To be fair to Appleton I think he has recognised the soft underbelly in the squad. There seems to be a lack of resilience and mental fortitude that was talked about by Ben Garner a year ago. Appleton has mentioned the lack of commitment, the lack of running off the ball and inability to compete several times since his arrival here. He also said on one occasion that he was aware of it at Charlton whilst at another club. Iâm not sure if the modern recruitment process picks up on player attitudes and will to win. Obviously ability 'on the grass' is important, but so too is that thing called spirit.
Garner 2/12/22.
We canât keep sacking managers to solve clubâs âcultural issuesâ
That comes back to mentality. Thatâs something that has to change at the football club. Iâm not trying to take pressure off me, but I donât think itâs a managerial issue.
âYou can keep changing manager every three or four months if you want. Itâs deeper than that. Itâs a cultural issue. Itâs a mentality issue. Thatâs harder to change, but thatâs what weâve got to do.
Appleton 30/9/23 Draw at Shrewsbury
âThe first half â I canât take that, I canât accept that. I made the players aware of that at half time.
âI think no matter what game of football you play in, whether itâs in the Premier League or the National League, youâve got to compete. You might not be the most aggressive person but youâve got to be competitive. You canât have a career in football if youâre not competitive.â
Appleton 24/10/23 Lincoln defeat
âWe just didnât give ourselves a chance tonight. We didnât compete enough with them,â he told CharltonTV. âAnd if you do that against a really physical side like Lincoln, thereâs only going to be one scenario thatâs going to happen and thatâs what happened.â
Appleton also noticed some heads dropping after Charlton went behind: âOnce the second goal went in, there were one or two players who looked like they didnât really think they could get back in the game.
Appleton 2/12/23 Gillingham
âBut if you change three or four players in the team, you certainly donât expect the performance levels to drop as low as what theyâve done today.
âThatâs the slightly worrying thing from my point of view.
âThe players coming into the group, theyâve all had minutes at some point and theyâve all been exposed to this type of game.
âFrom that point of view, there was an opportunity for one or two of the players to really take the bull by the horn, drive forward and ask questions of me, basically.
âThere wasnât enough players asking questions of me today.
âNone of them can knock on my door and ask me why Iâm not in the team.
Itâs all words. Iâm fed up with words. Be it from owners, employees, managers or players.Â
They can all talk the talk. No one has delivered anything approaching the walk for years.Â
It sucks half of our gullible fan base in (who understandably are desperate for anything)where soundbites and waffle buy these bluffers time , followed by fuck all substance in realityÂ
How can the gullible half bring about whatever change you seek?
Kudos @Braziliance for hanging in there for that tripe, good video, and that stand, well, it ain't a stand is it, it's a pile of scaffold poles...oh and by the way, nothin' wrong with the song at the end mate, just the environment in which it is played...đ On to the next one eh...
Cracking song mate ruined by Millwall for me, genuine ptsd đ
Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough. Â I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants.Â
Appleton needs replacing as well
He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interviewÂ
He has no idea of a compact competitive formation. He keeps playing May out wide on the right. He continues to play Tedic. He's another Adkins type, had some success in the past, but we'll past his sell by date. In his defence Scott's acquisitions have been appalling
So what should the club do ? Sack another manager and start again. Let's see what happens in January.Â
Irrespective of where we finish Appleton should start next season and he'd have had two windows with hopefully getting players in that HE wants.
Not sure about a manager getting two windows. It's league 1, how can we trust him and be sure he will be given the funds and then be able to get promoted, he's never done it before and I don't see him as a long term manager as he isn't championship quality which is where we want to be.Â
It's the same old, get an average manager in, say he doesn't have his players (whatever that means) and then when they inevitably get sacked, the cycle starts again. He's a football coach, he's paid to coach the players and improve them tactically. I don't see any of these players getting better.Â
I'm not saying he should get sacked as it would genuinely be pointless. We need owners who are actually willing to spend the price it will take to get the higher tier players and a proper manager. It has nothing to do with where we are as a club but simply down to ambition, aka money. We need to spend to get out of this league and we just don't have the juice for it.
Our best hope is, we luckily get promoted, get another set of owners who come in and buy the club and hope that roll of the dice works. I know I'll probably get someone say to me, 'they've just got here', but we should all know by now the type of takeover this is. None of these people involved have our best interests at heart or care, they just want to boost their own egos or try and make some cash from our situation somehow.
Or maybe I'm wrong and in January they'll actually show signs of life and spend money on the players good enough to get us promoted and all will be well..
Edit: wasn't entirely aiming this at you Elf, just generally, that's the view on managers in CAFC
So on the basis of a manager only being allowed one window to show what he can do, we'd have two managers or more a season. I'm not sure that is a recipe for success.
I am not saying managers in general, I mean this particular manager. I don't trust he has the capabilities to build a promotion worthy squad and get the results. Admittedly though, I put that down to the owners, if we had bank rolled owners with ambition, Appleton wouldn't be our manager and we would have players like Ricardo Santos and Cameron Brannagan instead of Michael Hector and Scott Fraser (all of which will be on similar wages). Instead we have men with no money, who go for the cheap option and won't invest in the club.
I actually feel sorry for him, just like I did Adkins, Garner, Jackson, Holden all before him. They are out of their depth and not backed financially to top it off.Â
Our best bet and combination so far was probably Garner with Sandgaard as that was a coach who had proven he could implement a system and an owner that had shown he was willing to spend money. Unfortunately, Garner probably didn't get the funds required and didn't have the time, along with Sangaard being ill advised, arrogant and having a poor recruitment team. It's a very vicious cycle and we are just looking to get lucky, like most EFL sides.Â
I have resigned myself to hoping an ambitious person takes an interest and we get another takeover. Will be very happy to be wrong in the future.Â
Are they out of their depth or are the players just not good enough? Who would do better with this squad?
To be fair to Appleton I think he has recognised the soft underbelly in the squad. There seems to be a lack of resilience and mental fortitude that was talked about by Ben Garner a year ago. Appleton has mentioned the lack of commitment, the lack of running off the ball and inability to compete several times since his arrival here. He also said on one occasion that he was aware of it at Charlton whilst at another club. Iâm not sure if the modern recruitment process picks up on player attitudes and will to win. Obviously ability 'on the grass' is important, but so too is that thing called spirit.
Garner 2/12/22.
We canât keep sacking managers to solve clubâs âcultural issuesâ
That comes back to mentality. Thatâs something that has to change at the football club. Iâm not trying to take pressure off me, but I donât think itâs a managerial issue.
âYou can keep changing manager every three or four months if you want. Itâs deeper than that. Itâs a cultural issue. Itâs a mentality issue. Thatâs harder to change, but thatâs what weâve got to do.
