“The top two are beginning to look difficult to catch, unless they start having a bad period, a dip like we’ve had. If we make the assumption we will get promoted to the Championship then we have a lot of work to do, versus if we have to spend one more year in League One.”
The most interesting part of the article, I have taken that as Thomas is happy to have a stable season of sorts and go again with Bowyer if we can't get promotion. We have a very sensible owner here, really is refreshing
TS isn't expecting promotion, indeed very few fans were expecting promotion this season when he took us over
On the other hand, I'm sure he is expecting us to look like a team that might get promoted though, one coming together as a progressive unit, rather than one limping to 10th.
Of course but one good season doesn't always mean the next season is more of the same, equally a bad one doesn't mean next will be a bad. Some examples top of my head, Sheffield United great to bad, Reading incredibly average to promotion contenders, going further back I remember when Bournemouth and Watford went up together, both really only had half decent seasons in 2013 (10th and 13th) to then both go up automatically the following season.
A lot can change in a short time, on paper we have a manager that has got us out of this league once and it was very recent which suggests he can do it again. Anyway don't wanna turn this into a debate about Lee I'm just pointing out seasons don't always correlate, especially in the lower leagues imo
I am just generally very happy with the situation we find ourselves in compared to where we were very recently, I typically am a half glass empty type of character but Thomas comments and interviews fill me with optimism
This best attack in the league needs to start scoring goals then Thomas.
Potentially we may well possibly have one of the best attacks in the league but if Bowyer persists in setting the team up not to lose ( lets be honest he's not done that very well) then we could have Ronaldo & Messi up front but if we're not creating chances the strikers won't be scoring many goals. Millar on the bench FFS sake !!!
sounds to me like TS is trying to take some heat off of LB - i will back LB all the time he is the manager, doesn't mean i won't be discussing his decisions or air the view that he may not be the best man for the job but i will be willing the team on to victory tomorrow just like i always have and always will - if we go another month down the line without a marked upturn then i think TS will have a decision to make though
To be fair to Ronnie, he is a fox in the box player who isn't getting the service at the moment.
To be fair to Ronnie he barely played for six months before joining us, and since joining us has only started a couple of games and come on as a sub in a few more. He's having to settle in a new country, regain match fitness and sharpness, build confidence, adapt to a different style of play, get to know new strike partners (who keep changing every week), and is doing all of this in a team that is more widely struggling for confidence and form. Despite this he has scored one very good goal, had a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside, and got into at least one or two very good goal scoring positions in most of his appearances. We all hope and want him to be sticking away some of the chances he missed, but for one or two you can definitely see how the lack of match sharpness hindered him with just slightly heavy touches or slow feet, but you worry the most about strikers who just never get into decent positions and I genuinely don't think Ronnie can be accused of that.
Keep starting him with Stockley, ideally with DJ and Millar too and the goals will start to flow, but with a bit of a break now until our next midweek games Bows does need to pick what he thinks is his best side and stick with it with a few consecutive games regardless of performance or result. If he does this I think we'll see s step change in how well a lot of players are playing. It'll then be also be easier to bring one or two changes in here and there if the rest of the team are settled and comfortable with their jobs.
So a pretty positive interview with the owner, has turned into the usual suspects moaning about the manager, coaching, players etc
And the same usual suspects claiming everything is OK and once Maldini and Nesta get fit blah blah.
That interview is incredibly positive and I don't think anyone isn't positive about the medium and long term future are they?
You can interpret
"“The amount of loan players we have is focused on getting us, at a minimum, a play-off position. We have the squad to do it now."
Whichever way you like and suspect everyone will use it to re-enforce thier already help opinion.
What me, you, or anyone else post on a football forum makes no difference to the actual out come. If Thomas sacks or doesn't sack Bowyer he will do that because he thinks it's right. Not because of anything anyone wrote on Charlton Life.
Well done TS just what is needed to counteract the moaning minnies on here who want LB out. He has been loyal to the club and the fans should follow the owner's example and support LB for the rest of the season
Expected to be close to relegation until TS arrived. Following the signings he made I thought we stood a very good chance of a safe mid table position. Genuinely excited that we could make top six now. Great four months in charge and has made important changes in personal and a real feeling he knows exactly where he is going and how. Let’s hope we can cheer you up a bit on Saturday. COYR’s!
Well without doubt we do have a great attacking lineup but will we ever play to that strength ? The starting 11 will be very interesting tomorrow and imo be a window into LB mindset
the way everyone talks about those two defenders coming back it's increasingly sounding like we're waiting on Nesta and Maldini.
