Bowyer set up too defensively and when it was clear it wasn't working and fate allowed us to dodge a bullet at half time, he did absolutely nothing to change it. You can't say that changes would have made a difference, but you can say you need to try them. Has Bowyer lost his balls FFS?
Sarr is a better defender than Pearce btw and he gives us a better attacking flow as well. Not sure why this is not obvious to most people including our manager!
Totally agree, we were set up too defensively from the start, inviting pressure. At half time we had a chance to change it but did not until we were two goals down. Very poor from Bowyer, makes me worry for the rest of the season.
Jose Riga kept us up in pretty dire circumstances - we definitely need to target our winnable games. I've written off the remaining away games this month and hope for 4 points at least from our remaining home fixtures.
All our remaining home games this season are winnable except for Millwall.
Watching the replays 100% Matthews at fault for the first. He’s marking Maclean. As the ball comes in Maclean runs towards the near post while Matthews plants his feet and watch the ball fly over his head, jaw flapping like it’s a fly past from red arrows or something. Ball comes back across and Matthews is. nowhere near Maclean who had a tap in.
If Lyle had done his defensive duties and marked Powell properly from the free kick it would never have got to Maclean.
Alright, 75% Matthews fault then. Lyle loses out but is at least running with his man and attempting to challenge for the ball. Matthews is just day dreaming, I’d be more forgiving if he’s close to Maclean but loses out.
He’s doing similar later on when he fails to push out and hold the line, possibly playing Ince onside for their second. Heavily culpable in two goals against today.
Did not go to this game but from reading peoples reactions this was another poor display.I expected defeat today and also against Forest on tuesday.Charlton have performed poorly at some recent matches and unless we start to perform as a team come the end of season we will be in the bottom three.The teams around us have to play oneanother and sooner or later our form will catch up with us. We can not expect other teams to sit down a do nothing we have to fight for ourself.
Difficult to fine some positives but here we go. 1)We could have been bottom 3 after tuesday if results had gone against us. 2) After Forest we have 2 home games which if won will take us to39 points 3)The new players will need to be integrated to find the best combinations obviously sooner rather than later 4)I think we all know how much pride the players and management have in this club,they will be very down after saturday and I am sure will want to come up with a response. 5)Apart from the play off semi final,these players wont have played in front of a sold out Valley before,if that doesnt inspire them to a performence,we are in trouble.
Point 2) Having won only 2 in the last 20, can we even hope of winning 2 of the next 3?
That is the delusional hope that being a football fan can instill. I'm in the same boat as you however, so let the dreams become reality....if they don't, like a deluded gambling addict, the next one will be a win.....or the next one!
Difficult to fine some positives but here we go. 1)We could have been bottom 3 after tuesday if results had gone against us. 2) After Forest we have 2 home games which if won will take us to39 points 3)The new players will need to be integrated to find the best combinations obviously sooner rather than later 4)I think we all know how much pride the players and management have in this club,they will be very down after saturday and I am sure will want to come up with a response. 5)Apart from the play off semi final,these players wont have played in front of a sold out Valley before,if that doesnt inspire them to a performence,we are in trouble.
Point 2) Having won only 2 in the last 20, can we even hope of winning 2 of the next 3?
That is the delusional hope that being a football fan can instill. I'm in the same boat as you however, so let the dreams become reality....if they don't, like a deluded gambling addict, the next one will be a win.....or the next one!
For such an attacking player you'd expect some goal return. It's odds on surely?
Er no....
His stats for the last 10 years.....
3 goals 🤣
Surprisingly he is 26????
He looks knackered in the warm up...
Arguably our best player, is generally unable to complete a full game of football, goes down like he's been shot every 5 minutes and as an attacking midfielder has scored 3 goals in 10 years. Hmm.
I'm just pleased Naby had a winter break yesterday and stayed on the bench. (Different guys to blame this week)
May be a good idea to stay inside today at Sparrows and get the tactics board out.
In sport you deal with the situation at hand, we are 21st and our most highly rated players aren't at the same level as August and September because of missing games. Taylor, Cullen, Williams etc. Losing at Forest won't surprised anybody. The next two home games are paramount to Cafc being in the Championship next season. Six points from Blackburn and Luton and we may learn to relax again.
