Let's not write Hemed off just yet. Different type of player to Taylor, needs time to settle in. We as a team might need to play in a different way to how we do with Taylor. Hemed won't offer the same threat from out wide for one thing.
Hemed and Kayal were shit. Doesn't matter how many minutes you've played in preseason, no professional footballer should over hit two crosses in succession like Kayal did, he and Chuks didn't offer much from the bench.
Leko is incredibly frustrating to watch, always makes the wrong decision, and Purrington had his poorest game for us. Other than Gallagher and Lockyer, I'm struggling to think of anyone who had a good game. Field's decision to charge out for their goal was criminal.
We've had a great start to the season but with the games we've got coming up we need to be beating teams like Birmingham. That's meant with no disrespect to the club as a whole, but they were the weakest side we've had at The Valley this season and we barely troubled them. We've got Swansea, Fulham and Leeds in the space of a few weeks and could easily come away with 0 points from this month and next if we're not careful.
Hemed hasn't been with us long. He was left in limbo for ages whilst his transfer was sorted, then he went away with Israel and only got back probably 2 days ago.
1-0 down 80 minutes gone 1 sub remaining, striker sat on the bench and you bring a midfielder on, what is the point in having Bonne on the bench if he isnt coming on when we are losing with 10 ninutes to go and chasing a goal.
If Bowyer doesnt think he is good enough yet even for that 10 minutes then why not loan him, i am sure Orient would have taken him back on loan and then he would have had league football experience
If a player kicks another player (Pearce) then it’s a red card. For some reason this ref only gave a yellow. Not sure why we waited until going a goal down to have a proper go, but there was no outlet up front and we were relying on a midfielder to come up with a goal. Still a great start to the season though. Not sure about the criticism of Field, his role was clearly to protect the back four, which I thought he did effectively.
Looked so jaded all round today. Thought Lockyer had a good game. Big side Brum, who kept shape throughout, defended well and broke effectively. Absolutely predictable from us, with a 100 year anniversary distraction.
I fear Taylor's absence is just a handy excuse, and wonder how we are going to cope next time we play the likes of a Birmingham.
It was a fair enough result. It was a close game, but Birmingham scored a pretty good goal following a surging run, and we didn't score, simple as. Their keeper made two very good saves during our 'responding surge', but then again Dillon made a good save from the best first half chance. I have no complaints about any suggested timewasting or other tactics applied by Birmingham players, we would've done the same. As I said it was a close game and they got the only goal, Birmingham didn't dominate or crush or humiliate us, we were not chite, it simply didn't quite fall our way today for a number of reasons. I would add that the Birmingham fans were noisy and good, as usual they were able to take advantage of their good acoustics, and they might have felt we were quiet, we were not but they wouldn't have been able to tell. Overall it wasn't a bad day at the office so much as this division is tough and attritional and today was not our day. I was impressed by their number 10, their number 4, and Maghoma, but none of the 22 players were diabolical though Hemed was no match for an absent Lyle today sadly. It is not an excuse but we need to be fit and to spit and to polish to survive this division having the lowest budget by far. Birmingham spent £6million on one player (amongst others) in the summer, enough to assemble our squad about eight times over, and it is a comfort that they were not eight times better, but they have the juicy three points today, we have nothing. Something we have to deal with. I saw Lee Bowyer chucking a ball (downward) towards the Birmingham bench, but as @PaddyP17 said, he must have said something as well, because the ball chuck by itself was not worth a sending off. I don't know the vibe of today, but I won't whinge, Birmingham won and we have to deal with it and move on. Survival is still the number one aim. In my view Lockyer and Gallagher were our best players. Birmingham doubled up on Leko which nullified our threat a lot, and they were very well organised and difficult to break down, the fact we got through as much as we did is a hopeful sign that we were not way off the right approach and the right effort. On to the next challenge now.
Hemed must have been kept on because Bowyer knew Taylor is out for a stretch, and he needs Hemed match fit. Main problem for me is that it was clear very early on that Field and Oztumer through the middle was not working, but Bowyer did not change it until we were a goal down. Bowyer needs to change things earlier when they are not working.