Appleton 30/9/23 Draw at Shrewsbury
âThe first half â I canât take that, I canât accept that. I made the players aware of that at half time.
âI think no matter what game of football you play in, whether itâs in the Premier League or the National League, youâve got to compete. You might not be the most aggressive person but youâve got to be competitive. You canât have a career in football if youâre not competitive.â
Appleton 24/10/23 Lincoln defeat
âWe just didnât give ourselves a chance tonight. We didnât compete enough with them,â he told CharltonTV. âAnd if you do that against a really physical side like Lincoln, thereâs only going to be one scenario thatâs going to happen and thatâs what happened.â
Appleton also noticed some heads dropping after Charlton went behind: âOnce the second goal went in, there were one or two players who looked like they didnât really think they could get back in the game.
Appleton 2/12/23 Gillingham
âBut if you change three or four players in the team, you certainly donât expect the performance levels to drop as low as what theyâve done today.
âThatâs the slightly worrying thing from my point of view.
âThe players coming into the group, theyâve all had minutes at some point and theyâve all been exposed to this type of game.
âFrom that point of view, there was an opportunity for one or two of the players to really take the bull by the horn, drive forward and ask questions of me, basically.
âThere wasnât enough players asking questions of me today.
âNone of them can knock on my door and ask me why Iâm not in the team.
Itâs all words. Iâm fed up with words. Be it from owners, employees, managers or players.Â
They can all talk the talk. No one has delivered anything approaching the walk for years.Â
 Bowyer did. Powell did. For a while Jacko did. The rest of them?Â
Is that because they had an understanding of the club ? I think it helps but there were a good many people on here who wanted Jacko gone.Â
It seems ridiculously simplistic to believe that, but the evidence points that way. However, weâve also had some ridiculous appointments.
The way people are talking about Appleton youâd think weâve lost half of our last dozen odd games.
3 losses in 17âŠ
9 losses from the 17 competitive games before he came in.
The power of Chuks Aneke mate. It's no coincidence that since Chuks got injured, we have only had two wins in the league.
He's the only player who has a bit of fight up top or physicality about him. Massive loss.
Also to say 'losses' implies drawing is a result. Some of these draws are poor
We can talk about wins if you want to.
8 wins in 17 under Appleton: Wycombe (H), Exeter (H), Villa U21 (H), Reading (H), Wigan (A), Cray Valley (A), Sutton (H), Cheltenham (H)
5 wins in the prior 17: Fleetwood (H), Orient (H), Port Vale (H), MK Dons (A), Burton (H)
Putting it all together:
Appleton: 8 wins, 6 draws, 3 losses
Holden/Pearce: 5 wins, 3 draws, 9 losses
Itâs a limp compare though Callum as Appleton has had a number of players signed or fit (for part) that Holden / Pearce didnât.Â
Iâve not particularly taken to Appleton so far, not from a pre-conceived dislike as Iâll happily support him and can see as youâve shown there have been wins.Â
But because Iâve no clear idea of how he wants to play, he doesnât seem to engage during games so no desire or urgency is being driven from the touchline, and weâve the highest scoring player in the country now playing out wide and rarely getting in positions where he is at his best. Alfie is one of our performers yet we are not playing him to his strengths.Â
My most concerning point, Iâve not seen a single player get better since heâs arrived, yet many are performing worse. That might be coincidental and not down to him, but Iâve no real faith in seeing an improvement over the next month. Boy I hope Iâm wrong, last thing we need is to get to the January window and there is no point to it as weâll be playing for nothing. As @Cabbles said, itâs last season all over again.Â
T Watson has improved, so has Jones, Hector, Edun, CBT and McGrandles off the top of my head. I'm not saying it's down to Appleton, it may simply be down to them mainly getting fitter. Â
I dislike May on the right as much as most other fans but seems clear to me the reason Appleton plays May in that position is he has absolute no belief in Chem Campbell & not much more in Tyreece.
I don't understand why we have all 11 back to defend a corner. If the ball gets cleared it is only ever going to come straight back. CBT has great pace so I would suggest that if he were higher up the pitch then the opposition would have to bring 2 players back to cover him. That would also give us a spare man to cover the "surprise" short corner that often seems to catch us out.
Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough. Â I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants.Â
Appleton needs replacing as well
He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interviewÂ
He has no idea of a compact competitive formation. He keeps playing May out wide on the right. He continues to play Tedic. He's another Adkins type, had some success in the past, but we'll past his sell by date. In his defence Scott's acquisitions have been appalling
So what should the club do ? Sack another manager and start again. Let's see what happens in January.Â
Irrespective of where we finish Appleton should start next season and he'd have had two windows with hopefully getting players in that HE wants.
Not sure about a manager getting two windows. It's league 1, how can we trust him and be sure he will be given the funds and then be able to get promoted, he's never done it before and I don't see him as a long term manager as he isn't championship quality which is where we want to be.Â
It's the same old, get an average manager in, say he doesn't have his players (whatever that means) and then when they inevitably get sacked, the cycle starts again. He's a football coach, he's paid to coach the players and improve them tactically. I don't see any of these players getting better.Â
I'm not saying he should get sacked as it would genuinely be pointless. We need owners who are actually willing to spend the price it will take to get the higher tier players and a proper manager. It has nothing to do with where we are as a club but simply down to ambition, aka money. We need to spend to get out of this league and we just don't have the juice for it.
Our best hope is, we luckily get promoted, get another set of owners who come in and buy the club and hope that roll of the dice works. I know I'll probably get someone say to me, 'they've just got here', but we should all know by now the type of takeover this is. None of these people involved have our best interests at heart or care, they just want to boost their own egos or try and make some cash from our situation somehow.
Or maybe I'm wrong and in January they'll actually show signs of life and spend money on the players good enough to get us promoted and all will be well..
Edit: wasn't entirely aiming this at you Elf, just generally, that's the view on managers in CAFC
So on the basis of a manager only being allowed one window to show what he can do, we'd have two managers or more a season. I'm not sure that is a recipe for success.
I am not saying managers in general, I mean this particular manager. I don't trust he has the capabilities to build a promotion worthy squad and get the results. Admittedly though, I put that down to the owners, if we had bank rolled owners with ambition, Appleton wouldn't be our manager and we would have players like Ricardo Santos and Cameron Brannagan instead of Michael Hector and Scott Fraser (all of which will be on similar wages). Instead we have men with no money, who go for the cheap option and won't invest in the club.
I actually feel sorry for him, just like I did Adkins, Garner, Jackson, Holden all before him. They are out of their depth and not backed financially to top it off.Â
Our best bet and combination so far was probably Garner with Sandgaard as that was a coach who had proven he could implement a system and an owner that had shown he was willing to spend money. Unfortunately, Garner probably didn't get the funds required and didn't have the time, along with Sangaard being ill advised, arrogant and having a poor recruitment team. It's a very vicious cycle and we are just looking to get lucky, like most EFL sides.Â
I have resigned myself to hoping an ambitious person takes an interest and we get another takeover. Will be very happy to be wrong in the future.Â
Are they out of their depth or are the players just not good enough? Who would do better with this squad?
