Stockley has 8 goals for us since January. With or without a strike partner if we can get him in permanently we should. People can talk about not liking the way we play with him all we want but that's a brilliant goal return. He's not the issue, the players around him are. We should improve those
This totally.
It's so funny the number of people who have slagged Stockley off despite the fact he has scored 8 goals and he's played up front by himself for most of the recent games getting s**t kicked out of him by 3 defenders.
He should be our number one target to sign.
Agree.
Some people havent got a scoob. StOcKlEy iS a DONkEy was a quote I see in the match thread and it seems to be a reoccurring theme to slag him off every game.
I'd be getting him signed up as soon as possible.
When he's not on his game, he's really not adding anything.
If we can ALWAYS play him with a partner he should start every game.
I could go all Schwartz here and say 'we arent playing to his strengths' when he isnt on his game
Every time I see him he works his nuts off and as you can see above his goal return isnt too bad considering he is playing in a team that a lot want to see the back of come the end of the season.
I'd say when he isnt on his game neither are the rest of his team mates.
Works his nuts off? You sure? Chuks works his nuts off, Washington works his nuts off... Stockley though... No where near working them off. If he adds that to his game, I'd be singing his praises more.
I agree entirely about playing to a players strengths, Stockley should not be on his own.
In reference to Schwartz, the big difference is one of those players has had a proper chance, the other has had cameos. Stockley being a big lad will obviously get more chances when a manager prefers one up top.
If we're looking at two up front next season (and if Adkins keeps Schwartz) I'd be excited to see our front four options as combinations of Aneke, Stockley, Washington, Schwartz with a new fresh fifth option.
Is this satire? So hard to tell these days
It is not. Stockley does nowhere near the work of our other forward players. Sure he plays for longer, but his overall workrate is lower. I like Stockley, but I don't love Stockley in a 4-3-3 because he's too limited in terms of work rate and skill to do it every game.
I'm happy for him to start alongside Chuks or Conor any day of the week.
stockley is a target man, not a channel runner - for a target man, his work rate is very good
See that's a more fair argument. Chuks however is a target man and a channel runner. Just a shame his fitness and ability to stay injury free is diabolical.
Maybe on reflection the amount of effort put in by Taylor, Aneke, Washington, Bonne, Grant and even Parker has affected my judgement of Stockley's work rate. I mean Stockley's goal return is certainly beyond most of theirs for less than half a season.
Pompey and Oxford won’t lose I think we will win but we’ve been architects of our own shortcomings - I find finishing 7/8th in this league not good enough with the squad we have.
Fell asleep during the first half but the second half with the deadly duo of Chuks and Jayden meant that we stopped with the hoofing and played them into the game by playing football. We looked good at times.
People questioning Stockley's work rate, I presume mean not chasing down out of possession as much as, say, Washington does.
But the work Stockley puts in to constantly show for the ball and challenge for headers, again and again, must be exhausting and is in itself considerable workrate.
I think he's been an excellent addition (remember Bogle) and I'd be more than happy to see him sign next year. I get the sense he would if the deal is right. He also comes across as a decent, grounded and modest person. I agree we need more though, and we play better with two up top, and we can't rely on Aneke (fitness) if he signs again. So we need another quality striker (or two if Chuks goes) and probably somehow move Schwartz on.
Other than that I thought Matthews had a very good game, as did Gilbey. Matthews has proven himself to be clearly better than Gunter. Unfortunately the latter is contracted next year and the former not, I think.
The second half tonight frustrates, because just a few more of those performances (which are well within the capability of the squad) and we would have been right up there, however poor we are / the league is.
In the end it has come down to a few last minute goals conceded and missed penalties etc. While we have had some of those moments go for us, the majority have gone against - combination of some bad luck and overly negative tactics.
Makes you realise how every point matters.
All of that said, it's better to go into Sunday with some hope than none.
Stockley has 8 goals for us since January. With or without a strike partner if we can get him in permanently we should. People can talk about not liking the way we play with him all we want but that's a brilliant goal return. He's not the issue, the players around him are. We should improve those
This totally.