Conor Gallagher was picked by the majority on CL to be our favourite for POTY in late November for a reason(before the recall) Lee Bowyer will/must find a way of having a competitive midfield without him.
A very disappointing performance in which we were second best from start to finish.
We struggled to put more than a couple of passes together (save for sideways along the back) and we were, in truth, outclassed by a Stoke side whose players looked a cut above ours. Michael O’Neill has got them well organised and, when in possession, we ended up playing in front of them and creating next to nothing, other than Purrington’s very nice goal just before half time. A shot on the turn by Lyle Taylor, which went narrowly wide near the end, was our only other effort of note.
We looked vulnerable defensively, especially down the flanks, and Joe Allen and his colleagues totally dominated the game in midfield. They had far too much space to operate in and we didn’t seem able to get near them. Taylor and Green were left to feed on scraps and a diet of aimless long balls, which Stoke dealt with comfortably.
No Charlton player emerged with any real credit and we looked jaded. Chasing the ball around against able opponents is pretty draining and I suspect that Bowyer may try to introduce Field on Tuesday if he thinks he’s fit enough to start.
Stoke did play well and it’s a puzzle as to how they find themselves messing about at the wrong end of the table.
To compound a fairly miserable performance, the match seemed to be ridiculously over-policed, with a very large number of officers on duty. Attempts to herd Charlton supporters to the designated ‘away’ pub were a bit over the top and the message about remaining in the coach park wasn’t helpful for those who had come on the normal bus service. The Stoke stewards were, to be fair, very good - at least the ones near us.
Maybe the number of Old Bill reflect the fact that some of the locals can be a bit unpleasant but most of them seemed ok. The first pub we went to, The White Star, wasn’t too welcoming but the second, The Glebe, certainly was and it served up a mean ham, egg and chips - sadly, that and a couple of pints were to prove the highlight of the day.
After Forest’s win against Leeds tonight, let’s hope that our visit on Tuesday proves to be a case of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show’ from their perspective.
I think they may have "a thing" about Albanians. We went to one of the Weatherspoons and I heard one of their fans talking to the stewaeds and police about Albanians.
The nine outfield players that started yesterday (aside from Lyle Taylor) have scored a combined career league total of 107 goals across 1887 games according to SoccerBase. That is based on starts only and doesn't include their 317 sub appearances.
On that basis they would be expected to contribute just one goal between them in every other game.
Not many.
N.B. Darren Pratley is a key contributor to that group with 26 goals for Swansea and 5 for Brentford over a decade ago.
I was not at the game,but clearly it was pretty dire.Just on the police presence subject(one of my pet gripes)next time you visit the Valley,have a count up,and see how many there are doing sod all,even for low grade cup games with 4000 people,there have been in excess of 30 officers.Dread to think how many will be there at the sold out Blackburn game.Still it beats catching thieves and muggers.
What do you want them to do, start a fight with the fans , or perhaps a little jig or dance ?
wasn't there but definitely sounds like we went up there to defend for ninety minutes - i'm a big believer in trying to win a game rather than not lose one - let's have a go at forest and get the line up sorted more in preparation for the 2 home games than getting a point. Get Macgeady and Doughty in the team and go for it.
Just seen the goals. Defensively we are woeful. How many goals have we conceded from set plays this season? How many times are far post headers in our box completely unchallenged? Expected nothing and that's what we got.
As much as I’d like Charlton to win every game the reality is we won’t and if we have a bad day at the office so what, get over it and go again. The only thing that’s wrong with our game at the moment is we are playing with just one natural goal scorer and we are not pushing the opposition back enough and that just encourages them to attack us.
Difficult to fine some positives but here we go. 1)We could have been bottom 3 after tuesday if results had gone against us. 2) After Forest we have 2 home games which if won will take us to39 points 3)The new players will need to be integrated to find the best combinations obviously sooner rather than later 4)I think we all know how much pride the players and management have in this club,they will be very down after saturday and I am sure will want to come up with a response. 5)Apart from the play off semi final,these players wont have played in front of a sold out Valley before,if that doesnt inspire them to a performence,we are in trouble.
