New goalie Mitchell Mitchell. Potts Ramsay Small Taylor Godden Berry Ahadme. Kanu
I'd be shocked if Godden starts games in central midfield. Has he ever had a run of games there during his career?
Godden already drops very deep to compete for balls. Football is full of strikers, who in their 30s, losing a bit of pace, play in midfield. Last two seasons for Coventry, he was a less than one in four striker. Which is why he is playing for us rather than sitting on their bench.
He put in more tackles/presses yesterday than our entire midfield combined.
NJ just needs to accept what is staring him in the face. Dixon WP may allow the penny to drop.
New goalie Mitchell Mitchell. Potts Ramsay Small Taylor Godden Berry Ahadme. Kanu
I'd be shocked if Godden starts games in central midfield. Has he ever had a run of games there during his career?
Godden already drops very deep to compete for balls. Football is full of strikers, who in their 30s, losing a bit of pace, play in midfield. Last two seasons for Coventry, he was a less than one in four striker. Which is why he is playing for us rather than sitting on their bench.
He put in more tackles/presses yesterday than our entire midfield combined.
NJ just needs to accept what is staring him in the face. Dixon WP may allow the penny to drop.
Godden will play up front and score 15+ goals this season. Fact!
New goalie Mitchell Mitchell. Potts Ramsay Small Taylor Godden Berry Ahadme. Kanu
I'd be shocked if Godden starts games in central midfield. Has he ever had a run of games there during his career?
Godden already drops very deep to compete for balls. Football is full of strikers, who in their 30s, losing a bit of pace, play in midfield. Last two seasons for Coventry, he was a less than one in four striker. Which is why he is playing for us rather than sitting on their bench.
He put in more tackles/presses yesterday than our entire midfield combined.
NJ just needs to accept what is staring him in the face. Dixon WP may allow the penny to drop.
Godden will play up front and score 15+ goals this season. Fact!
Jeez the bickering has returned. It's pre season all this game.showed is we are still playing friendlies as friendlies.
I don’t think the results matter in friendlies. Like I said yesterday, they are essentially glorified training sessions that we pay to watch because we’ve been starved of watching Charlton for a few months. That being said, I think you can observe things in friendlies about the direction a team is heading in and the direction I observed yesterday doesn’t fill me with hope.
I worry, particularly with the sale of May, that we’ve made a huge gamble on an entirely new system and squad. In some ways that makes sense, we finished in a historically low posturing last season, but it’s a gamble nonetheless and we’ll find out in 13 days whether the early signs are that it will pay off.
New goalie Mitchell Mitchell. Potts Ramsay Small Taylor Godden Berry Ahadme. Kanu
I'd be shocked if Godden starts games in central midfield. Has he ever had a run of games there during his career?
Godden already drops very deep to compete for balls. Football is full of strikers, who in their 30s, losing a bit of pace, play in midfield. Last two seasons for Coventry, he was a less than one in four striker. Which is why he is playing for us rather than sitting on their bench.
He put in more tackles/presses yesterday than our entire midfield combined.
NJ just needs to accept what is staring him in the face. Dixon WP may allow the penny to drop.
Godden will play up front and score 15+ goals this season. Fact!
Has Bexleyboy hacked your account?
We will wait and see.
I find writing him off as finished and needing to be pushed into midfield, on the basis of a couple of friendly appearances, to be frankly ridiculous.
New goalie Mitchell Mitchell. Potts Ramsay Small Taylor Godden Berry Ahadme. Kanu
I'd be shocked if Godden starts games in central midfield. Has he ever had a run of games there during his career?
Godden already drops very deep to compete for balls. Football is full of strikers, who in their 30s, losing a bit of pace, play in midfield. Last two seasons for Coventry, he was a less than one in four striker. Which is why he is playing for us rather than sitting on their bench.
He put in more tackles/presses yesterday than our entire midfield combined.
NJ just needs to accept what is staring him in the face. Dixon WP may allow the penny to drop.
Godden will play up front and score 15+ goals this season. Fact!
Has Bexleyboy hacked your account?
We will wait and see.
I find writing him off as finished and needing to be pushed into midfield, on the basis of a couple of friendly appearances, to be frankly ridiculous.
It’s the Charlton life way though. We all know a 2-0 defeat in a friendly = season over. Obviously the transfer window is closed as well. And god forbid we use the next couple of weeks to get the players fitter and put the finishing touches together.
Im actually amazed how some people make it through a week of their lives.
The worrying thing is our marquee signing Ahadme doesn’t look remotely fit or ready at the moment. You’d have hoped by now both him and godden would have got an understanding on how to operate together but like most of these players, they just look like strangers to each other.
