I think Cullen, Bielik and Gallagher fed off the crowd at the Valley. Is it any wonder that the current crop of loanees don’t seem quite so highly motivated when they’re playing in empty stadiums?
So better quality doesn't come into it?
It definitely does, but I was answering a couple of comments saying our loanees don’t look interested. I think they’d give more in a packed (or even half full) Valley. That’s just human nature.
I’m certainly not saying it wasn’t awful, it was. As soon as I saw the starting lineup I thought it probably would be.
I just hope he never starts Watson and Pratley in midfield again, but I suspect he will.
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. Pratley and Watson together in the centre of midfield doesn’t work. In fact I can’t see what either provides when playing without the other. Both are past their best. Why can’t Bowyer see it but the fans can? We need more mobile central midfielders next season.
I often hear the same excuses as to why we look so poor “we threw a team together in weeks”. We have enough quality in the squad to be top 6. But if we allow that argument then surely at a minimum Bows job is to make sure we are well drilled, organised and have a clear game plan. Most teams that come to the valley have less quality than us but their sum of parts are miles better because they have strong leadership off the pitch.
We’re you watching .. Watson was again one of our better players and has been MOM twice in last 3 matches in fact our change in results and goals conceded has improved since Watson been back .. Gunter is our best right back by miles you don’t get 99 caps by being a poor player .. been excellent at both full back and centre half ..... Aneke what did he bring yesterday and the miss from 6 yards in front of open goal ...
I think Pratley and Watson done ok yesterday given Shrewsbury strange tactics ... people need yo look at the game and not just blame the same one or two players .. problem yesterday was not the three players listed above but our wide players Millar and Morgan who did not create a thing for Stockley and Washington ....
I often hear the same excuses as to why we look so poor “we threw a team together in weeks”. We have enough quality in the squad to be top 6. But if we allow that argument then surely at a minimum Bows job is to make sure we are well drilled, organised and have a clear game plan. Most teams that come to the valley have less quality than us but their sum of parts are miles better because they have strong leadership off the pitch.
Exactly. Limited but well organised, well drilled and with a game plan. How often have we heard that this season? How many times has it been directed at us?
We’re you watching .. Watson was again one of our better players and has been MOM twice in last 3 matches in fact our change in results and goals conceded has improved since Watson been back .. Gunter is our best right back by miles you don’t get 99 caps by being a poor player .. been excellent at both full back and centre half ..... Aneke what did he bring yesterday and the miss from 6 yards in front of open goal ...
I think Pratley and Watson done ok yesterday given Shrewsbury strange tactics ... people need yo look at the game and not just blame the same one or two players .. problem yesterday was not the three players listed above but our wide players Millar and Morgan who did not create a thing for Stockley and Washington ....
i think the real chris gunter must be tied up in the woods somewhere because the gunter i've been watching is a terrible player - his ability with the football is nearly as bad as pratley's - 2 players who have clearly made a career out of having great attitudes but they would be first out the door if i were in charge - swiftly followed by watson - we've gone full circle now and LB is back to playing the defensive tripe - id sooner concede 2 / 3 goals and watch us create chances if it has to be one or the other - ideally when we get a new manager and some new players, it won't have to be 1 or the other
We’re you watching .. Watson was again one of our better players and has been MOM twice in last 3 matches in fact our change in results and goals conceded has improved since Watson been back .. Gunter is our best right back by miles you don’t get 99 caps by being a poor player .. been excellent at both full back and centre half ..... Aneke what did he bring yesterday and the miss from 6 yards in front of open goal ...
I think Pratley and Watson done ok yesterday given Shrewsbury strange tactics ... people need yo look at the game and not just blame the same one or two players .. problem yesterday was not the three players listed above but our wide players Millar and Morgan who did not create a thing for Stockley and Washington ....
i think the real chris gunter must be tied up in the woods somewhere because the gunter i've been watching is a terrible player - his ability with the football is nearly as bad as pratley's - 2 players who have clearly made a career out of having great attitudes but they would be first out the door if i were in charge - swiftly followed by watson - we've gone full circle now and LB is back to playing the defensive tripe - id sooner concede 2 / 3 goals and watch us create chances if it has to be one or the other - ideally when we get a new manager and some new players, it won't have to be 1 or the other
Agree. Not only did he stand there and watch as the man he was supposed to be marking wandered free into the box and got the equaliser, he also twice nearly gifted them the winner. He's cost us so many goals this season.
Is it just me or do we seem to hit the woodwork more often than we used to (or than other teams seem to)? It seems every game we hit the post or bar at least once. And it pops back out and gets cleared.
Dunno, whether that's true, what that means or what we can do about it but it's getting right on my nerves.