To date they do have a rather good record:
Worth mentioning that 3 of those 4 games Pratley AND Watson played in midfield. As far as I can see they have only started 4 games together in midfield, and we didn't conced in the 4th either.....
Johnny Williams started 7 games this season, we won 4 drew 3. PPG 2.14. So a full half a point more than when he didn't start.
Sounds like they’re all preparing for another year in league 1 to me
Didn’t Sandgaard say quite early on something like this season was see how well we do and next season we’ll go for promotion. I may have remembered the quote incorrectly, but it was something alone those lines.
Strange that I get a different impression from his words than most of you... He sounds to me more like implying that he's given the financial support to strengthen the squad (ie. has done a lot of work and signed xxx players) and now it's the manager's job to achieve the top 6 finish - he didn't say directly the latter part but it's what he has implied. He admits automatic promotion is hard to reach but still, a play-off position should be a reachable goal especially considering he says we've got one of the strongest (if not the strongest) teams in the league and we have the squad to get to the play-offs now. He mentions the difficulty Bowyer faces regarding new players but he puts pressure on Bowyer through those words, in a very mild and appropriate way.
Strange that I get a different impression from his words than most of you... He sounds to me more like implying that he's given the financial support to strengthen the squad (ie. has done a lot of work and signed xxx players) and now it's the manager's job to achieve the top 6 finish - he didn't say directly the latter part but it's what he has implied. He admits automatic promotion is hard to reach but still, a play-off position should be a reachable goal especially considering he says we've got one of the strongest (if not the strongest) teams in the league and we have the squad to get to the play-offs now. He mentions the difficulty Bowyer faces regarding new players but he puts pressure on Bowyer through those words, in a very mild and appropriate way.
I reckon Jessie's bang on the money here.
So many people seeing that we've had a poor run, other teams have games in hand, nothing can change because it's too late now. Yet there's half a season left, all the top half teams have to play each other, fixture congestion, injuries to key players and exhaustion = other teams will struggle at some point also.
And no reason why our team can't get it's act together and hit form. Plenty of time.
But Thomas is watching. He's put his money where his mouth is - and given Bowyer the best tools he can under the circumstances. As Jessie indicates, in an understated way the expectation is there.
It's the expectation that Bowyer delivers - getting in the playoffs is a mark of progress, that the project is gathering momentum. But if that's not achieved, Thomas will look very closely at team performance and dynamics - and see what needs changing.
I'd really like to see us attack the wings and get lots of crosses in. It seems to be a dying passage of play in the game but it has been effective for us in the past. Now we have DJ and Millar I think Stockley with Schwartz feeding off the scraps could really pay divdends.
I'd really like to see us attack the wings and get lots of crosses in. It seems to be a dying passage of play in the game but it has been effective for us in the past. Now we have DJ and Millar I think Stockley with Schwartz feeding off the scraps could really pay divdends.
I agree, surely as you say we’ve got the right players for that approach, just because it’s seen to be old hat and not very revolutionary doesn’t mean it’s not going to work. Football a lot of us grew up with and mostly got excited about watching and why we were hooked on the game. A lot of football is very boring these days!!.
I'd really like to see us attack the wings and get lots of crosses in. It seems to be a dying passage of play in the game but it has been effective for us in the past. Now we have DJ and Millar I think Stockley with Schwartz feeding off the scraps could really pay divdends.
Fully agree. I also think that a lot of the time when we do put crosses in, we over hit them. Invariably we have no-one on the other side of the box so we lose possession. I'd like to think that playing with two proper wingers, we'd still have a good change of retaining possession whenever we do send it too long.
Just out of interest I know it’s bonkers and in the past we’ve really ballsed things up, but effectively we’ve let our last 3 Centre backs in Bauer, Sarr and Lockyer leave on frees to the championship, yet have signed 2 potentially injury prone centre backs.
Seems crazy we allowed Lockyer to sign on a free and leave on a free, poor bit of business for us, would love to know the add ons for the winger we’ve signed from Swindon are?
I mean if we don’t go up this. Season, does he leave on the cheap?
We won this league under Powell playing a simple 4-4-2 with a traditional target man/poacher partnership up front, mixed up our passing including making good use of long balls up to Yann, with crosses from either wing being one of the ways we created chances for our strikers and midfielders.
Definitely still a place for it at this level, even if it might not be as common or effective at the top level. Saying that Leicester played a counter attacking 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 when they won the Prem, it shows it can work even at that level with the right players and set up.