It's so funny the number of people who have slagged Stockley off despite the fact he has scored 8 goals and he's played up front by himself for most of the recent games getting s**t kicked out of him by 3 defenders.
He should be our number one target to sign.
Agree.
Some people havent got a scoob. StOcKlEy iS a DONkEy was a quote I see in the match thread and it seems to be a reoccurring theme to slag him off every game.
I'd be getting him signed up as soon as possible.
When he's not on his game, he's really not adding anything.
If we can ALWAYS play him with a partner he should start every game.
I could go all Schwartz here and say 'we arent playing to his strengths' when he isnt on his game
Every time I see him he works his nuts off and as you can see above his goal return isnt too bad considering he is playing in a team that a lot want to see the back of come the end of the season.
I'd say when he isnt on his game neither are the rest of his team mates.
Works his nuts off? You sure? Chuks works his nuts off, Washington works his nuts off... Stockley though... No where near working them off. If he adds that to his game, I'd be singing his praises more.
I agree entirely about playing to a players strengths, Stockley should not be on his own.
In reference to Schwartz, the big difference is one of those players has had a proper chance, the other has had cameos. Stockley being a big lad will obviously get more chances when a manager prefers one up top.
If we're looking at two up front next season (and if Adkins keeps Schwartz) I'd be excited to see our front four options as combinations of Aneke, Stockley, Washington, Schwartz with a new fresh fifth option.
Is this satire? So hard to tell these days
It is not. Stockley does nowhere near the work of our other forward players. Sure he plays for longer, but his overall workrate is lower. I like Stockley, but I don't love Stockley in a 4-3-3 because he's too limited in terms of work rate and skill to do it every game.
I'm happy for him to start alongside Chuks or Conor any day of the week.
That’s not how you measure hard work. Sure he don’t run the channels as much as Washington, but that’s not his job.
Jayden Stockley pushes his body to the absolute limit every game for 90 minutes. He’s constantly fighting two CB’s on his own to keep the ball and relieve pressure for the team - it wouldn’t surprise me if he has CTE later in life due to the way he plays.
To say he doesn’t work his bollocks off is crazy talk.
You've said it better than I could have.
As I've said before, I was a striker myself and ran around like a headless chicken chasing all 4 defenders down for as long as I could but I'm a skinny noodle and that work rate is different to a big lad like stockley fighting and using his strength for 90 minutes against 2 strong centre backs.
The frustration of inconsistency across the season. We can win and lose against everyone in this division and so can Portsmouth and Oxford so there is a chance, albeit a very small one, that this season isn’t over on Sunday. Whatever happens the club feels like it’s moving in the right direction, especially after a 3-1 win!
There’s no need to hoof it to Stockley all the time. It’s awful to watch and rarely comes to anything. However he is fairly adept at receiving, shielding and laying it off allowing us to build attacks. Chuks is even better at it. Adkins has to drill it into them to try and hit it to either of their feet or chest as we did a number of times in the second half. It’s still direct but offers more chance of a prolonged attack with bodies getting forward in support
Weird that you can't criticise a perceived shortcoming of a player without being accused of not rating them or not believing they're a good addition to the squad.
I like Jayden Stockley in a 2 up top. I do not think he does enough work to close players and has been until tonight extremely wasteful with the ball to feet.
I admit it is primarily the closing of players that bothers me, but as we saw today in a front pairing it's less of a problem and actually halves the work he has to do.
I have even admitted, I've been spoiled by the hard working forwards we've had over the years.
Have Hull had the trophy? Hope so. Makes Sunday even more meaningless if they’ve already done their celebrations and are instead working out which Greek island will be Covid green rather than bothering to do anything meaningful going forwards against us.
I hope we bust a gut to keep Jayden and Matthews next year.
Innis was very up for today. He let the forwards know they could get a bruising if they wanted it that way.
