It's not Bob's fault is it? Boredom is setting in as we continue to endure the consequences of diminishing possibilities. We are largely reliant now on Lady Luck, left only with the dream of discovering a cheap superstar. This dream however serves only to taunt the hopes of the loyal football supporters who are being largely ignored as this experimental business model rumbles on. The wider football business is so badly tarnished that I am not even sure what there is to play for anymore, but hope still lurks as 2015 and the Jan transfer window wait for our attentions. Happy New Year to you all.
Same of you lot talk so much rubbish. Yes we are on a bad run at the moment we have a small squad that needs 2 or 3 new players, but we are 13th at the start of the new year how many people would be happy with that at the start of the season? If we go on a run we will jump up the table and if we'll lose some more we will drop down it but we will not get relegated. I don't get why some are calling for bobs head I have seen us play some good football and bad football.
Plus why are some calling for Roland to sell. What is going on with Charlton is a massive rebuilding for the whole club on and off the field as other boards before have scwed us over big time and it will take time to sort it all out We are not good enough to play in the premiership yet and why go up to come straight back down?
So how about everyone takes a deep breath and just relax abit. And before I get slagged off I'm a season ticket holder for 19 years in a row and I go to away games as well.
Agree with your first paragraph completely, we're far better off than we were this time last season so not sure why people are panicking. Do people really expect us to be top 2 or something? We're above sides like Fulham and Wigan who were in the prem for years and above sides like Brighton who have far bigger budgets than us. Things could be a lot worse. I don't agree about the premier league thing though, I'd much prefer to go up, get 60m and come back down a stronger side than stay in this division.
It's not Bob's fault is it? Boredom is setting in as we continue to endure the consequences of diminishing possibilities. We are largely reliant now on Lady Luck, left only with the dream of discovering a cheap superstar. This dream however serves only to taunt the hopes of the loyal football supporters who are being largely ignored as this experimental business model rumbles on. The wider football business is so badly tarnished that I am not even sure what there is to play for anymore, but hope still lurks as 2015 and the Jan transfer window wait for our attentions. Happy New Year to you all.
Did you read Barney Ronay's column on Alan Pardew by any chance??
Our actual defending from corners last night from the original cross was ok (considering how many corners they actually had), it was the second ball/reaction that let us down.
That can be the problem with zonal marking. If the original cross is cleared and you push up 5 or 10 yards, who/what/where are you marking when the second ball comes in. The second goal was a prime example of this.
I think it's a tad harsh to give the guy too much flak. But for better finishing in the last 3 home games we'd be in 8th place. Not many managers get it right in their first season with new players. How many seasons has it taken McCarthy to get it right at Ipswich ? Managers need time.
I don't think Peeters has got much longer left here.
No wins in 7 league games now definitely won't help him. The Brighton game is huge for BP as we have two tricky away games at Watford & Wolves after so it could easily become no wins in 10 soon!
3+ new players need to join us in the first week of Jan to stop our drop down the table. On current form from the current bunch we are likely to be only 3 or 4 points of relegation come deadline day if we don't do our business early.
It's all about results. We have won THREE games since the sixteenth of September. in EIGHTEEN games. That is pretty poor in anybody's language.With the advent of three points for a win it is imperative that a few more wins are picked up. Although if we draw everyone of our remaining fixtures we will probably be safe.
Our actual defending from corners last night from the original cross was ok (considering how many corners they actually had), it was the second ball/reaction that let us down.
That can be the problem with zonal marking. If the original cross is cleared and you push up 5 or 10 yards, who/what/where are you marking when the second ball comes in. The second goal was a prime example of this.
The Cardiff goal was a second ball as well.
Of course BP should be given more time, though I do wonder if RD regrets not keeping Jose Riga on...
We think we all know what needs to be done in January, ie bring some quality players in, but whose to say we're not going to cock it up and end up selling our best players instead?
There's no guarantees of anything, the dealings of last January won't go away.
I know we added quality in the summer, but Roland might think Bob's got enough to do the task in hand.
tony Watt and a n other Liege unwanted / out of contract player, and that could be your lot, sorry for sounding so bleeding gloomy.
