Reeves played the best I've seen from him today, can't see him scoring the 'Ricky worldies' but Mavididi runs with the ball just as good if not better. More importantly and I know it was only rock bottom Bury but we seemed to play more as a team rather than having to rely on a boy wonder.
He's no Robert Lee (my hero) and we replaced him with John Robinson who was probably more hard working but Roland wont replace Holmes
Robinson is my favourite ever charlton player. What he lacked in ability he made up for in work rate, always showed for the ball always wanted it loved that man.
Get Fosu fit and one or more of Reeves and Marshall firing, plus Mavididi and a reinvigorated KAG and, while it'd be churlish to say we won't miss him, we should have enough ability in that attacking 3 to create and score goals. Get a more prolific player in front of them, and we'll be just fine.
A few big ifs there, but there is an if attached to Ricky Holmes staying because he would need to refind his old form which has been missing in recent months.
The bottom line though, it won't matter, we'll have to manage without him anyway.
We'll miss his flair, excitement and goals from out of the blue. However, I think we may be able to adapt our style of play in order to achieve better results. Kashi is key, if he sticks around. He was wasted in his former role. Yesterday he played further up the pitch and was far more influential. We need to get more out of Kashi in order to compensate for the loss of Holmes. He doesn't have the same flair, but he does have the ability to pick killer through balls and bring the best out of Mavididi, Fosu, Marshall and KHG, all who like to take the ball forward with pace. Kashi can dominate and control a game via the midfield, Holmes had great spells during games, but never actually controlled the game.
Certainly not better, but I hope this means that Marshall can kick on, often felt he was ignored in games in favour of players passing to Holmes, that meant that Marshall drifted inside in order to try and get on the ball and wasn’t effective as we lacked width down the right.
Better team no, and the stats don’t lie- he really did help us with some fantastic goals and solo p performances.
However as one of the people who watched the game Saturday there was a lot to be optimistic about. Yes bury were poor at stages but I was very impressed with reeves and also to a slightly lesser extent Marshall who had one of his better games for us. That’s not to leave out Mavididi and aribo who were playing well but I feel the first two I mentioned came to us with a ‘big player’ tag for their previous clubs. Perhaps with Ricky going they will come to the fore. Reeves was everywhere, always showing for the ball, popping up in the pockets and some great touches and passes. Could be the little shot in the arm we need to get through the coming months.
Plus as a TEAM we played the best we had in several weeks and We haven’t seen that with Ricky in the team because it always relies on him and they go through him all the time which makes our play very obvious and the past 6/7 games it hasn’t been coming off for Ricky and he kept trying the same thing again and again without success. Our team build up was much improved.
There’s a parallel with Yann - although he was a far better player - in that we used to play up to Yann too much because he was so good, and thus became predictable. Same with Ricky.
The trick, should our wonderful leaders stumble across it one day, is to have more than one particularly talented, creative and dangerous player in your team at any given time. Fat chance under these morons.
Only at Duchatelet's disaster of a football experiment do fans ask if we could be a better team after we sell our best player?
Yes of course, just like we roared up the league table after offloading, Stephens, Kermogant, Vetokele, Gomez, Lookman, Gudmondssen, Pope, Cousins et al.
You could make a decent team for a premiership challenge with the players this myopic old sociopath has offloaded on the cheap. Even the likes of Harriot and Big Makienok would walk into this team.
I don't think too many teams become better by getting rid of one of their best players. If we were run normally you'd say it would depend on who was coming in as replacement(s), but with us you know it's just going to be Mavididi, which isn't too bad short term but long term he'll be gone.
If we had everyone fit then you'd like to think that between Mavididi, Reeves, Clarke, Fosu and Marshall we had more than enough to cope in this division but as we know, we rarely have everyone fit.
As a squad we will be weaker. As a first team we will be weaker.
If our game improves because we can no longer keep continually passing to one person no matter what form they are showing that day or how many people are marking him then I would suggest it is the tactics which were the issue rather than the players and that does not bode well for the rest of the season with a weakened squad/team.
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A few big ifs there, but there is an if attached to Ricky Holmes staying because he would need to refind his old form which has been missing in recent months.
The bottom line though, it won't matter, we'll have to manage without him anyway.
Don’t forget we have already lost Clarke and Best for the season as well - that’s FOUR out and only one in with Mavididi.
We're definitely a weaker team without Ricky, adds a dimension to us even if it doesn't work 100% of the time.
Only point of optimism is that our youth team have provided some really strong players when leaned on so far... hopefully there's more to come.
However as one of the people who watched the game Saturday there was a lot to be optimistic about. Yes bury were poor at stages but I was very impressed with reeves and also to a slightly lesser extent Marshall who had one of his better games for us. That’s not to leave out Mavididi and aribo who were playing well but I feel the first two I mentioned came to us with a ‘big player’ tag for their previous clubs. Perhaps with Ricky going they will come to the fore. Reeves was everywhere, always showing for the ball, popping up in the pockets and some great touches and passes. Could be the little shot in the arm we need to get through the coming months.
Plus as a TEAM we played the best we had in several weeks and We haven’t seen that with Ricky in the team because it always relies on him and they go through him all the time which makes our play very obvious and the past 6/7 games it hasn’t been coming off for Ricky and he kept trying the same thing again and again without success. Our team build up was much improved.
When Roland sells a player, it makes the team worse. When Roland buys a player, it makes the team worse.
Ricky Holmes is the best player we've had in years - no way can we be a better team without him, zero percent.
The trick, should our wonderful leaders stumble across it one day, is to have more than one particularly talented, creative and dangerous player in your team at any given time. Fat chance under these morons.
Yes of course, just like we roared up the league table after offloading, Stephens, Kermogant, Vetokele, Gomez, Lookman, Gudmondssen, Pope, Cousins et al.
You could make a decent team for a premiership challenge with the players this myopic old sociopath has offloaded on the cheap. Even the likes of Harriot and Big Makienok would walk into this team.
If we had everyone fit then you'd like to think that between Mavididi, Reeves, Clarke, Fosu and Marshall we had more than enough to cope in this division but as we know, we rarely have everyone fit.
If our game improves because we can no longer keep continually passing to one person no matter what form they are showing that day or how many people are marking him then I would suggest it is the tactics which were the issue rather than the players and that does not bode well for the rest of the season with a weakened squad/team.
And at times, in my view, he’s been a hindrance when he’s taken the ball from from Dasilva who has been far more effective going forward
Yann