If we get him through the final game, it will be good knowing he suffered no reinjury following his long lay off. I can see that see demands certain standards from players close to him.
how about Oxford loose Charlton draw Portsmouth loose by 2 goals then us and Pompey same points and same GD
We have scored more. But if they score loads then it goes to head to head, which is even. So Portsmouth go up because they have won more games this season.
Didn't have the chance to watch tonight but I'm happy it looks like we played well whilst also winning. Hopefully we can win against Hull and get a miracle but cant see either happening.
I'm still frothing angry at the performance at Accrington and against Crewe but looking back our season was lost when Inniss got injured and we were shipping two goals a game for months on end. Could and should have got a centre back in January and that decision ultimately I feel is why we're consigned to another season in this division.
Next year is going to be tough and whilst it would be nice to come top 2, realistically if we come top 6 I'd view it as a success and want us to keep faith in Adkins with a view to top 2 the season after being the minimum requirement.
I wasn't entirely surprised we won today. Yes it was an awful performance and game, but some of the comments on here after Saturday about the players were well OTT, there's still some talent and motivation in the squad, and a Lincoln side saving themselves for the playoffs were always likely to be 10% down on normal
A complete transformation at half time, as we suddenly looked like a footballing side again, passing and moving and actually looking like creating chances from open play. The first goal was quality football.
The 433 formation worked for a while, but I think teams have worked out how to defend against it and isolate Stockley from the wide players. In addition we've lacked energy in midfield for a while, it's frustrated me that Morgan hasn't had more minutes as JFC has faded a bit over the last few games. It wouldn't surprise me if fatigue contributed to his muscle injury today. Morgan came on and really took the game by the scruff of its neck. Another assist as well, it would be interesting to see the comparative corner stats between Morgan and JFC to see who has the highest percentage of deliveries into dangerous areas...
We saw both sides of Chuks today, the brilliant and the brain dead. Only real leniency from the referee saved him from a 2 game ban, maybe that will turn out to be a pivotal moment in the season...
We generally looked solid, but Lincoln had 2 good chances at 0-0 and 1-0 which could have made a massive difference. I know some people find Brownie a bit irritating, but I found it really interesting the way he critiques the centre backs, and their decision making.
Brownie's assessment of Fam and Innis was excellent.
He picked up on areas that the average fan might have missed, or areas that we will all have missed while not watching live.
Agreed, Famewo's judgement is sometimes a bit questionable as he has a tendency to dive in or chase the ball too much. Most of the time his pace enables him to compensate for positional errors.
He'll improve with experience of course, but the last few weeks have shown why Norwich have loaned him out to L1 for the season.
A great performance well done.and well done Stockley and co.and Nigel !! only an idiot would not be able to see that our new manager and 75% of the team he has inherited in time will be league Champions once more. I would hate to beat Hull on Saturday and due to Portsmouth stay out of the playoffs on goal difference, of course I want to win and win the playoffs which I feel we would if we got in them, but sadly I feel the Crewe draw has cost us ......
but this is Charlton Athletic so anything is possible 😂😂😂
Didnt watch the game so no comment from me about it or the players, but now onto Sunday.......
We must start with a 4-4-2. If we can't trust Chuks to last 90 mins & prefer him as an "impact" sub then start with Stockley & Schwartz with Washington & Aneke on the bench. Schwartz might not have played any football for months but his job in the first half would be to finish any knock downs Stockley creates or simply to keep a defender busy. Then release Chuks in the 2nd half. It's a must must must win game & so no point fannying around with Pratley et al on the bench - so Shinnie is there instead. Need players who can create or score goals.
Also start Morgan instead of JFC. Morgan has had 2 vital assists within the past 4 days & a much better deliverer of a dead ball.
Hope Sky put us on as well as the already confirmed Pompey v Accrington match - either on a main channel or via the red button. Even if they don't I probably won't watch the stream but watch Sky instead as they will hopefully switch from game to game when vital goals go in.
I know there are some folks on here who think that we lump the ball long to Stockley too much and I can understand their point of view.
However, I think the broader point is that it only makes sense to look to 'play out' if you have the players to actually do it properly without giving the ball away in daft areas!