I think the managers that could do better, wouldn't come here. Not because of Charlton itself as a club, but the infrastructure, managers will know the kind of tools they'll have to work with.Â
As for the players, stats aren't everything, I don't believe in who has more shots should win a game or who has the better form, but individual players rankings tell a story to me.Â
I think statistically, only May, CBT and Dobson are in the ranking statistically for their roles. AMB is the 16th highest rated keeper or something, Hector isn't even in the top 15/20 and so on so forth. Key players wouldn't get in other sides.Â
It's another season where after every game, you can look at the other team and pick a player or two who would either start for us or make the bench, we don't have the skill and unfortunately I don't think a lot of these players have the fight either.
As much as CBT was called out for being lazy and disinterested by some fans yesterday, he was the only one making things happen, it's just either his final ball was terrible or no one was ready to receive it, which again, falls back to our lack of skill and desire.
We need investment and we need to keep key players, the problem is, it is looking more likely as the season goes on, that two of our best 5 players (Dobbo and CBT) will be moving on. We are always going to be stuck in isolation if we can't keep our key players.Â
I personally don't think you have 2-3 years to build a promotion winning squad in this league, the players move on too quick nowadays. You need a good manager and a good window with a good pre-season. The only team above us that has built something slowly is Bolton imo.Â
Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough. Â I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants.Â
Appleton needs replacing as well
He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interviewÂ
He has no idea of a compact competitive formation. He keeps playing May out wide on the right. He continues to play Tedic. He's another Adkins type, had some success in the past, but we'll past his sell by date. In his defence Scott's acquisitions have been appalling
So what should the club do ? Sack another manager and start again. Let's see what happens in January.Â
Irrespective of where we finish Appleton should start next season and he'd have had two windows with hopefully getting players in that HE wants.
Not sure about a manager getting two windows. It's league 1, how can we trust him and be sure he will be given the funds and then be able to get promoted, he's never done it before and I don't see him as a long term manager as he isn't championship quality which is where we want to be.Â
It's the same old, get an average manager in, say he doesn't have his players (whatever that means) and then when they inevitably get sacked, the cycle starts again. He's a football coach, he's paid to coach the players and improve them tactically. I don't see any of these players getting better.Â
I'm not saying he should get sacked as it would genuinely be pointless. We need owners who are actually willing to spend the price it will take to get the higher tier players and a proper manager. It has nothing to do with where we are as a club but simply down to ambition, aka money. We need to spend to get out of this league and we just don't have the juice for it.
Our best hope is, we luckily get promoted, get another set of owners who come in and buy the club and hope that roll of the dice works. I know I'll probably get someone say to me, 'they've just got here', but we should all know by now the type of takeover this is. None of these people involved have our best interests at heart or care, they just want to boost their own egos or try and make some cash from our situation somehow.
Or maybe I'm wrong and in January they'll actually show signs of life and spend money on the players good enough to get us promoted and all will be well..
Edit: wasn't entirely aiming this at you Elf, just generally, that's the view on managers in CAFC
So on the basis of a manager only being allowed one window to show what he can do, we'd have two managers or more a season. I'm not sure that is a recipe for success.
I am not saying managers in general, I mean this particular manager. I don't trust he has the capabilities to build a promotion worthy squad and get the results. Admittedly though, I put that down to the owners, if we had bank rolled owners with ambition, Appleton wouldn't be our manager and we would have players like Ricardo Santos and Cameron Brannagan instead of Michael Hector and Scott Fraser (all of which will be on similar wages). Instead we have men with no money, who go for the cheap option and won't invest in the club.
I actually feel sorry for him, just like I did Adkins, Garner, Jackson, Holden all before him. They are out of their depth and not backed financially to top it off.Â
Our best bet and combination so far was probably Garner with Sandgaard as that was a coach who had proven he could implement a system and an owner that had shown he was willing to spend money. Unfortunately, Garner probably didn't get the funds required and didn't have the time, along with Sangaard being ill advised, arrogant and having a poor recruitment team. It's a very vicious cycle and we are just looking to get lucky, like most EFL sides.Â
I have resigned myself to hoping an ambitious person takes an interest and we get another takeover. Will be very happy to be wrong in the future.Â
Are they out of their depth or are the players just not good enough? Who would do better with this squad?
I think the managers that could do better, wouldn't come here. Not because of Charlton itself as a club, but the infrastructure, managers will know the kind of tools they'll have to work with.Â
As for the players, stats aren't everything, I don't believe in who has more shots should win a game or who has the better form, but individual players rankings tell a story to me.Â
I think statistically, only May, CBT and Dobson are in the ranking statistically for their roles. AMB is the 16th highest rated keeper or something, Hector isn't even in the top 15/20 and so on so forth. Key players wouldn't get in other sides.Â
It's another season where after every game, you can look at the other team and pick a player or two who would either start for us or make the bench, we don't have the skill and unfortunately I don't think a lot of these players have the fight either.
As much as CBT was called out for being lazy and disinterested by some fans yesterday, he was the only one making things happen, it's just either his final ball was terrible or no one was ready to receive it, which again, falls back to our lack of skill and desire.
We need investment and we need to keep key players, the problem is, it is looking more likely as the season goes on, that two of our best 5 players (Dobbo and CBT) will be moving on. We are always going to be stuck in isolation if we can't keep our key players.Â
I personally don't think you have 2-3 years to build a promotion winning squad in this league, the players move on too quick nowadays. You need a good manager and a good window with a good pre-season. The only team above us that has built something slowly is Bolton imo.Â
Re final paragraph, if squads are not overloaded with loans and replaced with more quality on two year contracts then football clubs in general would be better off.
To be fair to Appleton I think he has recognised the soft underbelly in the squad. There seems to be a lack of resilience and mental fortitude that was talked about by Ben Garner a year ago. Appleton has mentioned the lack of commitment, the lack of running off the ball and inability to compete several times since his arrival here. He also said on one occasion that he was aware of it at Charlton whilst at another club. Iâm not sure if the modern recruitment process picks up on player attitudes and will to win. Obviously ability 'on the grass' is important, but so too is that thing called spirit.
Garner 2/12/22.
We canât keep sacking managers to solve clubâs âcultural issuesâ
That comes back to mentality. Thatâs something that has to change at the football club. Iâm not trying to take pressure off me, but I donât think itâs a managerial issue.
âYou can keep changing manager every three or four months if you want. Itâs deeper than that. Itâs a cultural issue. Itâs a mentality issue. Thatâs harder to change, but thatâs what weâve got to do.