Improve ourfinishing. A lot of the chances that hit the woodwork are from 10 yards. Poor finishing rather than bad luck
9/10 of Gunter passes forward are a 50/50. Lot of just guessing with his passes. Defensively he's been a bit better.
Pratley and Watson do their job but the blind obvious fact is we don't need two of them doing the same jobs when 3pts are fucking critical thus stage of season.
Play Smith and shinnie with Albie given licence to roam and create at top of diamond.
Pretty clear why we started pratley and watson in midfield together... we have been woeful at home. Another 2 goals conceded would derail any confidence built up.
As much as we need points the team really isn’t good enough to just play all attacking players. That would just be reckless
It all has the feel of the team that petered out under Chris Powell in 2011 (Benson, Anyinsah, Reid, Parrett, Stewart, Docherty, Dailly, Francis, Sullivan etc).
It's not down to team selection anymore. The players, collectively, aren't good enough to pick up form and go on a serious run (just winning back to back games would be start).
There isn’t one single player in the entire squad who is good enough to play for Charlton. One thing I will say is that Pratley should be remembered for some of his good performances, not those in recent games. Get rid of the whole lot and start again.
Bowyer is now performing as bad as Klopp and Wilder.
Agreed we have no creativity in midfield when 2 oldies holding midfield. forwards however must take chances presented them. Amazingly the race of playoff remains an option.
It all has the feel of the team that petered out under Chris Powell in 2011 (Benson, Anyinsah, Reid, Parrett, Stewart, Docherty, Dailly, Francis, Sullivan etc).
It's not down to team selection anymore. The players, collectively, aren't good enough to pick up form and go on a serious run (just winning back to back games would be start).
And I think they know it, they don’t believe they can make the playoffs and win them. Most of them know they’ll be gone in the summer and those staying not necessarily first choice next season.
We’ve improved only in that we’re not conceding 2/3+ a game. Downside is it’s made us dull to watch and we create very few chances. Struggle to see anything other than more inconsistent results and a mid table finish.
Looking forward to the rebuild. After 10/11 ended we signed Danny Hollands a week after Bournemouth had lost in the playoffs. I really hope we’re just as proactive as we were 10 years ago given how much needs to be done in terms of signings (and possibly several non-playing appointments too).
Getting into the playoffs seems to have become our target. Winning in the playoffs right now seems to have been forgotten, not a chance of that the way we are playing.
Roll on the end of the season and a proper clear out. Watching this lot just is not fun. The seasoned professionals should be ashamed of themselves the amount of times they give the ball away or put another player in trouble with a ‘hospital pass’. Watson and Pratley were the worst culprits yesterday, but Gunter was not far behind.
I will pay for every available game to stream, as I want the club to grow and support for Thomas all the way, but I am not far off awaiting watching goals on Quest, the matches are that frustratingly poor.
I think we are chasing a ghost with the play offs and even if we miraculously got in them have nowhere near the quality to win them, so would rather now see our longer term contracted players (bar Watson) played game in game out to give them experience at our club and build upon that in the summer no matter who is at the helm. We can see whether any of them are worth building anything around too ie Schwartz, Gilbey, etc. Before anybody laughs re prospect of building anything around these players I have a lot of time for some of the points I have read that our coaching staff seem determined to knock the natural games out of players we sign (despite signing them based on the qualities they displayed at their previous clubs). Neither DJ or Gilbey are likely to play in the style of Bowyer or Jackson for example. Our head coaches both played at the highest level clubs and had skill sets beyond most of our current squad..., but we also know that we have brought in players that were player of the year or fan favourites at the previous club(s). Go figure...?
All this talk about how we are great at developing young players. Where is the evidence of that in the recent past ?
Millar.... does he look a better player now than when he arrived ?
Maatsen...... Ditto ?
DJ.... apparently cant be expected to repeat what he was doing at Swindon because he is now playing for the mighty CAFC.
Smith.... again stepping up to us from a lowly club means he has to be 4th choice behind 2 OAP,s who are able to deliver the higher expectations that come with being a CAFC player.
Barker.... when there was no other choice last season he was drafted in and did nothing that let us down but apparently it's very dangerous with young players if you play them as 1 mistake can ruin their career it's best to leave them on the bench in the under 23,s.