If you look at some of the goals we shipped this season you will see that a very large number came from giving the ball away in our defensive third or on halfway.
We probably have gone more direct under Adkins but in doing so we have stopped conceding quite so many silly goals as we were earlier in the season.
Under Adkins we have W4 D4 L1 with a PPG of 1.77 that over 46 games would get us 81 points and on the edge of automatic promotion but more importantly we have tightened up defensively conceding only eight goals in nine games which is what you need to get promoted.
Before Adkins came in we were conceding more than a goal a game with 48 goals conceded in 36 games and since the start of December to Adkins being appointed we shipped 36 goals in 23 games which at nearly 1.5 goals per game is very close to relegation material.
Yes, the return of our best central defenders obviously helps us but by removing risk from our defensive third we also make it much easier to avoid silly goals by playing in the other teams half and not our own.
Obviously if the other team drop deep we can then play football but if people press us high then it makes sense to go long to Stockley and avoid losing soft goals.
Pompey and Oxford won’t lose I think we will win but we’ve been architects of our own shortcomings - I find finishing 7/8th in this league not good enough with the squad we have.
If we win, they'll both have to win to go above us. That equaliser on Saturday could end up important, as a draw now won't be good enough for Pompey if we can win
Albie was excellent. JFC needs to keep his game basic and play at intensity. It's so frustrating seeing him strut around as if he's better than he is.
Morgan offers much more than Forster-Caskey. Genuinely struggle to relate to the 'gushing' that follows JFC around. A very mediocre player at this level.
While this is an extreme way to say it, I do agree that JFC is overrated amongst a large portion of our fanbase.
Morgan and Aneke superb today, completely changed the game.
The performances tonight and against Plymouth show that this squad Has absolutely underperformed this season. Should be top 6 easily, but now we're relying on other teams to do us a favour on the last day.
Comments
If Stockley scores the penalty against Posh and we hang on against Crewe then we are in the Play Offs.
So annoying that we are going to miss out to Pompey or Oxford who are both eminently beatable.
But the work Stockley puts in to constantly show for the ball and challenge for headers, again and again, must be exhausting and is in itself considerable workrate.
I think he's been an excellent addition (remember Bogle) and I'd be more than happy to see him sign next year. I get the sense he would if the deal is right. He also comes across as a decent, grounded and modest person. I agree we need more though, and we play better with two up top, and we can't rely on Aneke (fitness) if he signs again. So we need another quality striker (or two if Chuks goes) and probably somehow move Schwartz on.
Other than that I thought Matthews had a very good game, as did Gilbey. Matthews has proven himself to be clearly better than Gunter. Unfortunately the latter is contracted next year and the former not, I think.
The second half tonight frustrates, because just a few more of those performances (which are well within the capability of the squad) and we would have been right up there, however poor we are / the league is.
In the end it has come down to a few last minute goals conceded and missed penalties etc. While we have had some of those moments go for us, the majority have gone against - combination of some bad luck and overly negative tactics.
Makes you realise how every point matters.
All of that said, it's better to go into Sunday with some hope than none.
As I've said before, I was a striker myself and ran around like a headless chicken chasing all 4 defenders down for as long as I could but I'm a skinny noodle and that work rate is different to a big lad like stockley fighting and using his strength for 90 minutes against 2 strong centre backs.
I like Jayden Stockley in a 2 up top. I do not think he does enough work to close players and has been until tonight extremely wasteful with the ball to feet.
I admit it is primarily the closing of players that bothers me, but as we saw today in a front pairing it's less of a problem and actually halves the work he has to do.
I have even admitted, I've been spoiled by the hard working forwards we've had over the years.
You’re having a Watson Dazzler mate!
If we get him through the final game, it will be good knowing he suffered no reinjury following his long lay off. I can see that see demands certain standards from players close to him.
I'm still frothing angry at the performance at Accrington and against Crewe but looking back our season was lost when Inniss got injured and we were shipping two goals a game for months on end. Could and should have got a centre back in January and that decision ultimately I feel is why we're consigned to another season in this division.
