What have you learnt so far this season?

I don't enjoy watching how we play. I enjoy the results, but it's frustrating watching limited attacking play fairly consistently. I would of course rather ugly football and stay in the league than pretty and relegated, but still, entertainment wise, none of our players excite me (consistently anyway)

Standard is lower than I expected, feel we have been promoted at the right time. There are no standout champion calibre team (except Coventry) and I think there's so many bad teams we are fortunate and have a chance to cement our championship status. Promotion from League 1 looks more difficult than staying up in this League.

I do and I don't. I feel a lot of sides sit in a false position, and will inevitably overtake us. All my eyes are on Oxford, Wednesday, Blackburn and Hull as the teams to finish above. Slightly concerned we didn't pick up points in games we should have, which could be all the difference by the end of the season, which we all know too well. 

A complete squad overhaul. I would argue only 3 or 4 players look ready to be part of a play-off chasing side, Lloyd, Edwards, Bell and Ramsay before he went through the rough patch. Don't view Bree as our player. Need to see more of Carey, Coventry, Tanto and Apter, other players to tbf who I had high hopes of like Knibbs and Kelman.

To compete at the top we need a new centre back who can bring the ball out (similar to Matt Clarke at Derby) a new all action number 8, who can actually pass, a new 9 who can lead the line, and tbf, maybe even a new set of attackers in general the way things are going.

Final thoughts;

I firmly believe we have the right manager, we are achieving beyond expectations currently, having the lowest valued squad in the league.

We desperately need to stay up and reasses our squad, I feel a fair bit of investment is going to be needed to push on, especially as I am expecting next season to be more difficult with the teams coming down.

it's been an excellent start. We are playing with the same tempo and aggression as per 2nd half of last season, with better quality players spread throughout the squad. The squad is well balanced. 

We are hard to beat but recovering from a goal down to go on to get anything from the game is our achillies heel at the moment with our forwards not scoring yet, bar the 1 from Tanto. When we have to chase the game, we are open to conceding more. 

I'm not overly impressed with the quality of the Champ so far, I expected more. I feel the better teams will find another gear at some point. We need to match that, and I believe what NJ states, we will evolve over the season. 

We are looking fitter than most teams we've faced. 

The level of officiating is absolutely shite, I thought it would improve at this level, with the champ getting more Prem refs, but it seems to be the same as L1 and worse. 

NJ is a proper Charlton manager. We're greater than the sum of our parts. 

The stadium is looking great, the owners have invested in all areas of the club and infrastructure.  

We will stay up comfortably, If we want top 6 and playoffs, we need to spend big in the midfield and the forward areas. 

We are on the up! UTA!

Crowds are on the up

Clean sheets following on from last season

Team working well and not out of place in this division 

However a lack of goals especially from our strikers is something that will need to be addressed as the season continues. The return of Godden will be a help in that 

Said from the start of the season we would keep enough clean sheets to keep us up and my opinion on that hasn't changed. Think the biggest thing we're still learning is the difference in individual quality. Players can look poor and suddenly make a moment out of nothing. Biggest example of this was the Leicester game with their goal and the save from Conor Coventry. Will be a very tight league which means we've got to show consistency and avoid a winless run. Whilst we've been performing better than I thought we would, I would definitely still snap your hand off for a 21st placed finish and staying in the league. 

The difference in goalkeeping ability is also ridiculously big compared to League One. Mentioned the Leicester keeper above but there's been some top saves in the Watford, Bristol City and Sheffield United games as well where we'd probably have another 5 goals against League One keepers 

Not really worried about a relegation scrap based on what I’ve seen so far. If anything, I’m slightly disappointed we’re not higher up the table. With a bit more luck (and sharper finishing), we could easily have beaten Leicester, Millwall, and Bristol.

The only games we didn’t really deserve anything from were the losses to QPR and Preston — and even in those, we looked solid in spells. Overall, feeling pretty positive about the season so far.