Appleton 30/9/23 Draw at Shrewsbury
âThe first half â I canât take that, I canât accept that. I made the players aware of that at half time.
âI think no matter what game of football you play in, whether itâs in the Premier League or the National League, youâve got to compete. You might not be the most aggressive person but youâve got to be competitive. You canât have a career in football if youâre not competitive.â
Appleton 24/10/23 Lincoln defeat
âWe just didnât give ourselves a chance tonight. We didnât compete enough with them,â he told CharltonTV. âAnd if you do that against a really physical side like Lincoln, thereâs only going to be one scenario thatâs going to happen and thatâs what happened.â
Appleton also noticed some heads dropping after Charlton went behind: âOnce the second goal went in, there were one or two players who looked like they didnât really think they could get back in the game.
Appleton 2/12/23 Gillingham
âBut if you change three or four players in the team, you certainly donât expect the performance levels to drop as low as what theyâve done today.
âThatâs the slightly worrying thing from my point of view.
âThe players coming into the group, theyâve all had minutes at some point and theyâve all been exposed to this type of game.
âFrom that point of view, there was an opportunity for one or two of the players to really take the bull by the horn, drive forward and ask questions of me, basically.
âThere wasnât enough players asking questions of me today.
âNone of them can knock on my door and ask me why Iâm not in the team.
Which to me screams failure of recruitment. Maybe we recruit too much based on technical aspects, and don't pay enough attention to the character of the players, something that Curbs would always pay attention to? Where is the old head in midfield to calm things down or gee things up, especially when we have so many kids in the squad?
I think Saturday's game will have left mental scars on one or two of them. Campbell for example had an awful match, and clearly reacted to some abuse from the crowd. He needs resting for a few weeks, but we don't have many other options.
To be fair to Appleton I think he has recognised the soft underbelly in the squad. There seems to be a lack of resilience and mental fortitude that was talked about by Ben Garner a year ago. Appleton has mentioned the lack of commitment, the lack of running off the ball and inability to compete several times since his arrival here. He also said on one occasion that he was aware of it at Charlton whilst at another club. Iâm not sure if the modern recruitment process picks up on player attitudes and will to win. Obviously ability 'on the grass' is important, but so too is that thing called spirit.
Garner 2/12/22.
We canât keep sacking managers to solve clubâs âcultural issuesâ
That comes back to mentality. Thatâs something that has to change at the football club. Iâm not trying to take pressure off me, but I donât think itâs a managerial issue.
âYou can keep changing manager every three or four months if you want. Itâs deeper than that. Itâs a cultural issue. Itâs a mentality issue. Thatâs harder to change, but thatâs what weâve got to do.
Appleton 30/9/23 Draw at Shrewsbury
âThe first half â I canât take that, I canât accept that. I made the players aware of that at half time.
âI think no matter what game of football you play in, whether itâs in the Premier League or the National League, youâve got to compete. You might not be the most aggressive person but youâve got to be competitive. You canât have a career in football if youâre not competitive.â
Appleton 24/10/23 Lincoln defeat
âWe just didnât give ourselves a chance tonight. We didnât compete enough with them,â he told CharltonTV. âAnd if you do that against a really physical side like Lincoln, thereâs only going to be one scenario thatâs going to happen and thatâs what happened.â
Appleton also noticed some heads dropping after Charlton went behind: âOnce the second goal went in, there were one or two players who looked like they didnât really think they could get back in the game.
Appleton 2/12/23 Gillingham
âBut if you change three or four players in the team, you certainly donât expect the performance levels to drop as low as what theyâve done today.
âThatâs the slightly worrying thing from my point of view.
âThe players coming into the group, theyâve all had minutes at some point and theyâve all been exposed to this type of game.
âFrom that point of view, there was an opportunity for one or two of the players to really take the bull by the horn, drive forward and ask questions of me, basically.
âThere wasnât enough players asking questions of me today.
âNone of them can knock on my door and ask me why Iâm not in the team.
Itâs all words. Iâm fed up with words. Be it from owners, employees, managers or players.Â
They can all talk the talk. No one has delivered anything approaching the walk for years.Â
Since Appleton came in, we have gained 20 points from 12 games which over the course of the season would have us in the lower reaches of the play offs. I do not subscribe to the form compared to other teams would have us 10th, yes maybe but over the course of the season it will have you higher. Of course we had a poor start and indeed we need better to compensate for that but Appleton has not failed yet.
He has commented on needing players in January and if he can improve just a bit on what we are now we should have a real chance of making the play offs. Now, he can't be too down on the players because he needs us to get a respectable tally in December to keep us in touch. The hardest game seems to be Barnsley away but there are enough games we ought to expect something from. We can't afford a dip in the league so all of our December games become vital. We don't have to win them all, but success would be to pull two or three points back on the play off places. At a minimum, we don't want the gap to increase.
Appleton IMO is at an important stage of his Charlton career. He has two reasonably short term challenges which I think are going to be key. The first is to get a respectable points tally from what we have in December and the second is bring in two or three players who are going to elevate us. He will absolutely know where we are weak because it is pretty obvious so that I suspect is our season. A win on Saturday is going to be crucial.
Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough. Â I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants.Â
Appleton needs replacing as well
He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interviewÂ
He has no idea of a compact competitive formation. He keeps playing May out wide on the right. He continues to play Tedic. He's another Adkins type, had some success in the past, but we'll past his sell by date. In his defence Scott's acquisitions have been appalling
So what should the club do ? Sack another manager and start again. Let's see what happens in January.Â
Irrespective of where we finish Appleton should start next season and he'd have had two windows with hopefully getting players in that HE wants.
Not sure about a manager getting two windows. It's league 1, how can we trust him and be sure he will be given the funds and then be able to get promoted, he's never done it before and I don't see him as a long term manager as he isn't championship quality which is where we want to be.Â
It's the same old, get an average manager in, say he doesn't have his players (whatever that means) and then when they inevitably get sacked, the cycle starts again. He's a football coach, he's paid to coach the players and improve them tactically. I don't see any of these players getting better.Â
I'm not saying he should get sacked as it would genuinely be pointless. We need owners who are actually willing to spend the price it will take to get the higher tier players and a proper manager. It has nothing to do with where we are as a club but simply down to ambition, aka money. We need to spend to get out of this league and we just don't have the juice for it.
Our best hope is, we luckily get promoted, get another set of owners who come in and buy the club and hope that roll of the dice works. I know I'll probably get someone say to me, 'they've just got here', but we should all know by now the type of takeover this is. None of these people involved have our best interests at heart or care, they just want to boost their own egos or try and make some cash from our situation somehow.
Or maybe I'm wrong and in January they'll actually show signs of life and spend money on the players good enough to get us promoted and all will be well..