Point 2) Having won only 2 in the last 20, can we even hope of winning 2 of the next 3?
That is the delusional hope that being a football fan can instill. I'm in the same boat as you however, so let the dreams become reality....if they don't, like a deluded gambling addict, the next one will be a win.....or the next one!
No reason we can't beat Blackburn & Luton at home.
Despite that awful performance at Stoke yesterday and the totally justified negative comments on this forum, I honestly believe as a Charlton supporter of 50 plus years, that Lee Bowyer will keep us up.
No one ever seems to say this... what is Jacko doing in training with them? He’s in charge of set pieces isn’t he? Anyone can see we need to work on defending set pieces so how have we not sorted the issue out yet?
At the game. Taylor lost his man for their first goal and Matthews switched off from marking McLean who couldn't believe his luck for a simple tap in. For theIr second, three of our players appeared mesmerised at the oncoming player in the inside right position, whilst Matthews failed to keep a tight line and played Ince onside to score. Their third was a failure by Purrington to cut out the cross, Pearce looked like he was standing in treacle and Lockyer allowed Powell to get a yard on him to be first to the ball and score, shambolic!
Set pieces weren't the reason why we lost yesterday though, it was mainly defenders once again not doing their jobs properly. Nothing we can do about it now but a commanding CB who attacks the ball in the air is desperately needed in the summer. As for attacking intent our midfield and forwards weren't at the races either. It was a very bad day at the office all round as we were second best all over the park.
Re Williams getting fouled by Stoke players in rotation, with no yellows being shown. In basketball they have a cumulative system where after five fouls on a player, the next offender goes to the sin bin (according to a mate). Perhaps a similar system should be used in football, with a yellow instead of the sin bin. It's so easy for a team to target one player that they have picked out as a threat to them, as they did with Williams yesterday. Before he left for Swansea it was Gallagher, and now he' gone, it's most likely to be Williams. Otzumer, who replaced him yesterday, didn't appear to be targeted as much, but was that perhaps because they were already three one up? Or perhaps he's actually slightly more illusive when on he ball?
But overall I think our best bet v. Forest would be to pick a much more attacking side and go all out for the win. Nothing to be gained from setting up defensively and in all probability getting hammered again.
Was surprised by number of police - maybe all away support tarnished with same brush also not seen “bars” on a bar before?
OB in good humour, unlike the ones at Wigan & Barnsley yesterday. Saw one young lad getting put in a OB van prior to the game. Said to one on the way out, nice overtime, he said he wasn’t on OT. Hate to think the cost was yesterday, that someone is picking up.
Every copper we spoke to had been drafted in from elsewhere, not sure what they were expecting to happen but it was massive overkill
I was genuinely excited by Bowyer when he came on the scene - He was a manager unafraid to lose. This injury spell seems to have affected him. Yesterday the team looked too negative before kick off, looked too negative after kick off and this manager who was so flexible didn't change anything. He has said afterwards that too many players were not at it but only made two subs despite having a reasonably strong bench!
I am not writing him off but he needs to try to get back to what he was not very long ago. If he made changes and they didn't work, fair enough, he tried. But yesterday was Slade like in its ineptitude IMO. Come on Lee, you are better than that.
Yes, Stoke were good. But they did show signs of defensive weakness. He could even have put Sarr on and tried to be a threat with our big players at set pieces. Others may think of things he could have tried. And what would have been the worse outcome of trying something different?
Am I the only one who is beginning to doubt the tactical nous of our management team. Started to worry last week when they substituted William's with JFC when did he last play. Yesterday we set up far to defensively. With our record its relegation if we do not start to believe. LB is not the messiah !!
I think we need to give Bowyer a chance - everybody can make mistakes. But let's not pretend mistakes have not been made. He was a breath of fresh air when he came into management. I loved that he always tried to win. Ok, we are in a tougher division but it is the only way to go. Become ultra negative and you are just like the rest of the bland management tosh which is throughout football.