Our surprise early success has created a weird sense of entitlement amongst fans. Think back to the summer - our pitch and ground were a shambles, we had a threadbare squad and had narrowly avoided relegation.
We brought in a smattering of quality players - enough to mean that on our day we look great, but on others we don't. Trouble is, a truckload of those good days happened to come along at the beginning of the season, and now anything less feels like a letdown. However, even when we lose, the gulf in quality between last season's squad and the current crop is fairly clear - we'll be fine.
Would we have liked a complete overall of the squad, with another 5 or 6 quality signings? Of course. Can we reasonably have expected the owner to have spent that type of cash? I'm not so sure.
It could get worserer. Don't forget the January window is the last chance to get some cash in to pay Aprils tax bill. Wonder who we'll get thirty quid for this year??
Our surprise early success has created a weird sense of entitlement amongst fans. Think back to the summer - our pitch and ground were a shambles, we had a threadbare squad and had narrowly avoided relegation.
We brought in a smattering of quality players - enough to mean that on our day we look great, but on others we don't. Trouble is, a truckload of those good days happened to come along at the beginning of the season, and now anything less feels like a letdown. However, even when we lose, the gulf in quality between last season's squad and the current crop is fairly clear - we'll be fine.
Would we have liked a complete overall of the squad, with another 5 or 6 quality signings? Of course. Can we reasonably have expected the owner to have spent that type of cash? I'm not so sure.
The state of the pitch is neither here nor there. I don't think it's too much for supporters to ask for a covering of green stuff, just like most of the other clubs in the country.
We still have a threadbare squad, and as for just escaping relegation, well, we have scored the same amount of goals this season as we had last season and so it's reasonable to expect we will be near the bottom again unless we get in a quality striker very very soon.
All a bit reactionary to me. We are on a bad run. 90% of clubs have a bad run. That's the joy of football because the same bunch can equally then go on a good run.
I wasn't a huge fan of Peeters when appointed, I wasn't fully won other when we had a great start, but I equally won't turn now we are in a sticky patch. Unless he has fallen out with the majority of the squad, which I've seen or heard no evidence of, the. We are nothing that one win won't sort out.
But we, and he, need that win soon
This for me. Although Big Bob's appointment has never quite done it for me, we aren't bottom of the table. I think we rode our luck a little at the start of the season and we seem to splutter on and off during games rather too much, but against Cardiff only a few days ago we showed what we can do. We should have won that game in the end as we should have done a few others but we are where we are. It is going to be interesting to see what Roland does next.
We have a paper thin squad and now that is beginning to tell, with the players we have, we're (at best) a mid table team and that's exactly where we are! Not sure what some of you are expecting....?
Think back a year and the state we were being left in by the old regime, things have improved and I'm hopeful that will continue to happen, but these things take time - have some patience!!!
Actually, i think if the comments here are a representative then its much more measured and balanced than that.
No one likes losing, and no one likes going down the table instead of up, but equally not too many people seem to be pressing panic buttons yet, which is encouraging to see.
I had expected 40 points by now with a struggle towards the end of the season...
Bob is not getting the players to perform, has no decent tactics and has been lucky to accumulate 31 points so far,
We should be around 18th when you judge it by how we are playing. Luckily some teams are shitter than us right now and hopefully it'll remain that way.
We've been largely disappointing for the last month or two, but I don't put it down to Bob. We have a thin squad with few attacking options. The fine early start was always in danger of petering out. We desperately need reinforcements to steady the ship. If we finish the season in our current league position and can hold onto our best 8-9 players, I'd say that we'd have had a reasonable season of consolidation. However, our form of late has been relegation form. If we finish up in the bottom half dozen, with confidence and team spirit dented then it would have been a wasted opportunity.
I don't see changing the manager as a good solution to our current problems. I'm not really sure what a new manager would bring to the party, and I don't think it would do the club any favours to get the reputation (if we haven't got it already) of a fickle club that sacks managers at the drop of a hat.