Edit: wasn't entirely aiming this at you Elf, just generally, that's the view on managers in CAFC
So on the basis of a manager only being allowed one window to show what he can do, we'd have two managers or more a season. I'm not sure that is a recipe for success.
I am not saying managers in general, I mean this particular manager. I don't trust he has the capabilities to build a promotion worthy squad and get the results. Admittedly though, I put that down to the owners, if we had bank rolled owners with ambition, Appleton wouldn't be our manager and we would have players like Ricardo Santos and Cameron Brannagan instead of Michael Hector and Scott Fraser (all of which will be on similar wages). Instead we have men with no money, who go for the cheap option and won't invest in the club.
I actually feel sorry for him, just like I did Adkins, Garner, Jackson, Holden all before him. They are out of their depth and not backed financially to top it off.Â
Our best bet and combination so far was probably Garner with Sandgaard as that was a coach who had proven he could implement a system and an owner that had shown he was willing to spend money. Unfortunately, Garner probably didn't get the funds required and didn't have the time, along with Sangaard being ill advised, arrogant and having a poor recruitment team. It's a very vicious cycle and we are just looking to get lucky, like most EFL sides.Â
I have resigned myself to hoping an ambitious person takes an interest and we get another takeover. Will be very happy to be wrong in the future.Â
Are they out of their depth or are the players just not good enough? Who would do better with this squad?
I think the managers that could do better, wouldn't come here. Not because of Charlton itself as a club, but the infrastructure, managers will know the kind of tools they'll have to work with.Â
As for the players, stats aren't everything, I don't believe in who has more shots should win a game or who has the better form, but individual players rankings tell a story to me.Â
I think statistically, only May, CBT and Dobson are in the ranking statistically for their roles. AMB is the 16th highest rated keeper or something, Hector isn't even in the top 15/20 and so on so forth. Key players wouldn't get in other sides.Â
It's another season where after every game, you can look at the other team and pick a player or two who would either start for us or make the bench, we don't have the skill and unfortunately I don't think a lot of these players have the fight either.
As much as CBT was called out for being lazy and disinterested by some fans yesterday, he was the only one making things happen, it's just either his final ball was terrible or no one was ready to receive it, which again, falls back to our lack of skill and desire.
We need investment and we need to keep key players, the problem is, it is looking more likely as the season goes on, that two of our best 5 players (Dobbo and CBT) will be moving on. We are always going to be stuck in isolation if we can't keep our key players.Â
I personally don't think you have 2-3 years to build a promotion winning squad in this league, the players move on too quick nowadays. You need a good manager and a good window with a good pre-season. The only team above us that has built something slowly is Bolton imo.Â
So a "better/good manager" wouldn't come here because our squads not good enough? So a "good manager" needs good players? Therefore we are screwed without investment.
Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough. Â I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants.Â
Appleton needs replacing as well
He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interviewÂ
He has no idea of a compact competitive formation. He keeps playing May out wide on the right. He continues to play Tedic. He's another Adkins type, had some success in the past, but we'll past his sell by date. In his defence Scott's acquisitions have been appalling
So what should the club do ? Sack another manager and start again. Let's see what happens in January.Â
Irrespective of where we finish Appleton should start next season and he'd have had two windows with hopefully getting players in that HE wants.
Not sure about a manager getting two windows. It's league 1, how can we trust him and be sure he will be given the funds and then be able to get promoted, he's never done it before and I don't see him as a long term manager as he isn't championship quality which is where we want to be.Â
It's the same old, get an average manager in, say he doesn't have his players (whatever that means) and then when they inevitably get sacked, the cycle starts again. He's a football coach, he's paid to coach the players and improve them tactically. I don't see any of these players getting better.Â
I'm not saying he should get sacked as it would genuinely be pointless. We need owners who are actually willing to spend the price it will take to get the higher tier players and a proper manager. It has nothing to do with where we are as a club but simply down to ambition, aka money. We need to spend to get out of this league and we just don't have the juice for it.
Our best hope is, we luckily get promoted, get another set of owners who come in and buy the club and hope that roll of the dice works. I know I'll probably get someone say to me, 'they've just got here', but we should all know by now the type of takeover this is. None of these people involved have our best interests at heart or care, they just want to boost their own egos or try and make some cash from our situation somehow.
Or maybe I'm wrong and in January they'll actually show signs of life and spend money on the players good enough to get us promoted and all will be well..
Edit: wasn't entirely aiming this at you Elf, just generally, that's the view on managers in CAFC
So on the basis of a manager only being allowed one window to show what he can do, we'd have two managers or more a season. I'm not sure that is a recipe for success.
I am not saying managers in general, I mean this particular manager. I don't trust he has the capabilities to build a promotion worthy squad and get the results. Admittedly though, I put that down to the owners, if we had bank rolled owners with ambition, Appleton wouldn't be our manager and we would have players like Ricardo Santos and Cameron Brannagan instead of Michael Hector and Scott Fraser (all of which will be on similar wages). Instead we have men with no money, who go for the cheap option and won't invest in the club.
I actually feel sorry for him, just like I did Adkins, Garner, Jackson, Holden all before him. They are out of their depth and not backed financially to top it off.Â
Our best bet and combination so far was probably Garner with Sandgaard as that was a coach who had proven he could implement a system and an owner that had shown he was willing to spend money. Unfortunately, Garner probably didn't get the funds required and didn't have the time, along with Sangaard being ill advised, arrogant and having a poor recruitment team. It's a very vicious cycle and we are just looking to get lucky, like most EFL sides.Â
I have resigned myself to hoping an ambitious person takes an interest and we get another takeover. Will be very happy to be wrong in the future.Â
Are they out of their depth or are the players just not good enough? Who would do better with this squad?
I think the managers that could do better, wouldn't come here. Not because of Charlton itself as a club, but the infrastructure, managers will know the kind of tools they'll have to work with.Â
As for the players, stats aren't everything, I don't believe in who has more shots should win a game or who has the better form, but individual players rankings tell a story to me.Â
I think statistically, only May, CBT and Dobson are in the ranking statistically for their roles. AMB is the 16th highest rated keeper or something, Hector isn't even in the top 15/20 and so on so forth. Key players wouldn't get in other sides.Â
It's another season where after every game, you can look at the other team and pick a player or two who would either start for us or make the bench, we don't have the skill and unfortunately I don't think a lot of these players have the fight either.
As much as CBT was called out for being lazy and disinterested by some fans yesterday, he was the only one making things happen, it's just either his final ball was terrible or no one was ready to receive it, which again, falls back to our lack of skill and desire.
We need investment and we need to keep key players, the problem is, it is looking more likely as the season goes on, that two of our best 5 players (Dobbo and CBT) will be moving on. We are always going to be stuck in isolation if we can't keep our key players.Â
I personally don't think you have 2-3 years to build a promotion winning squad in this league, the players move on too quick nowadays. You need a good manager and a good window with a good pre-season. The only team above us that has built something slowly is Bolton imo.Â
So a "better/good manager" wouldn't come here because our squads not good enough? So a "good manager" needs good players? Therefore we are screwed without investment.
