board. Coin-flipping every game with hoofball isn't even exciting and cannot be fixed. Feels like we overprioritised the defensive side in both pre-season and recruitment, and we are paying the price. These players don't have the technical ability to do anything in the final third and we're going to be back to trying to force mistakes.
No reason not to try Taylor now. I'm glad NJ tried something different at least, but I don't think several of these players are smart or good enough to adapt. It's almost like they really just need to go back to real basics to create chances.
So disappointing after the decent start, but I think that batch of teams just outside playoffs is probably our place.
It depresses me beyond belief just how continually toilet we are in these types of games. They had just 3,000 home fans there. Their main stand is just 9 rows deep. They make pittance income from away fans as all they cater from is a tiny hut borrowed from the local fair.
Our budget must absolutely dwarf the likes of Stevenage. Yet year after year we can’t elevate ourselves above the likes of Stevenage.
Sick of it. Change owners, change managers, change players, same result. I’ve no idea how we are ever going to break it, but I can’t see it being this season so another guaranteed 20 months of this L1 drabness awaits.
As for the actual game, we weren’t so direct with no Ahadme and we looked relatively comfortable in the first 25 mins. But once Stevenage realised our sideways play contained no threat they grew in confidence.
Jones managed to finally get his Potts in the team and Edwards was brought back in. Neither were going to able to play 90 mins so that was two of our sub quota guaranteed on two defensive left sided players. Edwards struggled more than I would have liked against their right sided player.
The lack of creativity is becoming a real red flag now. I would love Jones to explain to me when we signed all these players, what is / was the plan A to scoring goals. Surely he must be as frustrated as we are, he obviously wants to win more than anything. I just don’t get where we think the chances which would then deliver a percentage of goals are going to come from.
Depressing day. Only salvaged by spending time with one of lads, having a pint and long overdue catch up with @CharltonCharlie and another pal pre match, then sharing the journey home with @EastTerrace and friends
I do smile at people bemoaning the loss of George Dobson and his replacements not being up to his standard - when George Dobson was dropped 6,7,8 games into his career at Charlton, for not being good enough to be a replacement for the midfielders that came before him.
He wasn’t as good as Bielik or Cullen or Gallagher, i.e. what came before, but he was better than any of the midfielders he played with and anything that came since. And that’s exactly the point - we’ve all seen this movie before and we know how it ends. The “upgrades” nearly always turn out to be downgrades and on the odd occasion they don’t we eventually sell them and sign someone worse anyway.
So you can understand people concern over the manager and those responsible fotl recruiting. When we sign a striker who is not the correct type to play the way our team is set up.
Also when the manager sells your 23 goals season striker for another formation.
IF the next 10 games bring a poor points return this will be slung in his face, and rightly so.
I will add that I want Jones to stay here and give him time.
“We work religiously on [creating chances]. We’ll do that work and then we want people to be confident to make the right decisions. We get in really good areas but the delivery or something is not there. It summed it up right at the end where Macca – who is the best technician at the football club – gets an opportunity to just lever it into an area. We work on that every single week but he puts it well out the back and it deflates everyone.
I do smile at people bemoaning the loss of George Dobson and his replacements not being up to his standard - when George Dobson was dropped 6,7,8 games into his career at Charlton, for not being good enough to be a replacement for the midfielders that came before him.
He wasn’t as good as Bielik or Cullen or Gallagher, i.e. what came before, but he was better than any of the midfielders he played with and anything that came since. And that’s exactly the point - we’ve all seen this movie before and we know how it ends. The “upgrades” nearly always turn out to be downgrades and on the odd occasion they don’t we eventually sell them and sign someone worse anyway.
This sums it for me too. A general decline and a death of a thousand cuts.
We just didn't look like winners of the game at any stage. Loud support despite the performance.
Last season we were drawing these games despite playing badly most weeks, start of the season we got a couple of wins and now we are losing and playing badly.