I've been called out on the player marks thread for giving Purrington a 7.
I concede that he didn't have his best game going forward but I thought he was his usual solid self.
I see people marking him at 5 and others saying he had his worst game in a Charlton shirt but not much description of what it was that he was struggling with today.
At the match. As per usual following an international break we are not at our best. 1st proper chance to see Hemed and I was disappointed at what I saw. Nowhere near as effective as Taylor. Oztumer not as effective as Williams. But 14 points from 7 games is still a great return. Now with the international break behind us and all the players back at sparrows lane I expect Bowyer to get them all fired up for Wigan. Onwards and upwards In Bowyer we trust.
When Charlton finally started to build momentum it was snuffed out by the Brums gamesmanship - ably abetted by the ref's lack of control and fitness? His walk towards the Brum bench to issue yellow cards and then to ours was excruciating. I mean, come on ref the game ain't about you, there's a paying public out there who just wanna be entertained.
Posted without reading (though of course will be doing so shortly).
I think a draw would have been a fair result overall. Their goal was well-taken, though somewhat on a counter-attacking plate, and it was perhaps the only moment of real goalscoring threat either team had. We certainly didn't deserve a win. Maybe the Phillips save in the first half could have been a good chance, but I'd need to re-watch again to see if it was a blinding save, or if he did a bit of a jump for the cameras.
My first thought is how much we missed Lyle Taylor. He creates the space that allows Williams/Oztumer/Leko/Cullen/Gallagher to express themselves, and with Hemed (who I'll come back to) being a completely different sort of player, there was no way of affording that space, and thus we were limited in what we could do on the ball. This led to Leko being fed a lot, and having to work hard on and off the ball - but he was double marked all game. Leko did well where he could but tired slightly and was rightly taken off, having put in a good shift and not getting much joy.
To be fair to Birmingham, I think Pep Clotet set up a somewhat limited side very well to completely nullify us. Roberts (CB and long throw man) really impressed me, while Jutkiewicz is a nightmare to mark and control, but Lockyer performed admirably. Jude Bellingham wasn't always fed the ball but the fact he plays like that at 16(!!!) is nuts. He looks class. Their right back (Colin) impressed me, too. Sunjic in the middle wasn't the sort of player one focuses on, but as he cost £6m or something, I'd have thought I'd notice him, but didn't at all.
Right, as for Charlton... There's not really much to say. We looked pretty nondescript today, and improved massively (unsurprisingly) when Williams came on. There was an immediate attacking threat created. To reel off our defence - Phillips played quite well (goal never his fault); Solly creditable going forward and defensively; Lockyer very good defensively but question marks linger over distribution; Pearce defensively pretty sound; Purrington was quite disappointing actually. Overcommitted going forward on occasion and I don't think was communicative enough defensively.
I don't know what to make of our defensive shape and nous: it seems as if we're lacking a little bit of caution and tend to go forward a bit too much. At one point, Lockyer made a run forward with zero cover; they won the ball back and for a moment looked as if they had all the space to attack in the world, but didn't. (We got a lucky challenge in or something.) So that's something we may need to look at.
Cullen was his usual self but tired. Gallagher was pretty class but didn't quite have anything come off, and made the odd wrong decision (dribble instead of pass and vice versa) once or twice. Field looked very tidy but didn't do much beyond the Pratley water-carrier role we've got used to, while Oztumer just wasn't as effective as Williams. We looked as if we needed to gel a bit more out there, which wasn't helped by the front two (and I don't mean what I'm about to say as a criticism).
Hemed is not Taylor and thus does not "interact" with the midfield as such. He doesn't create space: rather, he is strong aerially and likes to receive the ball as a hold-up man. We were not playing to this sort of game, and I think that's a slight lack of tactical adaptation from the management. I think we had a combination of Hemed looking rusty, and us not playing to his attacking strengths.
Leko, therefore, had to rely on his box of tricks ever more, and while he looked industrious and good in many an occasion, we had no tangible support to then manoeuvre the ball into proper scoring positions. Again, we missed Taylor.