Williams said in his very first interview when he signed that he doesn't score goals but is one to feed the player who puts the final ball in..........so we knew from the start he isn't a goal scoring midfielder. Cullen is more defensive & has a couple of goals for us in about 60 games and Pratley (surprisingly) has about half a dozen. Hardly a midfield bursting with goals. Gallagher scored more than those 3 between them & should have been replaced......instead we brought in more defensive players in Davis & Smith.
McGeady is the most likely to give us goals from midfield but LB decided to keep him on the bench last week & bring on JFC for Williams instead 🤔. Of course, McGeady was then ill this week (showing that resting players means bugger all as you dont know what will transpire afterwards) but I would very much hope he plays some part on Tuesday.
Am I the only one who is beginning to doubt the tactical nous of our management team. Started to worry last week when they substituted William's with JFC when did he last play. Yesterday we set up far to defensively. With our record its relegation if we do not start to believe. LB is not the messiah !!
Comments
All our remaining home games this season are winnable except for Millwall.
We can not expect other teams to sit down a do nothing we have to fight for ourself.
Having won only 2 in the last 20, can we even hope of winning 2 of the next 3?
That is the delusional hope that being a football fan can instill. I'm in the same boat as you however, so let the dreams become reality....if they don't, like a deluded gambling addict, the next one will be a win.....or the next one!
(Different guys to blame this week)
May be a good idea to stay inside today at Sparrows and get the tactics board out.
In sport you deal with the situation at hand, we are 21st and our most highly rated players aren't at the same level as August and September because of missing games.
Taylor, Cullen, Williams etc. Losing at Forest won't surprised anybody. The next two home games are paramount to Cafc being in the Championship next season.
Six points from Blackburn and Luton and we may learn to relax again.
Conor Gallagher was picked by the majority on CL to be our favourite for POTY in late November for a reason(before the recall)
Lee Bowyer will/must find a way of having a competitive midfield without him.
We went to one of the Weatherspoons and I heard one of their fans talking to the stewaeds and police about Albanians.
On that basis they would be expected to contribute just one goal between them in every other game.
Not many.
N.B. Darren Pratley is a key contributor to that group with 26 goals for Swansea and 5 for Brentford over a decade ago.
and the totally justified negative comments on this forum, I honestly believe as a Charlton supporter of
50 plus years, that Lee Bowyer will keep us up.
Set pieces weren't the reason why we lost yesterday though, it was mainly defenders once again not doing their jobs properly. Nothing we can do about it now but a commanding CB who attacks the ball in the air is desperately needed in the summer. As for attacking intent our midfield and forwards weren't at the races either. It was a very bad day at the office all round as we were second best all over the park.
In basketball they have a cumulative system where after five fouls on a player, the next offender goes to the sin bin (according to a mate). Perhaps a similar system should be used in football, with a yellow instead of the sin bin. It's so easy for a team to target one player that they have picked out as a threat to them, as they did with Williams yesterday. Before he left for Swansea it was Gallagher, and now he' gone, it's most likely to be Williams. Otzumer, who replaced him yesterday, didn't appear to be targeted as much, but was that perhaps because they were already three one up? Or perhaps he's actually slightly more illusive when on he ball?
But overall I think our best bet v. Forest would be to pick a much more attacking side and go all out for the win. Nothing to be gained from setting up defensively and in all probability getting hammered again.
I am not writing him off but he needs to try to get back to what he was not very long ago. If he made changes and they didn't work, fair enough, he tried. But yesterday was Slade like in its ineptitude IMO. Come on Lee, you are better than that.
Yes, Stoke were good. But they did show signs of defensive weakness. He could even have put Sarr on and tried to be a threat with our big players at set pieces. Others may think of things he could have tried. And what would have been the worse outcome of trying something different?
Started to worry last week when they substituted
William's with JFC when did he last play.
Yesterday we set up far to defensively.
With our record its relegation if we do not start to believe. LB is not the messiah !!
McGeady is the most likely to give us goals from midfield but LB decided to keep him on the bench last week & bring on JFC for Williams instead 🤔. Of course, McGeady was then ill this week (showing that resting players means bugger all as you dont know what will transpire afterwards) but I would very much hope he plays some part on Tuesday.