The constant has been the fairly poor performances most weeks. Tighter at the back but shocking in final third and that’s been the case since Feb, just no Alfie May to get us out of jail
“We work religiously on [creating chances]. We’ll do that work and then we want people to be confident to make the right decisions. We get in really good areas but the delivery or something is not there. It summed it up right at the end where Macca – who is the best technician at the football club – gets an opportunity to just lever it into an area. We work on that every single week but he puts it well out the back and it deflates everyone.
It’s true. He set up all the CCTV and alarm systems at the training ground apparently
“We work religiously on [creating chances]. We’ll do that work and then we want people to be confident to make the right decisions. We get in really good areas but the delivery or something is not there. It summed it up right at the end where Macca – who is the best technician at the football club – gets an opportunity to just lever it into an area. We work on that every single week but he puts it well out the back and it deflates everyone.
Cafc fan base🤦♂️ jones come in last season and done a great job, yes losing may & dobbo were a big loss, most of us looked at the summer recruitment and were reasonably happy with it, yes creative midfielders were missing but I think most of us were happy? 4 games in, 3 wins and a draw plus clean sheets, yes the football wasn’t great but wins a win, now we are not winning and the football isn’t great jones isn’t any good and not wanted ? jesus give the bloke a chance
We just don’t have any decent forwards. I accept that Kanu is a hard worker but how many times does he lose position. Godden had another mare. Only T Campbell looked like a decent forward but he can’t do it on his own. No wonder why our defence eventually concede a goal with all the unnecessary pressure they are put under because the forwards can’t hold on to the ball for more than half a second and the hoof ball. I guess that we are all waiting for the return of Miles but that’s a lot of pressure to put him under. However I would like to see him and Chuks playing together leading the line.
Thing is NJ had something to build on with the likes of May and Dobbo. The Kanu experiment has failed….no pace no first touch and not good in the air. Maybe Leaburn can improve us up front. The ex-Luton journeymen are not firing at all….think NJ will be gone in new year and we will be facing a relegation battle without Alfie’s goals to bail us out…..depressing
I do smile at people bemoaning the loss of George Dobson and his replacements not being up to his standard - when George Dobson was dropped 6,7,8 games into his career at Charlton, for not being good enough to be a replacement for the midfielders that came before him.
He wasn’t as good as Bielik or Cullen or Gallagher, i.e. what came before, but he was better than any of the midfielders he played with and anything that came since. And that’s exactly the point - we’ve all seen this movie before and we know how it ends. The “upgrades” nearly always turn out to be downgrades and on the odd occasion they don’t we eventually sell them and sign someone worse anyway.
This.
We are steadily going backwards. We've not had a decent striker since Taylor left & when we finally get one that can score more than 15 in a season we promptly sell him & bring in worse.
None of the summer recruits can you say "get you off your seat". Mitchell & Edwards are decent signings and Godden has previously shown he can score, but the rest are just meh. I have to admit I knew nothing about most of the summer signings- none are what you could say are "names" in this division or players others teams would fear when they see the team sheet. Players like Berry & Docherty might have gained promotion with other teams but neither are "standouts" and are just members of the squad. Where are the Mortimers, Andy Reids or Ricky Holmes ? Or even Aribo's or Cullen's.
I do smile at people bemoaning the loss of George Dobson and his replacements not being up to his standard - when George Dobson was dropped 6,7,8 games into his career at Charlton, for not being good enough to be a replacement for the midfielders that came before him.
He wasn’t as good as Bielik or Cullen or Gallagher, i.e. what came before, but he was better than any of the midfielders he played with and anything that came since. And that’s exactly the point - we’ve all seen this movie before and we know how it ends. The “upgrades” nearly always turn out to be downgrades and on the odd occasion they don’t we eventually sell them and sign someone worse anyway.
Not only are they seasoned Championship campaigners already, I also have a strong belief that the midfielders that replaced Dobson (Allan Campbell, Greg Docherty…) will each add more Championship appearances to their tallies in future than George Dobson will ever have.
Love George but he’s not much more than a decent third tier player.
So if the replacements can’t do it here, is the problem them or us?