All in all, we played somewhat poorly against a relatively mediocre (for the division) side, who set up very well and got the goal that we weren't ever going to get. This was an off day and every team is prone to them: onwards and upwards. COYR!
Fruatrating one. Was a tight game that could have easily gone either way but we just didn’t look that threatening in the final third and some of our build up play was laboured.
Birmingham let us stroke it across the back line and back to Phillips. But outside of that they were very efficient in being organising, closing us down and not giving us space to play. That’s meant we’d gave it away cheaply quite often.
Gallagher and Lockyer were my two main picks, while Pearce also had a good game And Phillips didn’t do anything wrong. I like Oztumer but bar a quality dummy was slightly disappointed he couldn’t impose himself on the game a bit more and Field I’m yet to be convinced by what he brings positively.
Was calling for Aneke to come on but wished I’d saved my voice. Really struggled to get in the game positively and was a real shame after Hemed had toiled hard, but equally failed to impose himself.
Luck in those close games was always going to turn against us at some stage.
- Kayal looked well off it but in no way can we write him off yet (same with Hemed). A lot of rust to shake off I would suspect.
- Aneke didn't retain possession in the target man fashion he kept attempting. He's far better trying to use that muscle while running than holding up.
- Williams game-changer and it's really annoying we felt we had to "manage" him after he played a full 90 for Wales.
The referee was not up to standard in my opinion. But you get them.
Brum came for a point and got three. With the upcoming games and the fact that Taylor looks like he's going to be out for a while I can see us being mid-table come October. Don't think the forwards we have are up to the mark yet. They need time to bed in.
Good first ten and good last twenty, other than that didn’t think we looked our best today. Other than that too many poor decisions in the final third. Too often we kept taking one too many touches or going back towards a player again once we had created space.
Hemed is a very different striker to lyle and they need to quickly work out how to get the best out of him with the squad we have.
Birmingham were workman like, you know what you are gonna get from them and we fell hook line and sinker for their approach
Hemed was unimpressive sure, but the main problem was Field, who did not provide an outlet for our back four, leading them to pass it sideways at the back, and Oztumer, who made nothing in the 10 position on the odd occasion we did get it forward. This was all obvious after 20 minutes but Bowyer did not change it until 60 when we were a goal down.
Yep I noticed the atmosphere was pretty flat concidering where we are in the league. Hopefully only a blip and the valley will be rocking when we smash Leeds
Thought Birmingham controlled game from midfield well that our confidence lacked getting out our half. Bowyer said they would be difficult to play against. Our passing sloppy sometimes. Missed consistent marshalling of Prattley which Field is not yet there. Not convinced Hamed / Oztumer worked. Kayal look class but needs time. Credit to the full away end for adding to the great atmosphere. COYR
I've been called out on the player marks thread for giving Purrington a 7.
I concede that he didn't have his best game going forward but I thought he was his usual solid self.
I see people marking him at 5 and others saying he had his worst game in a Charlton shirt but not much description of what it was that he was struggling with today.
That was me. Didn’t mean to call you out, but I did think it was a very strange score. He was so poor with the ball at his feet. Defensively ok but still the worst of the back four imo.
Comments
Same goes for Kayal.
Leko is incredibly frustrating to watch, always makes the wrong decision, and Purrington had his poorest game for us. Other than Gallagher and Lockyer, I'm struggling to think of anyone who had a good game. Field's decision to charge out for their goal was criminal.
We've had a great start to the season but with the games we've got coming up we need to be beating teams like Birmingham. That's meant with no disrespect to the club as a whole, but they were the weakest side we've had at The Valley this season and we barely troubled them. We've got Swansea, Fulham and Leeds in the space of a few weeks and could easily come away with 0 points from this month and next if we're not careful.
He's proven at this level and he'll be fine.
Poor ref let Bham break up play.
1-0 down 80 minutes gone 1 sub remaining, striker sat on the bench and you bring a midfielder on, what is the point in having Bonne on the bench if he isnt coming on when we are losing with 10 ninutes to go and chasing a goal.