Next year is going to be tough and whilst it would be nice to come top 2, realistically if we come top 6 I'd view it as a success and want us to keep faith in Adkins with a view to top 2 the season after being the minimum requirement.
A complete transformation at half time, as we suddenly looked like a footballing side again, passing and moving and actually looking like creating chances from open play. The first goal was quality football.
The 433 formation worked for a while, but I think teams have worked out how to defend against it and isolate Stockley from the wide players. In addition we've lacked energy in midfield for a while, it's frustrated me that Morgan hasn't had more minutes as JFC has faded a bit over the last few games. It wouldn't surprise me if fatigue contributed to his muscle injury today. Morgan came on and really took the game by the scruff of its neck. Another assist as well, it would be interesting to see the comparative corner stats between Morgan and JFC to see who has the highest percentage of deliveries into dangerous areas...
We saw both sides of Chuks today, the brilliant and the brain dead. Only real leniency from the referee saved him from a 2 game ban, maybe that will turn out to be a pivotal moment in the season...
We generally looked solid, but Lincoln had 2 good chances at 0-0 and 1-0 which could have made a massive difference. I know some people find Brownie a bit irritating, but I found it really interesting the way he critiques the centre backs, and their decision making.
He picked up on areas that the average fan might have missed, or areas that we all will have missed while not watching live (in stadium).
He'll improve with experience of course, but the last few weeks have shown why Norwich have loaned him out to L1 for the season.
only an idiot would not be able to see that our new manager and 75% of the team he has inherited
in time will be league Champions once more.
I would hate to beat Hull on Saturday and due to Portsmouth stay out of the playoffs on goal difference, of course I want to win and win the playoffs which I feel we would if we got in them,
but sadly I feel the Crewe draw has cost us ......
but this is Charlton Athletic so anything is possible 😂😂😂
We must start with a 4-4-2. If we can't trust Chuks to last 90 mins & prefer him as an "impact" sub then start with Stockley & Schwartz with Washington & Aneke on the bench. Schwartz might not have played any football for months but his job in the first half would be to finish any knock downs Stockley creates or simply to keep a defender busy. Then release Chuks in the 2nd half. It's a must must must win game & so no point fannying around with Pratley et al on the bench - so Shinnie is there instead. Need players who can create or score goals.
Also start Morgan instead of JFC. Morgan has had 2 vital assists within the past 4 days & a much better deliverer of a dead ball.
Hope Sky put us on as well as the already confirmed Pompey v Accrington match - either on a main channel or via the red button. Even if they don't I probably won't watch the stream but watch Sky instead as they will hopefully switch from game to game when vital goals go in.
However, I think the broader point is that it only makes sense to look to 'play out' if you have the players to actually do it properly without giving the ball away in daft areas!
If you look at some of the goals we shipped this season you will see that a very large number came from giving the ball away in our defensive third or on halfway.
We probably have gone more direct under Adkins but in doing so we have stopped conceding quite so many silly goals as we were earlier in the season.
Under Adkins we have W4 D4 L1 with a PPG of 1.77 that over 46 games would get us 81 points and on the edge of automatic promotion but more importantly we have tightened up defensively conceding only eight goals in nine games which is what you need to get promoted.
Before Adkins came in we were conceding more than a goal a game with 48 goals conceded in 36 games and since the start of December to Adkins being appointed we shipped 36 goals in 23 games which at nearly 1.5 goals per game is very close to relegation material.
Yes, the return of our best central defenders obviously helps us but by removing risk from our defensive third we also make it much easier to avoid silly goals by playing in the other teams half and not our own.
Obviously if the other team drop deep we can then play football but if people press us high then it makes sense to go long to Stockley and avoid losing soft goals.
https://twitter.com/sthlondonpress/status/1389716159017140227?s=21
https://t.co/6ZukQv6M72
https://t.co/NY5uzxdEnn
You’ve been banging on about it for weeks. Thought you would be delighted happy mildly chuffed slightly less miserable than normal.
Morgan and Aneke superb today, completely changed the game.