Without being too negative mate, yes. I'll start with the positive first, I think Appleton is a good match for us right now. He's clearly stopped the rot and he's a limited manager but he has experience.Â
When you watch our style though, it's hardly mouth watering, we look fairly sound defensively, we set up to not concede many and we haven't been really. The issue is the lack of clean sheets, we have one or two blunders in us a game and that's down to individuals.
As far as our attacking chances go, a lot of it is 1-2s on the wings on the overlap, the ball goes in and it's either a bad ball, it goes out for a corner (where they may as well have a goal kick) or it goes in the area, but it's either blocked or we don't have the physicality to win a header.
That's been pretty much every game, of course a few penalties here and there when we bring the ball in the box and the other team get reckless.Â
So all in all, the positive is, we have become harder to beat and I don't see us losing many more this season. The bad news is, I think we have a very limited manager, with no track record of league 1 promotion or proving himself beyond this level and a largely limited squad.Â
I think we could sneak play-offs if two of Derby, Blackpool, Stevenage or even Barnsley drop off. I do not see Bolton, Pompey, Oxford or Peterborough finishing outside top4, maybe one of them. So we are fighting for 2 (likely 1) play off slot(s) between 4 other teams.Â
I also don't believe this league will get any easier next year. Hence why imo, if we have another dry January, the best we can hope for is another takeoverÂ
Both Garner and Holden shouldnât have got anywhere near this job. Â Way too big for them, and they were lucky we were in such a state that they even got a foot in the door. Â No disrespect to either, but neither of them deserved to even have the job on their CV, albeit they both failed.
Appleton will do marginally better up until a point, because heâs more experienced and can probably make meals longer from the scraps in the kitchenÂ
Whatâs clear as we head into December is that we have another group of owners who donât know what theyâre doing. Â The dial hasnât been moved, we just have a few new faces in the squad that are of a similar level to the ones over the last 2/3 years, and itâs unlikely to change. Â
Bookmark this as I feel the current owners will put the club up for sale in the summer of 2025Â
Think you are wrong with the last sentence could come abit sooner.Â
As for what is going to happen between now and New Years Day think things will only get worse with certain playerâs attitude and lack of experience on the pitch. Winter of discontent I feel.
I don't understand why we have all 11 back to defend a corner. If the ball gets cleared it is only ever going to come straight back. CBT has great pace so I would suggest that if he were higher up the pitch then the opposition would have to bring 2 players back to cover him. That would also give us a spare man to cover the "surprise" short corner that often seems to catch us out.
I agree but Curbs always had all 11 back.
It was a pointlessly negative shit tactic then as well It only invites avoidable pressure. Especially when two or three of the players in our box supposedly defending are short arses, lightweight tackle bottlers or both. They have no defensive worth so just bung up space to only negative effect. Move one of them halfway up our half and put the speediest merchant wide on the half way line. The attacking team then has to take at least two if not 3 or more bodies out of our box to mark our possible breakaway candidates.  Â
Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough. Â I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants.Â
Appleton needs replacing as well
He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interviewÂ
He has no idea of a compact competitive formation. He keeps playing May out wide on the right. He continues to play Tedic. He's another Adkins type, had some success in the past, but we'll past his sell by date. In his defence Scott's acquisitions have been appalling
So what should the club do ? Sack another manager and start again. Let's see what happens in January.Â
Irrespective of where we finish Appleton should start next season and he'd have had two windows with hopefully getting players in that HE wants.
Not sure about a manager getting two windows. It's league 1, how can we trust him and be sure he will be given the funds and then be able to get promoted, he's never done it before and I don't see him as a long term manager as he isn't championship quality which is where we want to be.Â
It's the same old, get an average manager in, say he doesn't have his players (whatever that means) and then when they inevitably get sacked, the cycle starts again. He's a football coach, he's paid to coach the players and improve them tactically. I don't see any of these players getting better.Â
I'm not saying he should get sacked as it would genuinely be pointless. We need owners who are actually willing to spend the price it will take to get the higher tier players and a proper manager. It has nothing to do with where we are as a club but simply down to ambition, aka money. We need to spend to get out of this league and we just don't have the juice for it.
Our best hope is, we luckily get promoted, get another set of owners who come in and buy the club and hope that roll of the dice works. I know I'll probably get someone say to me, 'they've just got here', but we should all know by now the type of takeover this is. None of these people involved have our best interests at heart or care, they just want to boost their own egos or try and make some cash from our situation somehow.
Or maybe I'm wrong and in January they'll actually show signs of life and spend money on the players good enough to get us promoted and all will be well..
Edit: wasn't entirely aiming this at you Elf, just generally, that's the view on managers in CAFC
So on the basis of a manager only being allowed one window to show what he can do, we'd have two managers or more a season. I'm not sure that is a recipe for success.
I am not saying managers in general, I mean this particular manager. I don't trust he has the capabilities to build a promotion worthy squad and get the results. Admittedly though, I put that down to the owners, if we had bank rolled owners with ambition, Appleton wouldn't be our manager and we would have players like Ricardo Santos and Cameron Brannagan instead of Michael Hector and Scott Fraser (all of which will be on similar wages). Instead we have men with no money, who go for the cheap option and won't invest in the club.
I actually feel sorry for him, just like I did Adkins, Garner, Jackson, Holden all before him. They are out of their depth and not backed financially to top it off.Â
Our best bet and combination so far was probably Garner with Sandgaard as that was a coach who had proven he could implement a system and an owner that had shown he was willing to spend money. Unfortunately, Garner probably didn't get the funds required and didn't have the time, along with Sangaard being ill advised, arrogant and having a poor recruitment team. It's a very vicious cycle and we are just looking to get lucky, like most EFL sides.Â
I have resigned myself to hoping an ambitious person takes an interest and we get another takeover. Will be very happy to be wrong in the future.Â
Are they out of their depth or are the players just not good enough? Who would do better with this squad?
I think the managers that could do better, wouldn't come here. Not because of Charlton itself as a club, but the infrastructure, managers will know the kind of tools they'll have to work with.Â
As for the players, stats aren't everything, I don't believe in who has more shots should win a game or who has the better form, but individual players rankings tell a story to me.Â
I think statistically, only May, CBT and Dobson are in the ranking statistically for their roles. AMB is the 16th highest rated keeper or something, Hector isn't even in the top 15/20 and so on so forth. Key players wouldn't get in other sides.Â
It's another season where after every game, you can look at the other team and pick a player or two who would either start for us or make the bench, we don't have the skill and unfortunately I don't think a lot of these players have the fight either.