If Bowyer doesnt think he is good enough yet even for that 10 minutes then why not loan him, i am sure Orient would have taken him back on loan and then he would have had league football experience
Not sure why we waited until going a goal down to have a proper go, but there was no outlet up front and we were relying on a midfielder to come up with a goal.
Still a great start to the season though.
Not sure about the criticism of Field, his role was clearly to protect the back four, which I thought he did effectively.
Thought Lockyer had a good game.
Big side Brum, who kept shape throughout, defended well and broke effectively.
Absolutely predictable from us, with a 100 year anniversary distraction.
I fear Taylor's absence is just a handy excuse, and wonder how we are going to cope next time we play the likes of a Birmingham.
It was a fair enough result. It was a close game, but Birmingham scored a pretty good goal following a surging run, and we didn't score, simple as. Their keeper made two very good saves during our 'responding surge', but then again Dillon made a good save from the best first half chance. I have no complaints about any suggested timewasting or other tactics applied by Birmingham players, we would've done the same. As I said it was a close game and they got the only goal, Birmingham didn't dominate or crush or humiliate us, we were not chite, it simply didn't quite fall our way today for a number of reasons.
I would add that the Birmingham fans were noisy and good, as usual they were able to take advantage of their good acoustics, and they might have felt we were quiet, we were not but they wouldn't have been able to tell. Overall it wasn't a bad day at the office so much as this division is tough and attritional and today was not our day. I was impressed by their number 10, their number 4, and Maghoma, but none of the 22 players were diabolical though Hemed was no match for an absent Lyle today sadly.
It is not an excuse but we need to be fit and to spit and to polish to survive this division having the lowest budget by far. Birmingham spent £6million on one player (amongst others) in the summer, enough to assemble our squad about eight times over, and it is a comfort that they were not eight times better, but they have the juicy three points today, we have nothing. Something we have to deal with.
I saw Lee Bowyer chucking a ball (downward) towards the Birmingham bench, but as @PaddyP17 said, he must have said something as well, because the ball chuck by itself was not worth a sending off.
I don't know the vibe of today, but I won't whinge, Birmingham won and we have to deal with it and move on. Survival is still the number one aim.
In my view Lockyer and Gallagher were our best players. Birmingham doubled up on Leko which nullified our threat a lot, and they were very well organised and difficult to break down, the fact we got through as much as we did is a hopeful sign that we were not way off the right approach and the right effort.
On to the next challenge now.
Main problem for me is that it was clear very early on that Field and Oztumer through the middle was not working, but Bowyer did not change it until we were a goal down. Bowyer needs to change things earlier when they are not working.
As per usual following an international break we are not at our best.
1st proper chance to see Hemed and I was disappointed at what I saw. Nowhere near as effective as Taylor.
Oztumer not as effective as Williams.
But 14 points from 7 games is still a great return.
Now with the international break behind us and all the players back at sparrows lane I expect Bowyer to get them all fired up for Wigan.
Onwards and upwards
In Bowyer we trust.
When Charlton finally started to build momentum it was snuffed out by the Brums gamesmanship - ably abetted by the ref's lack of control and fitness? His walk towards the Brum bench to issue yellow cards and then to ours was excruciating. I mean, come on ref the game ain't about you, there's a paying public out there who just wanna be entertained.
I think a draw would have been a fair result overall. Their goal was well-taken, though somewhat on a counter-attacking plate, and it was perhaps the only moment of real goalscoring threat either team had. We certainly didn't deserve a win. Maybe the Phillips save in the first half could have been a good chance, but I'd need to re-watch again to see if it was a blinding save, or if he did a bit of a jump for the cameras.
My first thought is how much we missed Lyle Taylor. He creates the space that allows Williams/Oztumer/Leko/Cullen/Gallagher to express themselves, and with Hemed (who I'll come back to) being a completely different sort of player, there was no way of affording that space, and thus we were limited in what we could do on the ball. This led to Leko being fed a lot, and having to work hard on and off the ball - but he was double marked all game. Leko did well where he could but tired slightly and was rightly taken off, having put in a good shift and not getting much joy.