Positives - the keeper looks ok so far TC- I like his energy and with the lack of skill with the rest he is the go to man
Negatives- I don’t think the defence is as brilliant as we hoped , we’re gonna leak a few when we play the top teams if they can be bothered to have a go at us . The ref looked quicker than Mitchell looking at their goal and he looks heavy as does Edwards , L Jones is pretty dominant aerially but when he’s run at he can struggle Coventrys delivery is pretty much horrific more than not but he doesn’t look that bad in a sea of shit Kanu is non league N Jones is a slight upgrade on a Stuart Pearce up and at em manager and that initial spark they offer can disintegrate pretty quickly .
Hopes (dreams more like but no chance) - I think Berry and Godden show positive intent and could be a threat . With the law of averages surely most of these players can’t be as shit as they have looked for 90% of the season so far . The Leaburn boost will give us a lift .
We ain’t getting promoted when a team like Stevenage can completely outplay us. We’ve got our summer recruitment wrong, again! I’m afraid some of that is down to NJ.
replace "some of" with "all of" He has total control over recruitment
Comments
i sat in the Stevenage end with petrol heads mate and dad (spurs fans who live near Stevenage) cos nephew had my ticket
Damian Matthew was scouting , don’t know who for .
Chuks kept shouting ‘dig’ in the second half when we were moving forward 🤷♂️
Gary Nelson was there and gave me a nod of recognition as I waited outside the away end for my twunts to come out , I prolly look like an old pro (brass)
also saw Covered End and I think the other fella with him was East terrace ?? who I shook hands with and he said I’m 60% oohaah
can’t wait for this season to finish
0% Top two
18% 3rd-6th
65% 7th-12th
17% 13th-20th
100% dog turd
Better hope Docherty, Ahadme etc. are the same.
what an incredibly dull team we have become
we’d have drawn that match last season 🙄 in our worst season in 98 years
I was a NJ "cheerleader" when feelers were put out for a new manager. And whilst I haven't given up the hope that my nomination was a legitimate one, I confess that I am beginning to somewhat doubt its validity.
You might say it's early days to question whether we have the manager to lead us upwards & onwards and in some ways, I agree, especially when reviewing the results from the first 3 games of this season. They weren't memorable victories but as I think the majority of us would say, its the results that count/this squad needs more time to gel/the positive signs are definitely there/the defence looks 100% better etc etc.
A buzz, a feeling of excitement was almost palpable amongst Addicks at that point. Just look back on the Post Match threads from those games. And, dare I whisper it, the question on our lips was "could this be THE season ?"
It's abundantly clear that the back line has been vastly improved. And, possibly as the by product of its strength, our new young 'keeper has rarely been troubled. All tickety boo there, then....except to ask is the gaffer spoilt for choice ? Does he know his best combination for the defensive roles ?
Next, midfield. An area which appears to be lightweight, to say the least. IMO, Conor Coventry is the only player that looks comfortable on the ball & who puts his heart & soul into his game. Dare I say Dobsonesque? However, I was also impressed by Terry Taylor's endeavour when he was finally given his opportunity to show what he could do at Cambridge recently. But on the whole, I am not wonderfully impressed by the remaining candidates....just my opinion.
Finally, the forwards. En route to today's match, when we were stranded for an hour on the M25 due to an accident, it was decided that we have SEVEN ( Ah, Len Goodman!) players in the squad to cover those postions....but of course only Kanu, TC, Gassan & Godden are currently fit enough to play for a full 90 minutes and thus far, none of the combinations used has provided a huge amount of end product. Yes, we have Chuks as a bit part player and Miles hopefully on the brink of consideration but the proof of the pudding ....and meanwhile we are giving the opposition 'keepers a fairly quiet time.
My over riding feeling is to question whether NJ has too many options available to him when he sits down to choose his matchday squad & in particular, his starting eleven. And, whether he has chosen wisely when selecting players to bring in ie "prioritising" those who he's worked with at his former clubs, indicating that he knows their strengths & trusts them to not let him down....THAT was then. THIS is now....