As much as CBT was called out for being lazy and disinterested by some fans yesterday, he was the only one making things happen, it's just either his final ball was terrible or no one was ready to receive it, which again, falls back to our lack of skill and desire.
We need investment and we need to keep key players, the problem is, it is looking more likely as the season goes on, that two of our best 5 players (Dobbo and CBT) will be moving on. We are always going to be stuck in isolation if we can't keep our key players.Â
I personally don't think you have 2-3 years to build a promotion winning squad in this league, the players move on too quick nowadays. You need a good manager and a good window with a good pre-season. The only team above us that has built something slowly is Bolton imo.Â
So a "better/good manager" wouldn't come here because our squads not good enough? So a "good manager" needs good players? Therefore we are screwed without investment.
Without being too negative mate, yes. I'll start with the positive first, I think Appleton is a good match for us right now. He's clearly stopped the rot and he's a limited manager but he has experience.Â
When you watch our style though, it's hardly mouth watering, we look fairly sound defensively, we set up to not concede many and we haven't been really. The issue is the lack of clean sheets, we have one or two blunders in us a game and that's down to individuals.
As far as our attacking chances go, a lot of it is 1-2s on the wings on the overlap, the ball goes in and it's either a bad ball, it goes out for a corner (where they may as well have a goal kick) or it goes in the area, but it's either blocked or we don't have the physicality to win a header.
That's been pretty much every game, of course a few penalties here and there when we bring the ball in the box and the other team get reckless.Â
So all in all, the positive is, we have become harder to beat and I don't see us losing many more this season. The bad news is, I think we have a very limited manager, with no track record of league 1 promotion or proving himself beyond this level and a largely limited squad.Â
I think we could sneak play-offs if two of Derby, Blackpool, Stevenage or even Barnsley drop off. I do not see Bolton, Pompey, Oxford or Peterborough finishing outside top4, maybe one of them. So we are fighting for 2 (likely 1) play off slot(s) between 4 other teams.Â
I also don't believe this league will get any easier next year. Hence why imo, if we have another dry January, the best we can hope for is another takeoverÂ
Braziliance, I don't think you could say we look fairly sound defensively and but for blunders by individuals, we don't look sound defensively in my opinion, that comes from an inexperienced goalkeeper who is learning his trade but needs to be more assertive to those in front of him. A midfield that up until two games ago had two offensive players and only one defensive minded player and a forward line that without the physical presence that a player like Chuks provides, does not retain possession..Â
To be fair to Appleton I think he has recognised the soft underbelly in the squad. There seems to be a lack of resilience and mental fortitude that was talked about by Ben Garner a year ago. Appleton has mentioned the lack of commitment, the lack of running off the ball and inability to compete several times since his arrival here. He also said on one occasion that he was aware of it at Charlton whilst at another club. Iâm not sure if the modern recruitment process picks up on player attitudes and will to win. Obviously ability 'on the grass' is important, but so too is that thing called spirit.
Garner 2/12/22.
We canât keep sacking managers to solve clubâs âcultural issuesâ
That comes back to mentality. Thatâs something that has to change at the football club. Iâm not trying to take pressure off me, but I donât think itâs a managerial issue.
âYou can keep changing manager every three or four months if you want. Itâs deeper than that. Itâs a cultural issue. Itâs a mentality issue. Thatâs harder to change, but thatâs what weâve got to do.
Appleton 30/9/23 Draw at Shrewsbury
âThe first half â I canât take that, I canât accept that. I made the players aware of that at half time.
âI think no matter what game of football you play in, whether itâs in the Premier League or the National League, youâve got to compete. You might not be the most aggressive person but youâve got to be competitive. You canât have a career in football if youâre not competitive.â
Appleton 24/10/23 Lincoln defeat
âWe just didnât give ourselves a chance tonight. We didnât compete enough with them,â he told CharltonTV. âAnd if you do that against a really physical side like Lincoln, thereâs only going to be one scenario thatâs going to happen and thatâs what happened.â
Appleton also noticed some heads dropping after Charlton went behind: âOnce the second goal went in, there were one or two players who looked like they didnât really think they could get back in the game.
Appleton 2/12/23 Gillingham
âBut if you change three or four players in the team, you certainly donât expect the performance levels to drop as low as what theyâve done today.
âThatâs the slightly worrying thing from my point of view.
âThe players coming into the group, theyâve all had minutes at some point and theyâve all been exposed to this type of game.
âFrom that point of view, there was an opportunity for one or two of the players to really take the bull by the horn, drive forward and ask questions of me, basically.
âThere wasnât enough players asking questions of me today.
âNone of them can knock on my door and ask me why Iâm not in the team.
Which to me screams failure of recruitment. Maybe we recruit too much based on technical aspects, and don't pay enough attention to the character of the players, something that Curbs would always pay attention to? Where is the old head in midfield to calm things down or gee things up, especially when we have so many kids in the squad?
I think Saturday's game will have left mental scars on one or two of them. Campbell for example had an awful match, and clearly reacted to some abuse from the crowd. He needs resting for a few weeks, but we don't have many other options.
The way people are talking about Appleton youâd think weâve lost half of our last dozen odd games.
3 losses in 17âŠ
9 losses from the 17 competitive games before he came in.
The power of Chuks Aneke mate. It's no coincidence that since Chuks got injured, we have only had two wins in the league.
He's the only player who has a bit of fight up top or physicality about him. Massive loss.
Also to say 'losses' implies drawing is a result. Some of these draws are poor
We can talk about wins if you want to.
8 wins in 17 under Appleton: Wycombe (H), Exeter (H), Villa U21 (H), Reading (H), Wigan (A), Cray Valley (A), Sutton (H), Cheltenham (H)
5 wins in the prior 17: Fleetwood (H), Orient (H), Port Vale (H), MK Dons (A), Burton (H)
Putting it all together:
Appleton: 8 wins, 6 draws, 3 losses
Holden/Pearce: 5 wins, 3 draws, 9 losses
Itâs a limp compare though Callum as Appleton has had a number of players signed or fit (for part) that Holden / Pearce didnât.Â
Iâve not particularly taken to Appleton so far, not from a pre-conceived dislike as Iâll happily support him and can see as youâve shown there have been wins.Â
But because Iâve no clear idea of how he wants to play, he doesnât seem to engage during games so no desire or urgency is being driven from the touchline, and weâve the highest scoring player in the country now playing out wide and rarely getting in positions where he is at his best. Alfie is one of our performers yet we are not playing him to his strengths.Â
My most concerning point, Iâve not seen a single player get better since heâs arrived, yet many are performing worse. That might be coincidental and not down to him, but Iâve no real faith in seeing an improvement over the next month. Boy I hope Iâm wrong, last thing we need is to get to the January window and there is no point to it as weâll be playing for nothing. As @Cabbles said, itâs last season all over again.Â
Appleton is a mediocre manager We have mediocre players MOST of our deadline day signings have turned out to be proper shite and two of them can't make tbe match day squad. We are struggling to tread water. The apologists are even starting to apologise for being apologists The trend, post manager bounce is not looking good
Playing May central Seriously that's the EASIEST selection to make
#mental
It's not though. Remember the last time May played as the central striker? Bolton, where we lost 2-0 and he barely got a sniff. In fact, if you look at May's last 10 games, the only two where he played as a centre forward he didn't score. Playing as a 10 or on the right though he scored 10 in 8. I don't love him out on the right but he's better there than as a central striker on his own. I liked him as a 10 and it's a bit frustrating that Appleton has switched to a 3 made up of midfielders who don't seem to be able to play together but having May as a 10 did tend to leave us a bit exposed as well.