We just need more retro shirts in the club shop!

Don't get pissed and tell your girlfriend she can't 

Would’ve taken mid table after 9 games all day long.

Second full season with Nathan Jones as manager. It’s clear to see that he likes to build solid foundations before doing anything more ambitious post Christmas. It happened last season and I’m expecting it to happen again this season.

For me I am just so happy and relieved to be back in the championship. With each year passing, us being a League one club was becoming the norm. And with each failed manager and league campaign more owners would come and lose money and then interest. Through sheer grit and determination we fought our way up last year, the play off final was a sliding doors moment in my view. Lose and off go our best players (Leaburn, Tupac, Jones, Ramsay, Coventry) and the rebuild begins. Jones goes to Cardiff, we get a newbie and the cycle re-starts.......win and we keep the players, become a sexy London club with vast potential, get bigger crowds, do up the stadium, turn our media teams into MTV style comms and be one step from the promised land. The Netflix drama must be coming!

I would be happy with 21st this season. Home form is everything. I think we will lose 15 games overall at least, so supporting them through high and low is crucial. Our pressing style may well be found out a bit as the season goes on, so a plan B is crucial. I do think we'r emissing a proper leader. A talisman, who will step up when things go badly. Yes we have a strong spine, but a Kinsella type player who commands respect and you can see is leading on the pitch. 

Players wise i'm still jury out. There is potential there but being frank most of them are still top league 1 players, and the step up is a big one. Jones i think is there, aside form his head rush moments as a centreback. Coventry is, well, Coventry and dependable and adaptable. Edwards/Ramsay have had their moments but also been shaky too. So fingers crossed. Weirdly i do see huge talent in Kelman, cliche but I think 1 goal and he will go on a run.

Our manager has a culture and it works for the club. Hard work, fight for every ball, press and be aggressive. Is it good to watch, not for me, but this season is about results and staying up.

Football goes in cycles for alot of clubs bar the top 6 or 7 in the Prem. Your time in the sun comes and you last it out as long as you can. My gut tells me if we stay up this year, our turn is coming round again and this time may it last longer than 7 years.

Just happy to have Nathan Jones tbh

Braziliance said:

Garrymanilow said:

I've learned that the modern football fan sees their role as criticising no matter what. If you're in L1 it's not good enough. If you get promoted then the players aren't good enough. If you have a decent transfer window and sign good players then the spend isn't enough compared to everyone else. You say in the summer that finishing 21st would be a great result but once the season starts every unsuccessful game is a disaster. Being midtable after 9 games isn't good enough, there's still anger and head shaking. The football isn't fun to watch, the wins come too late, the other teams are better than us (even when they lose to us), the sky is perpetually falling and only the fans can see it. I do wonder a bit if anyone actually enjoys supporting the football team anymore. I was hoping the positivity would last a bit longer after promotion, especially given the decent start, but some of you really need to chill. We're in the Championship! We get to play Leicester and Watford instead of Stockport and Mansfield! Cheer up a bit!

Last time we were in the Championship at this stage we had won 5, drawn 2 and lost 2, were sitting on 17 points instead of 12, had scored 12 goals and conceded 8, compared to our current 8/8, just beating eventual Champions, Leeds United at home, and I think we were even in the play-offs? 

We of course ended that season in relegation. 

But not much later that season we had a fairly horrific injury crisis that meant we were calling youth team players back from loan in non-league to not just bolster the squad but play in games, not to mention all the upheaval caused by the Nimer/Southall shenanigans and Covid. We are in a much better position as a club this time, even if injuries and suspensions aren't something that we can really account for.
Personally, I'm finding the football better this season - much less head tennis and midfield ping pong than in League One, and while the general dearth of goals from the strikers is a bit of a concern, the defenders and midfielders are chipping in, and scoring some bloody good goals. I've no idea where we going to end up, but I'm enjoying the ride.

That no matter who the manager is and who the players are we can't seem to beat Millwall.