To be fair to Birmingham, I think Pep Clotet set up a somewhat limited side very well to completely nullify us. Roberts (CB and long throw man) really impressed me, while Jutkiewicz is a nightmare to mark and control, but Lockyer performed admirably. Jude Bellingham wasn't always fed the ball but the fact he plays like that at 16(!!!) is nuts. He looks class. Their right back (Colin) impressed me, too. Sunjic in the middle wasn't the sort of player one focuses on, but as he cost £6m or something, I'd have thought I'd notice him, but didn't at all.
Right, as for Charlton... There's not really much to say. We looked pretty nondescript today, and improved massively (unsurprisingly) when Williams came on. There was an immediate attacking threat created. To reel off our defence - Phillips played quite well (goal never his fault); Solly creditable going forward and defensively; Lockyer very good defensively but question marks linger over distribution; Pearce defensively pretty sound; Purrington was quite disappointing actually. Overcommitted going forward on occasion and I don't think was communicative enough defensively.
I don't know what to make of our defensive shape and nous: it seems as if we're lacking a little bit of caution and tend to go forward a bit too much. At one point, Lockyer made a run forward with zero cover; they won the ball back and for a moment looked as if they had all the space to attack in the world, but didn't. (We got a lucky challenge in or something.) So that's something we may need to look at.
Cullen was his usual self but tired. Gallagher was pretty class but didn't quite have anything come off, and made the odd wrong decision (dribble instead of pass and vice versa) once or twice. Field looked very tidy but didn't do much beyond the Pratley water-carrier role we've got used to, while Oztumer just wasn't as effective as Williams. We looked as if we needed to gel a bit more out there, which wasn't helped by the front two (and I don't mean what I'm about to say as a criticism).
Hemed is not Taylor and thus does not "interact" with the midfield as such. He doesn't create space: rather, he is strong aerially and likes to receive the ball as a hold-up man. We were not playing to this sort of game, and I think that's a slight lack of tactical adaptation from the management. I think we had a combination of Hemed looking rusty, and us not playing to his attacking strengths.
Leko, therefore, had to rely on his box of tricks ever more, and while he looked industrious and good in many an occasion, we had no tangible support to then manoeuvre the ball into proper scoring positions. Again, we missed Taylor.
All in all, we played somewhat poorly against a relatively mediocre (for the division) side, who set up very well and got the goal that we weren't ever going to get. This was an off day and every team is prone to them: onwards and upwards. COYR!
Birmingham let us stroke it across the back line and back to Phillips. But outside of that they were very efficient in being organising, closing us down and not giving us space to play. That’s meant we’d gave it away cheaply quite often.
Gallagher and Lockyer were my two main picks, while Pearce also had a good game And Phillips didn’t do anything wrong. I like Oztumer but bar a quality dummy was slightly disappointed he couldn’t impose himself on the game a bit more and Field I’m yet to be convinced by what he brings positively.
Was calling for Aneke to come on but wished I’d saved my voice. Really struggled to get in the game positively and was a real shame after Hemed had toiled hard, but equally failed to impose himself.
Luck in those close games was always going to turn against us at some stage.
We go again, as they say.
- Kayal looked well off it but in no way can we write him off yet (same with Hemed). A lot of rust to shake off I would suspect.
- Aneke didn't retain possession in the target man fashion he kept attempting. He's far better trying to use that muscle while running than holding up.
- Williams game-changer and it's really annoying we felt we had to "manage" him after he played a full 90 for Wales.
The referee was not up to standard in my opinion. But you get them.
Hemed is a very different striker to lyle and they need to quickly work out how to get the best out of him with the squad we have.
Birmingham were workman like, you know what you are gonna get from them and we fell hook line and sinker for their approach
I guess!
Hopefully only a blip and the valley will be rocking when we smash Leeds
Bowyer said they would be difficult to play against.
Our passing sloppy sometimes.
Missed consistent marshalling of Prattley which Field is not yet there. Not convinced Hamed / Oztumer worked. Kayal look class but needs time.
Credit to the full away end for adding to the great atmosphere.
COYR