By John Stanton
KYEL Reid has launched a robust defence of manager Phil Parkinson and insists the Charlton players are the ones to blame for Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Brighton.
The winger, who will miss the next month because of an ankle injury picked up during the game, has revealed the squad and coaching staff held talks this week to discuss where they have been going wrong.
And Reid is adamant that the players must shoulder the responsibility for the below-par showing.
“We’ve all sat down since Saturday and gone through what we think we need to do as a team to improve,” said Reid.
“We’re all good players but we need to find that team spirit and it’s important that we come out fighting. We’ve been working really hard in training this week and we’ve been focusing on bonding ourselves together.
“Everyone had a chance to speak up and say what they thought was going right and what was going wrong. It wasn’t about blaming individuals, but looking at what the whole team can do better to move forward.
“We’re all at fault and we all need to work hard to make amends for it.
“I believe we have the right players and the right manager - it’s just about the ones who are selected going out on the pitch doing themselves justice.
“Not one player is doubting the gaffer. He’s one of the best I’ve worked under and we all love him.
“He has our 100 per cent support and the players will be trying to turn it around for him because he deserves more than we gave on Saturday.
“That result was not acceptable and we need to put it behind us.
“We felt that we let everyone down. Brighton are a decent side but we shouldn’t be losing like that at home. On Saturday the team will be ready and I can’t see us not getting a result at Carlisle.”
Comments
I can.
Hope he is right as it's a long way to go to see a defeat.
He's hardly going to come out and say PP is rubbish and we all want a new manager.
Maybe some players do have issues with Parky, but Reid wouldn't have signed for us if he did.
Saturday is going to be interesting. Not often so many fans are expecting us to lose the next two or three games.
Oh dear....
More likely they love him because he's a really nice chap who never shouts at them and doesn't even drop them when they've turned in one terrible performance after another.
On Mourinho, the Chelsea and Inter players who had him as boss purr about him like love sick children, as do most United players about Fergie, even Beckham
agreed. we could/should be in a worse position now than we actually are. You cannot make an arguement for us being higher in the table.
Without wishing to be cynical but a press story where a player supports the manager who signed him isn't unknown, but what else could he say?
I agree tactics played a massive part in our loss at the weekend, but i can't see Greg Abbott coming out with some suprising tactical master peice on Saturday.
Before playing Brentford who were bottom of the league- Parky said he told the players to expect a very tough game and was angry that they had not heeded his words. I would suggest that rather than big limited opponents up, he should treat them with disdain. He should have ordered his troops to crush them from the off. I'm sure he succeeded in installing too much respect for our opponents.
However, it does not matter how respected you are as a manager by your playrrs, this is aresults business and at some stage, based on results, murray will make a decision.
When you're winning and scoring goals, you don't really get many phone calls from your friends in football, but if you lose 4-0, you'll get loads.
Unfortunately, my phone never stopped ringing last Saturday after we'd been beaten at home by Brighton.
The last thing you want to do after a result like that is chat about it but rather than turn off the phone, it's important to grit your teeth and take the calls. My old manager at Dagenham, John Still, used to tell us never to get too high or too low, which was great advice.
It's not that your fellow players are taking the Mickey, either. They've just seen the result and are interested to know what went wrong and how it came about.
I was telling them that I didn't think we'd played that badly, which might sound strange. Of course, we didn't play well but I thought we played worse against Notts County earlier in the season and we won 1-0.
At the moment, the problem is our decision making; knowing when to hit the ball long and when to pass it short. We're not always doing the right thing at the right time but I feel we're so close to getting it right. We're not quite there but I can see it clicking soon.
After the Brighton game, I expected a rocket from our manager Phil Parkinson but it didn't really happen. His style was to think carefully about what he was going to say next and speak in a reserved and measured manner, which worked just as well as if he'd been shouting and hollering.
He made us feel as though we'd let him
down and that he was disappointed in us, so it had just as good an effect as throwing teacups would have had.
When you have a result like that, you probably think about it that evening and then forget about it, which is pretty much what the manager has done. With a six-hour coach journey to Carlisle tomorrow, we all need to find ways of passing the time but I wouldn't recommend dwelling on the Brighton game.
I like to keep my mind active on away trips so I'll probably play Tiger Woods PGA Tour and other computer games on my iPhone. A few of the boys like to play Mario Kart and have a tournament going, which always kills a couple of hours and our forward, Akpo Sodje, surprised me when I saw the box set of the BBC drama The Tudors on his seat.
It's the last thing I expected Akpo to be watching, because he's never given any impression of being interested in history. Perhaps he'll soon be giving us lectures about Henry VIII and his six wives before training. Or maybe not.
When we get to the hotel, Akpo will have to tear himself away from tales of Tudor England because we all usually have a swim and a warm down before having our evening meal together. Then, it's time for bed.
You can pay £50 to have your own room on away trips but I'm tight, so I share with another forward, Pawel Abbott. Luckily for me, Paw doesn't snore and he goes to bed at a reasonable hour, so he's no problem.
I've had a couple of bad room-mates in my time, such as one who woke me up at 2.30am because he was having a shower. He'd go to sleep, wake up, decide he needed a shower and then go back to bed. Bizarre.
At Carlisle, the key is to put in a performance for 90 minutes. We've put in a couple of 45s where we've looked good but we have to do that over the whole game on Saturday.
Therefore can someone please explain to me why we leave opposition players totally unmarked on the edge of our penalty area at corners.
We had 11 players withdrawn in the box yet we still allowed this to happen against Brighton (first goal conceded) then a couple of minutes later the same thing happened and we got away with it as the blokes shot just off target.
This simple non-defending trait has been with us since Curbs left and very prevalent under Pardew and still very much in stilled under Parky.
I have been supporting Charlton for 49 years, we have always had average and sometimes poor players mixed in with the good.I have to say this is, with about 4 or 5 exceptions the poorest bunch that i have seen.
“We’re all good players but we need to find that team spirit and it’s important that we come out fighting. We’ve been working really hard in training this week and we’ve been focusing on bonding ourselves together.
This part of the interview concerns me the most, why now 12 games in are they still trying to "find that team spirit"? Surely after a pre-season for most of them and the aforesaid 12 games, not to menton training together every bloody day of the week are they still trying and focusing on bonding together??
They are team, a squad, and they SHOULD be playing for each other and the club, not still trying to find a team spirit for gods sake......!!!
It's the last thing I expected Akpo to be watching, because he's never given any impression of being interested in history. Perhaps he'll soon be giving us lectures about Henry VIII and his six wives before training. Or maybe not.
Is this for real? this has got to be the funniest windup ever!