Let's face it yesterday wasn't great, but it wasn't all bad either, flashes here and there of good stuff but not enough to prove worthy of three points, the number of times we had a break, usually involving the much improved Washington, and we were far too slow to support from midfield, leaving their defenders too much time to mop up and break down any potential advantage we had. Watson and Pratley an accident waiting to happen, and particularly Pratley, what a potential liability he can be, almost guaranteed a booking due to his lack of pace for one thing, and then who knows when the red will come. So on to Tuesday, let's just hope Jake is fit 'cause god how we missed him yesterday, and freshen up the midfield a bit maybe Shinnie, Smith, but give the non dynamic duo of Watson and Pratley a miss, we have long gone past the point of trying to avoid defeat, that ship sailed long ago, it's win or bust now.
Getting into the playoffs seems to have become our target. Winning in the playoffs right now seems to have been forgotten, not a chance of that the way we are playing.
To win the playoffs your target would still need to be to get into the playoffs anyway.
6 of our final 8 games this season are against the current top 6. If we are able to get wins in those games, we’ll deservedly be in the play offs and may even fancy our chances.
The only thing that bothers me is LB said we looked tired in the second half, I thought all League 1 teams are playing twice a week, so why are we the only team that always look tired? they all do not have a big enough squad to rotate all of their players
The only thing that bothers me is LB said we looked tired in the second half, I thought all League 1 teams are playing twice a week, so why are we the only team that always look tired? they all do not have a big enough squad to rotate all of their players
Watson Pratley and Pearce make us look so slow that Bowyer is confusing tired with slow
When you play with effectively 7 defensive players and your opponents ensure they congest the penalty area you are attacking you are going to find it hard to score. We have virtually no goals in our midfield and a shot from distance is a waste of time based on our record of scoring from them. Especially with JFC and Shinnie not starting.
I will add that whilst Washington did very well, it was inept defending that led to our equaliser and it was still a good example of how many players one player has to beat. Washington managed it, but the odds were against.
Agreed we have no creativity in midfield when 2 oldies holding midfield. forwards however must take chances presented them. Amazingly the race of playoff remains an option.
But there are no "chances" being created for our strikers. Only real miss yesterday was Aneke. Stockly didn't have much time & got it on target. Washington created his goal himself.
I'd be the first one to be on here moaning if we were missing chance after chance, week after week. Look at the stats. We bearly test the oppositions goal keeper & I reckon we create probably less than 6 chances per game.......and that's being generous.
Comments
I think Pratley and Watson done ok yesterday given Shrewsbury strange tactics ... people need yo
look at the game and not just blame the same one or two players .. problem yesterday was not the three players listed above but our wide players Millar and Morgan who did not create a thing for Stockley and Washington ....
Edit: Oh, misread. 'Finishing'. Sorry!
Lot of just guessing with his passes.
Defensively he's been a bit better.
Pratley and Watson do their job but the blind obvious fact is we don't need two of them doing the same jobs when 3pts are fucking critical thus stage of season.
Play Smith and shinnie with Albie given licence to roam and create at top of diamond.
As much as we need points the team really isn’t good enough to just play all attacking players. That would just be reckless
Have Bowyer & Gallen got enough about them to emulate CP 11/12 closed season?
I believe Thomas will bank roll the squad, I want to believe Bow/Gallen can do this and we do have something biuld on.
It's not down to team selection anymore. The players, collectively, aren't good enough to pick up form and go on a serious run (just winning back to back games would be start).
We’ve improved only in that we’re not conceding 2/3+ a game. Downside is it’s made us dull to watch and we create very few chances. Struggle to see anything other than more inconsistent results and a mid table finish.
Looking forward to the rebuild. After 10/11 ended we signed Danny Hollands a week after Bournemouth had lost in the playoffs. I really hope we’re just as proactive as we were 10 years ago given how much needs to be done in terms of signings (and possibly several non-playing appointments too).
Millar.... does he look a better player now than when he arrived ?
Maatsen...... Ditto ?
DJ.... apparently cant be expected to repeat what he was doing at Swindon because he is now playing for the mighty CAFC.
Smith.... again stepping up to us from a lowly club means he has to be 4th choice behind 2 OAP,s who are able to deliver the higher expectations that come with being a CAFC player.
Barker.... when there was no other choice last season he was drafted in and did nothing that let us down but apparently it's very dangerous with young players if you play them as 1 mistake can ruin their career it's best to leave them on the bench in the under 23,s.
I could go on but there is little point.
So on to Tuesday, let's just hope Jake is fit 'cause god how we missed him yesterday, and freshen up the midfield a bit maybe Shinnie, Smith, but give the non dynamic duo of Watson and Pratley a miss, we have long gone past the point of trying to avoid defeat, that ship sailed long ago, it's win or bust now.
I'd be the first one to be on here moaning if we were missing chance after chance, week after week. Look at the stats. We bearly test the oppositions goal keeper & I reckon we create probably less than 6 chances per game.......and that's being generous.