Genuinely feels like we are undercooked at this stage of preseason.
With only one game left to try things out, we need to hope for a better performance against Pompey, otherwise jones will be facing a major dilemma on who to start against Wigan.
Really ? Just an average league 1 striker no matter how people like to dress it up. He won't get us the goals we need, he'll run around & put in the work up front, hold the ball up etc but goals ? I don't think so. When he was mentioned in the rumours thread I said I hoped we wouldn't sign him, just hope he proves me wrong. Agree with everything else you say.
New goalie Mitchell Mitchell. Potts Ramsay Small Taylor Godden Berry Ahadme. Kanu
I'd be shocked if Godden starts games in central midfield. Has he ever had a run of games there during his career?
Godden already drops very deep to compete for balls. Football is full of strikers, who in their 30s, losing a bit of pace, play in midfield. Last two seasons for Coventry, he was a less than one in four striker. Which is why he is playing for us rather than sitting on their bench.
He put in more tackles/presses yesterday than our entire midfield combined.
NJ just needs to accept what is staring him in the face. Dixon WP may allow the penny to drop.
Godden will play up front and score 15+ goals this season. Fact!
Has Bexleyboy hacked your account?
We will wait and see.
I find writing him off as finished and needing to be pushed into midfield, on the basis of a couple of friendly appearances, to be frankly ridiculous.
It’s the Charlton life way though. We all know a 2-0 defeat in a friendly = season over. Obviously the transfer window is closed as well. And god forbid we use the next couple of weeks to get the players fitter and put the finishing touches together.
Im actually amazed how some people make it through a week of their lives.
What we Desperately lack is creativity . Who do we have in the midfield who can go past players or put in that killer ball? Who is going to take our free kicks ? On yesterdays showings it looks like Coventry or Mitchell and let's face it , the free kicks were both woeful. We desperately need some creativity but i get the feeling Jones just wants to bully our way to results and one , i'm not sure we have the personnel for that and two, it's going to be ugly as hell.
I think the creativity is supposed to come from the wing backs, once that fails we're reduced to lumping it forward. Ugly is right
I suppose it was a good workout for Wimbledon, who will be facing a lot of hoof ball next season in League 2. I think they handled it rather well, as indeed most lower division teams do.
Jones said we played in front of Wimbledon. This is a pet hate of mine and it always seems to be an issue with teams I support, basically Charlton and England. At least Jones has identified it and I suppose it is a case of what he is going to do about it.
Jones said we played in front of Wimbledon. This is a pet hate of mine and it always seems to be an issue with teams I support, basically Charlton and England. At least Jones has identified it and I suppose it is a case of what he is going to do about it.
Wouldn’t be surprising to see Kanu start in that case. Aneke and Godden together isn’t going to offer much running in behind.
Jones said we played in front of Wimbledon. This is a pet hate of mine and it always seems to be an issue with teams I support, basically Charlton and England. At least Jones has identified it and I suppose it is a case of what he is going to do about it.
Wouldn’t be surprising to see Kanu start in that case. Aneke and Godden together is going to offer much running in behind.
Yes, Aneke is best being brought on when defences are tiring. We will need the energy of Godden and Kanu. There is a lot on young Kanu's shoulders IMO, in terms of our season. I accept I am probably missing something in relation to Ahadme. Maybe when he is fit it will be more obvious.
Jones said we played in front of Wimbledon. This is a pet hate of mine and it always seems to be an issue with teams I support, basically Charlton and England. At least Jones has identified it and I suppose it is a case of what he is going to do about it.
Wouldn’t be surprising to see Kanu start in that case. Aneke and Godden together is going to offer much running in behind.
ok, it’s Monday morning and the deep breath has finally been let out. It was a friendly after all and a wake up call is often better than a false sense of security from winning one of those games, particularly against a team we should normally be expected to beat.
What was disappointing was that team, to me, wasn’t the team that I would have expected to start the first game of the season, some of those players will of course but others will only see their name on the starting eleven in cup games for a while at least. I know we have the final pre season game yet to come but two games with the league games starting eleven ironing out the usual snags would have given us a much better chance to hit the ground running against Wigan. Still, at least we will know for ourselves why one or two of those players won’t be on the team sheet come the 10th.
If I have one other gripe it’s that a thousand Charlton fans turned up for the game. It’s a pity not everyone on the pitch seemed to do likewise - I’m not saying they should have been rushing around on a hot day or doing anything likely to get themselves injured but they could have looked like they were mentally sharp. Switching off and wayward balls kicked in hope last season was what nearly got the team relegated.
still, it’s yesterday’s chip paper now, onwards and upwards to Saturday and the Pompey game. Winning that isn’t important if Pompey are the better team on the day, it’s all about how we play.