The big problem is a lack of balance. We signed players for a 352 and signed a striker who plays best with a player alongside him. Either we stick two strikers up, but then don't have the balance to play a four behind them and will leave our terrible defence even more exposed, we stick May at 10 and leave ourselves a bit too shallow in the middle or we stick him on the right and ask him to drift in whenever he can and have the third midfielder provide a bit of width as he does it. None of it's ideal but the solution isn't just May central up front as he just gets eaten up by the opposition defenders and we suffer even more.
May is a centre forward The best centre forward in the division 3 years running The rest is conjectureÂ
Thatâs just a completely fundamental misunderstanding of football at an almost impossible level. Players play different roles in different positions. May doesnât have the size or the strength to play as a lone striker and weâve seen that with our own eyes. Itâs not conjecture, itâs right there in front of us
Surely it would be obvious to play him up front with TediÄ? Might help TediÄ be less shit as well
         AMB    Jones Hector Thomas Watson   Dobson     Edun      Watson  Fraser        TediÄ Â May
Felt a little flicker of hope when I saw that line up. Not necessarily for every match, but certainly for some. đ
So many recent managers have been way too rigid. Was Bowyer the last one whoâd mix it up a bit?
It's the players at the end of the day. Being at Charlton as a player is just an easy going life. Laughing and joking, raking in ÂŁ1000's per week, being asked what super hero you'd like to be if not a footballer.... seriously, just get rid of the nobs and those filming it and concentrate on training... hard.... and if they ain't good enough, don't wrap the fuckers in cotton wool and try to cajole them into trying, kick em out.Â
January will see what the real intentions are at this football club. I seriously have my doubts about our recruitment, it just isn't working.Â
Comments
And yet we haven't really progressed since Jacko was let go. Still in the middle of league 1.
As for the players, stats aren't everything, I don't believe in who has more shots should win a game or who has the better form, but individual players rankings tell a story to me.Â
I think statistically, only May, CBT and Dobson are in the ranking statistically for their roles. AMB is the 16th highest rated keeper or something, Hector isn't even in the top 15/20 and so on so forth. Key players wouldn't get in other sides.Â
It's another season where after every game, you can look at the other team and pick a player or two who would either start for us or make the bench, we don't have the skill and unfortunately I don't think a lot of these players have the fight either.
As much as CBT was called out for being lazy and disinterested by some fans yesterday, he was the only one making things happen, it's just either his final ball was terrible or no one was ready to receive it, which again, falls back to our lack of skill and desire.
We need investment and we need to keep key players, the problem is, it is looking more likely as the season goes on, that two of our best 5 players (Dobbo and CBT) will be moving on. We are always going to be stuck in isolation if we can't keep our key players.Â
I personally don't think you have 2-3 years to build a promotion winning squad in this league, the players move on too quick nowadays. You need a good manager and a good window with a good pre-season. The only team above us that has built something slowly is Bolton imo.Â
I think Saturday's game will have left mental scars on one or two of them. Campbell for example had an awful match, and clearly reacted to some abuse from the crowd. He needs resting for a few weeks, but we don't have many other options.
He has commented on needing players in January and if he can improve just a bit on what we are now we should have a real chance of making the play offs. Now, he can't be too down on the players because he needs us to get a respectable tally in December to keep us in touch. The hardest game seems to be Barnsley away but there are enough games we ought to expect something from. We can't afford a dip in the league so all of our December games become vital. We don't have to win them all, but success would be to pull two or three points back on the play off places. At a minimum, we don't want the gap to increase.
Appleton IMO is at an important stage of his Charlton career. He has two reasonably short term challenges which I think are going to be key. The first is to get a respectable points tally from what we have in December and the second is bring in two or three players who are going to elevate us. He will absolutely know where we are weak because it is pretty obvious so that I suspect is our season. A win on Saturday is going to be crucial.
When you watch our style though, it's hardly mouth watering, we look fairly sound defensively, we set up to not concede many and we haven't been really. The issue is the lack of clean sheets, we have one or two blunders in us a game and that's down to individuals.
As far as our attacking chances go, a lot of it is 1-2s on the wings on the overlap, the ball goes in and it's either a bad ball, it goes out for a corner (where they may as well have a goal kick) or it goes in the area, but it's either blocked or we don't have the physicality to win a header.
That's been pretty much every game, of course a few penalties here and there when we bring the ball in the box and the other team get reckless.Â
So all in all, the positive is, we have become harder to beat and I don't see us losing many more this season. The bad news is, I think we have a very limited manager, with no track record of league 1 promotion or proving himself beyond this level and a largely limited squad.Â
I think we could sneak play-offs if two of Derby, Blackpool, Stevenage or even Barnsley drop off. I do not see Bolton, Pompey, Oxford or Peterborough finishing outside top4, maybe one of them. So we are fighting for 2 (likely 1) play off slot(s) between 4 other teams.Â
I also don't believe this league will get any easier next year. Hence why imo, if we have another dry January, the best we can hope for is another takeoverÂ
Winter of discontent I feel.
ABSOLUTE BOLLOCK SHRINKING FUCKING NAPALM LEVEL DISGRACE YOU BUNCH OF SHIT C@&ÂŁS!!
It only invites avoidable pressure.
Especially when two or three of the players in our box supposedly defending are short arses, lightweight tackle bottlers or both. They have no defensive worth so just bung up space to only negative effect. Move one of them halfway up our half and put the speediest merchant wide on the half way line. The attacking team then has to take at least two if not 3 or more bodies out of our box to mark our possible breakaway candidates.
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In fact I remember asking him why Hugh Curran (Millwall đ©) had been sold. He replied that âhe wasnât a very nice manâ. [It could well be that Curran wanted to move on, which might have annoyed JS].
So many recent managers have been way too rigid. Was Bowyer the last one whoâd mix it up a bit?
Felt an odd one, as Williams was down for a lot longer than looked absolutely necessary, but guess that was partly because he lost a tooth