We've been largely disappointing for the last month or two, but I don't put it down to Bob. We have a thin squad with few attacking options. The fine early start was always in danger of petering out. We desperately need reinforcements to steady the ship. If we finish the season in our current league position and can hold onto our best 8-9 players, I'd say that we'd have had a reasonable season of consolidation. However, our form of late has been relegation form. If we finish up in the bottom half dozen, with confidence and team spirit dented then it would have been a wasted opportunity.
I don't see changing the manager as a good solution to our current problems. I'm not really sure what a new manager would bring to the party, and I don't think it would do the club any favours to get the reputation (if we haven't got it already) of a fickle club that sacks managers at the drop of a hat.
Do you mean Peetering out?
I do think we need some better tactics, maybe get Bob a decent assistant...
I don't understand this flack for Bob to be honest, first 5 games we all noticed our developed passing game and that we could really do damage to teams. The team was fit with alot of confidence flowing through, which is great to see as normally with such a squad change in the summer you would expect to see the opposite effect, having a slow start.
As good as the football was, we knew the squad was not full of quality so if Igor got injured etc we would be in trouble, that's what has happened. What can Bob do about that apart from try to get by and do the best with what he has got?
I'm all for players being tried in new positions, why not? Solly is technically a decent footballer, good in the tackle and a good passer, hardly criminal to think he could do a job in an injury depleated midfield. The sort of move Pep did at Bayern with Lahm and transformed their season, now I'm not saying Solly is as good as Lahm or Bob is as good as Pep, but I admire what he tried.
The finishing has been poor when it matters, it has meant the difference between 1 and 3 points. I can think of 4 games at least where we hadn't taken our chances and ended with a draw, those extra 8 points would have us in 7th.
Give the man time, see what happens in January, everyone can see we need reinforcements so lets see what the scouting network can get us.
On present form, a battle against relegation by March seems inevitable. Our fine start to the season is fooling many in not accepting the stark truth of the situation.
seriously....so many on here saying 'I hope BP gets the support of RD in January'......'hope we get a few signings to strengthen the squad in January'.......'lets hope the January transfer window brings us a couple of decent players' etc. RD will NOT be spending money in January. We are not going to get promoted. We may just scrape into the top half. Why would he shell out loads of money in January when he can just rotate players from his other clubs? He is not an idiot. He knows that supporters get a little bit excited by any new face joining their club/team. He knows that by adding any player to a team, he is essentially 'building a bigger squad', giving BP more options......by rotating players we have never heard of from his network he is ticking all the boxes a football club owner needs to tick. I said it then and I'll say it now. He did not buy Charlton to succeed as a football club. He bought us to turn us into a shop window in the hope 1 or 2 players may have a good spell, attract a bit of interest and then be sold with an inflated price tag English clubs are prepared to pay. BP just needs to keep us up. Give younger players a run out so that that appear on other clubs radars and keep the fans on side. We are now a business. Not a football club. The 2 are very different. Sorry, but that's how I see it. And before anyone moans....I still bought a bloody season ticket, I still go to games, I still buy club merchandise etc. because I always will be a Charlton fan.
On present form, a battle against relegation by March seems inevitable. Our fine start to the season is fooling many in not accepting the stark truth of the situation.
I have to say, I don't think one win in 11 games is just a "bad run" - it's a team in decline and the reason for the decline appears to be a thread bare squad compounded by a manager who doesn't appear to know how to get the best out of that threadbare squad.
Peeters seems like a good bloke and managing Charlton right now is a very difficult task but things like playing both Solly and Vetokele in the last two games when neither was fit shows that Bob has little faith in the other options available to him, but given that it is unlikely that his options will be significantly expanded in January we have to question if he is the right man to take us forwards. For me he is, just, but I agree that the Brighton home game (and to a lesser extent Blackburn on Saturday) will be crucial for him, fail to win those and RD may seriously need to consider making a change if we're to stay in this division.
Good debate as usual here, but I'd be very concerned with a change at this point. Nonetheless we're all agreed we need to put some points on the board asap, starting with Brighton.