It's clear that I have no solutions to the current dilemma, purely questions. The solutions are in Nathan's remit. And I agree with fellow Lifers that are wondering how the faithful will react should the current malaise continue....
I will always be honest & add that I have no personal experience of the Beautiful Game.
However, I will always comment on what I see out there on the pitch ..what I like or dislike.
And I fervently hope that the "recipe" for success is found sooner rather than later, for the sake of all concerned.
Just glad we have some points on the board. Coin-flipping every game with hoofball isn't even exciting and cannot be fixed. Feels like we overprioritised the defensive side in both pre-season and recruitment, and we are paying the price. These players don't have the technical ability to do anything in the final third and we're going to be back to trying to force mistakes.
No reason not to try Taylor now. I'm glad NJ tried something different at least, but I don't think several of these players are smart or good enough to adapt. It's almost like they really just need to go back to real basics to create chances.
So disappointing after the decent start, but I think that batch of teams just outside playoffs is probably our place.
As for the actual game, we weren’t so direct with no Ahadme and we looked relatively comfortable in the first 25 mins. But once Stevenage realised our sideways play contained no threat they grew in confidence.
Jones managed to finally get his Potts in the team and Edwards was brought back in. Neither were going to able to play 90 mins so that was two of our sub quota guaranteed on two defensive left sided players. Edwards struggled more than I would have liked against their right sided player.
In a public place that gets you in trouble with the police.
“We work religiously on [creating chances]. We’ll do that work and then we want people to be confident to make the right decisions. We get in really good areas but the delivery or something is not there. It summed it up right at the end where Macca – who is the best technician at the football club – gets an opportunity to just lever it into an area. We work on that every single week but he puts it well out the back and it deflates everyone.
We just didn't look like winners of the game at any stage. Loud support despite the performance.
Tighter at the back but shocking in final third and that’s been the case since Feb, just no Alfie May to get us out of jail
most of us looked at the summer recruitment and were reasonably happy with it, yes creative midfielders were missing but I think most of us were happy? 4 games in, 3 wins and a draw plus clean sheets, yes the football wasn’t great but wins a win, now we are not winning and the football isn’t great jones isn’t any good and not wanted ?
jesus give the bloke a chance
I guess that we are all waiting for the return of Miles but that’s a lot of pressure to put him under. However I would like to see him and Chuks playing together leading the line.
Very depressing but when isn't it.
Charlton have been a horror show for so long now, it's joyless pain, that's our lot.
That's our prize.
We are steadily going backwards. We've not had a decent striker since Taylor left & when we finally get one that can score more than 15 in a season we promptly sell him & bring in worse.
None of the summer recruits can you say "get you off your seat". Mitchell & Edwards are decent signings and Godden has previously shown he can score, but the rest are just meh. I have to admit I knew nothing about most of the summer signings- none are what you could say are "names" in this division or players others teams would fear when they see the team sheet. Players like Berry & Docherty might have gained promotion with other teams but neither are "standouts" and are just members of the squad. Where are the Mortimers, Andy Reids or Ricky Holmes ? Or even Aribo's or Cullen's.
Love George but he’s not much more than a decent third tier player.
So if the replacements can’t do it here, is the problem them or us?
TC- I like his energy and with the lack of skill with the rest he is the go to man
Negatives- I don’t think the defence is as brilliant as we hoped , we’re gonna leak a few when we play the top teams if they can be bothered to have a go at us .
The ref looked quicker than Mitchell looking at their goal and he looks heavy as does Edwards , L Jones is pretty dominant aerially but when he’s run at he can struggle
Coventrys delivery is pretty much horrific more than not but he doesn’t look that bad in a sea of shit
Kanu is non league
N Jones is a slight upgrade on a Stuart Pearce up and at em manager and that initial spark they offer can disintegrate pretty quickly .
Hopes (dreams more like but no chance) - I think Berry and Godden show positive intent and could be a threat .
With the law of averages surely most of these players can’t be as shit as they have looked for 90% of the season so far .
The Leaburn boost will give us a lift .
He has total control over recruitment