I’d say it’s generally a lot easier and quicker for players to adapt to, the diamond has only worked for Bowyer consistently when we’ve had midfielders and strikers who can support with offering width rather than leaving it down to the full backs. Bielik, Cullen and Aribo were all comfortable carrying the ball and more mobile than most of our current CMs.
On lone striker formations like 4-5-1/4-3-3/4-2-3-1 or three at the back I don’t remember a time when we’ve ever made any of them consistently work, other than spells under Curbs in the Prem. If we’re going to bring in more players like Millar and Jaiyesimi then it becomes more of an option, but you also need the right type of CMs and striker to make it work.
For now i hope Bowyer mainly sticks to a simple 4-4-2 with plenty of game time for both wingers. At the moment I’m expecting him to start one of them and rotate them a lot. Either way he’s got to get it right to keep his job.
Comments
A lot can change in a short time, on paper we have a manager that has got us out of this league once and it was very recent which suggests he can do it again. Anyway don't wanna turn this into a debate about Lee I'm just pointing out seasons don't always correlate, especially in the lower leagues imo
I am just generally very happy with the situation we find ourselves in compared to where we were very recently, I typically am a half glass empty type of character but Thomas comments and interviews fill me with optimism
“The amount of loan players we have is focused on getting us, at a minimum, a play-off position. We have the squad to do it now.”
Doesn’t sound to me like TS is not expecting us to at least get top six. So when/ If that becomes evident not to be happening, what then...... ?
Great article.
That interview is incredibly positive and I don't think anyone isn't positive about the medium and long term future are they?
You can interpret
"“The amount of loan players we have is focused on getting us, at a minimum, a play-off position. We have the squad to do it now."
Whichever way you like and suspect everyone will use it to re-enforce thier already help opinion.
What me, you, or anyone else post on a football forum makes no difference to the actual out come. If Thomas sacks or doesn't sack Bowyer he will do that because he thinks it's right. Not because of anything anyone wrote on Charlton Life.
Genuinely excited that we could make top six now. Great four months in charge and has made important changes in personal and a real feeling he knows exactly where he is going and how. Let’s hope we can cheer you up a bit on Saturday. COYR’s!
Johnny Williams started 7 games this season, we won 4 drew 3. PPG 2.14. So a full half a point more than when he didn't start.
You can prove anything with stats.
Humour folks... Humour
Correct.
So many people seeing that we've had a poor run, other teams have games in hand, nothing can change because it's too late now.
Yet there's half a season left, all the top half teams have to play each other, fixture congestion, injuries to key players and exhaustion = other teams will struggle at some point also.
And no reason why our team can't get it's act together and hit form. Plenty of time.
But Thomas is watching. He's put his money where his mouth is - and given Bowyer the best tools he can under the circumstances.
As Jessie indicates, in an understated way the expectation is there.
It's the expectation that Bowyer delivers - getting in the playoffs is a mark of progress, that the project is gathering momentum.
But if that's not achieved, Thomas will look very closely at team performance and dynamics - and see what needs changing.
It seems to be a dying passage of play in the game but it has been effective for us in the past.
Now we have DJ and Millar I think Stockley with Schwartz feeding off the scraps could really pay divdends.
Seems crazy we allowed Lockyer to sign on a free and leave on a free, poor bit of business for us, would love to know the add ons for the winger we’ve signed from Swindon are?
I mean if we don’t go up this. Season, does he leave on the cheap?
Definitely still a place for it at this level, even if it might not be as common or effective at the top level. Saying that Leicester played a counter attacking 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 when they won the Prem, it shows it can work even at that level with the right players and set up.
I’d say it’s generally a lot easier and quicker for players to adapt to, the diamond has only worked for Bowyer consistently when we’ve had midfielders and strikers who can support with offering width rather than leaving it down to the full backs. Bielik, Cullen and Aribo were all comfortable carrying the ball and more
mobile than most of our current CMs.
On lone striker formations like 4-5-1/4-3-3/4-2-3-1 or three at the back I don’t remember a time when we’ve ever made any of them consistently work, other than spells under Curbs in the Prem. If we’re going to bring in more players like Millar and Jaiyesimi then it becomes more of an option, but you also need the right type of CMs and striker to make it work.
For now i hope Bowyer mainly sticks to a simple 4-4-2 with plenty of game time for both wingers. At the moment I’m expecting him to start one of them and rotate them a lot. Either way he’s got to get it right to keep his job.