It seems our season has had three phases: - Phase 1 (the "awesome start"): win at home, draw away - Phase 2 ("consolidation" or maybe the "missed opportunity"): draw at home, draw away - Phase 3 ("relegation form"): draw at home, lose away.
I don't think we'd be agonising too much about losing away to Ipswich (or even Blackburn) if we could just win some of our home matches against mid-table and bottom half teams. As so many have said, this has got to start with a more positive approach.
Another big difference between the above phases is the way we start games. At the start we'd scream off the blocks and invariably get an early goal, home or away. In phase two, we stopped doing that, seemingly content just to contain and be patient. In our current frustrating phase it's now the opposition that invariably scores first, leaving us a mountain to climb with our threadbare attack (and apparent absence of much attacking intent). Again, you'd hope Big Bob would recognise and focus on this aspect of our set-up, whatever challenges he faces in managing our wafer-thin resources.
Fact is, who would we get in as a replacement? Another unknown Belgian? I think all managers should be given at least a year.
Considering he's working with a depleted squad made mainly of freebees bar our only striker who is now known to our opponents... he's not doing terribly.
Lets see who he's 'allowed' to bring in over the next month to add to our 1.5 strikers and youth filled team.
If Bikey and/or Vetokele hadn't fluffed excellent chances, we'd be two to three points better off already, that's just in the last few weeks, if Noel Hunt hadn't scored a belter against us in added time that would be one more point - that's conceivably five points we have missed out on in this one month. Not that I am making excuses for Bob with that, we shouldn't be needing to leave it to the ninety-whatever minute to score a winning goal (or to score any goal actually) but it shows there are very fine margins.
I am leery of laying too much blame on Peeters, I have maintained that the whole season has been a case of strong team, weak squad and now that the season is dragging on that is becoming increasingly more apparent. Bob's been more hit than miss with the signings bought in so far (whoever identified them first) so I guess he has earned at least a chance in the sales.
It's time for RD to show his cards, and even to a lesser extent perhaps Meire also - it's no secret we need reinforcing, Bob has been pretty clear for a while now that he needs more bodies. KM has talked the talk, now to walk the walk and show she isn't merely a spokeswoman I would say.
Comments
Agree with your first paragraph completely, we're far better off than we were this time last season so not sure why people are panicking. Do people really expect us to be top 2 or something? We're above sides like Fulham and Wigan who were in the prem for years and above sides like Brighton who have far bigger budgets than us. Things could be a lot worse. I don't agree about the premier league thing though, I'd much prefer to go up, get 60m and come back down a stronger side than stay in this division.
That can be the problem with zonal marking. If the original cross is cleared and you push up 5 or 10 yards, who/what/where are you marking when the second ball comes in. The second goal was a prime example of this.
Not many managers get it right in their first season with new players. How many seasons has it taken McCarthy to get it right at Ipswich ? Managers need time.
3+ new players need to join us in the first week of Jan to stop our drop down the table. On current form from the current bunch we are likely to be only 3 or 4 points of relegation come deadline day if we don't do our business early.
Of course BP should be given more time, though I do wonder if RD regrets not keeping Jose Riga on...
There's no guarantees of anything, the dealings of last January won't go away.
I know we added quality in the summer, but Roland might think Bob's got enough to do the task in hand.
tony Watt and a n other Liege unwanted / out of contract player, and that could be your lot, sorry for sounding so bleeding gloomy.
We brought in a smattering of quality players - enough to mean that on our day we look great, but on others we don't. Trouble is, a truckload of those good days happened to come along at the beginning of the season, and now anything less feels like a letdown. However, even when we lose, the gulf in quality between last season's squad and the current crop is fairly clear - we'll be fine.
Would we have liked a complete overall of the squad, with another 5 or 6 quality signings? Of course. Can we reasonably have expected the owner to have spent that type of cash? I'm not so sure.
The state of the pitch is neither here nor there. I don't think it's too much for supporters to ask for a covering of green stuff, just like most of the other clubs in the country.
We still have a threadbare squad, and as for just escaping relegation, well, we have scored the same amount of goals this season as we had last season and so it's reasonable to expect we will be near the bottom again unless we get in a quality striker very very soon.
We have a paper thin squad and now that is beginning to tell, with the players we have, we're (at best) a mid table team and that's exactly where we are! Not sure what some of you are expecting....?
Think back a year and the state we were being left in by the old regime, things have improved and I'm hopeful that will continue to happen, but these things take time - have some patience!!!
No one likes losing, and no one likes going down the table instead of up, but equally not too many people seem to be pressing panic buttons yet, which is encouraging to see.
Bob is not getting the players to perform, has no decent tactics and has been lucky to accumulate 31 points so far,
We should be around 18th when you judge it by how we are playing. Luckily some teams are shitter than us right now and hopefully it'll remain that way.
I don't see changing the manager as a good solution to our current problems. I'm not really sure what a new manager would bring to the party, and I don't think it would do the club any favours to get the reputation (if we haven't got it already) of a fickle club that sacks managers at the drop of a hat.
I do think we need some better tactics, maybe get Bob a decent assistant...
As good as the football was, we knew the squad was not full of quality so if Igor got injured etc we would be in trouble, that's what has happened. What can Bob do about that apart from try to get by and do the best with what he has got?
I'm all for players being tried in new positions, why not? Solly is technically a decent footballer, good in the tackle and a good passer, hardly criminal to think he could do a job in an injury depleated midfield. The sort of move Pep did at Bayern with Lahm and transformed their season, now I'm not saying Solly is as good as Lahm or Bob is as good as Pep, but I admire what he tried.
The finishing has been poor when it matters, it has meant the difference between 1 and 3 points. I can think of 4 games at least where we hadn't taken our chances and ended with a draw, those extra 8 points would have us in 7th.
Give the man time, see what happens in January, everyone can see we need reinforcements so lets see what the scouting network can get us.
Ker boom
Ker boom
That's the sound of a bumpy ride
Or a plane flying just above flack cannon reach.
Peeters seems like a good bloke and managing Charlton right now is a very difficult task but things like playing both Solly and Vetokele in the last two games when neither was fit shows that Bob has little faith in the other options available to him, but given that it is unlikely that his options will be significantly expanded in January we have to question if he is the right man to take us forwards. For me he is, just, but I agree that the Brighton home game (and to a lesser extent Blackburn on Saturday) will be crucial for him, fail to win those and RD may seriously need to consider making a change if we're to stay in this division.
It seems our season has had three phases:
- Phase 1 (the "awesome start"): win at home, draw away
- Phase 2 ("consolidation" or maybe the "missed opportunity"): draw at home, draw away
- Phase 3 ("relegation form"): draw at home, lose away.
I don't think we'd be agonising too much about losing away to Ipswich (or even Blackburn) if we could just win some of our home matches against mid-table and bottom half teams. As so many have said, this has got to start with a more positive approach.
Another big difference between the above phases is the way we start games. At the start we'd scream off the blocks and invariably get an early goal, home or away. In phase two, we stopped doing that, seemingly content just to contain and be patient. In our current frustrating phase it's now the opposition that invariably scores first, leaving us a mountain to climb with our threadbare attack (and apparent absence of much attacking intent). Again, you'd hope Big Bob would recognise and focus on this aspect of our set-up, whatever challenges he faces in managing our wafer-thin resources.
Considering he's working with a depleted squad made mainly of freebees bar our only striker who is now known to our opponents... he's not doing terribly.
Lets see who he's 'allowed' to bring in over the next month to add to our 1.5 strikers and youth filled team.
I am leery of laying too much blame on Peeters, I have maintained that the whole season has been a case of strong team, weak squad and now that the season is dragging on that is becoming increasingly more apparent. Bob's been more hit than miss with the signings bought in so far (whoever identified them first) so I guess he has earned at least a chance in the sales.
It's time for RD to show his cards, and even to a lesser extent perhaps Meire also - it's no secret we need reinforcing, Bob has been pretty clear for a while now that he needs more bodies. KM has talked the talk, now to walk the walk and show she isn't merely a spokeswoman I would say.