Jones said we played in front of Wimbledon. This is a pet hate of mine and it always seems to be an issue with teams I support, basically Charlton and England. At least Jones has identified it and I suppose it is a case of what he is going to do about it.
Wouldn’t be surprising to see Kanu start in that case. Aneke and Godden together is going to offer much running in behind.
Ahadme will be first choice with Godden
I agree that’s likely the plan for now, but that will change if it isn’t working and Kanu alongside one of them proves more effective (and/or Leaburn when he’s up and running).
Jones said we played in front of Wimbledon. This is a pet hate of mine and it always seems to be an issue with teams I support, basically Charlton and England. At least Jones has identified it and I suppose it is a case of what he is going to do about it.
Wouldn’t be surprising to see Kanu start in that case. Aneke and Godden together isn’t going to offer much running in behind.
Or Campbell. He’s probably impressed the most out of the strikers in pre-season. I think I’d start TC and Godden with Chuks hopefully able to do the second half
Leyton Orient first home game will be a better indication of where we're at than a friendly hopefully.
What about Wigan away......or is that another "freebie" ?
Yeah I don't understand that approach.
We should be ready to go for Wigan. We have known it was likely we would be a league 1 team for 24/25, we had a manager in place with a decent track record, plenty of time to make the right signings and part ways with the players who we didn't want. We also had plenty of games with Jones for him to determine what needed to be done.
This squad should be more than ready by Wigan away, and the goal should be 3 points and 3 points only. Anything else is poor planning, and low ambition. You can't throw away potentially 6-9 points at the start of the season like we did last time.
Jeez the bickering has returned. It's pre season all this game.showed is we are still playing friendlies as friendlies.
I don’t think the results matter in friendlies. Like I said yesterday, they are essentially glorified training sessions that we pay to watch because we’ve been starved of watching Charlton for a few months. That being said, I think you can observe things in friendlies about the direction a team is heading in and the direction I observed yesterday doesn’t fill me with hope.
I worry, particularly with the sale of May, that we’ve made a huge gamble on an entirely new system and squad. In some ways that makes sense, we finished in a historically low posturing last season, but it’s a gamble nonetheless and we’ll find out in 13 days whether the early signs are that it will pay off.
Good post. Ramsey and Small as wing backs are surely paramount in the system Jones wants to deploy. Alex Mitchell looks strong at the back and the midfield I'm still trying to work out who's who ! Coventry appears to have the gig as the defensive midfielder but like others I'm still waiting for him to impose himself on a game over 90+ minutes.
If you have reached the level of being a professional midfielder in the 3rd tier then you must surely be capable of passing the ball ? I don't expect KDB type precision but this talk of a special play maker who can pull all the strings just won't happen in League 1.
Berry, Docherty, Taylor, Coventry, Anderson, and IF Bishops signs we have the numbers in midfield but they will need not only good attacking wing backs but movement from forwards for this system to gel.
The Fact that Ahadme was a sub who then got subbed is a concern as the person who gets the longest contract as in Charlie Kirk seem to struggle. Early days for Ahadme but we need him up to speed ASAP. Kanu looked Sharper and ironic that he gave a smart pass to Campbell and not the other way round. Godden will do fine IF the team can find partnerships all over the pitch and especially down the flanks with the attacking full backs or anyone else who drifts wide to open up space. If Chuks Aneke could play 45 minutes either 1st half or 2nd half guaranteed we would be such a stronger team but that is in the hands of the football gods 🤞🏼
Nathan Jones needs to get it right for Wigan with formation and personnel. It's his gig and we have to hope he will make the right calls. Both Dobson and May looked like big misses on Saturday so we need players to step up to the plate.
It was such a friendly that the ref didn't even bring his cards with him for the two blatant pull backs by Johnnie Jackson's side.
“Of course, the result is not good but, for us, now the result is not the most important. Most important is to build a team, get information about the players."
Quote from Unai Emery. The manager of Aston Villa who just qualified for the Champions League, they just took a hiding from Columbus Crew. Ill take that view over the massive over reaction on here
“Of course, the result is not good but, for us, now the result is not the most important. Most important is to build a team, get information about the players."
Quote from Unai Emery. The manager of Aston Villa who just qualified for the Champions League, they just took a hiding from Columbus Crew. Ill take that view over the massive over reaction on here
I wonder if he said the same thing to the players…
“Of course, the result is not good but, for us, now the result is not the most important. Most important is to build a team, get information about the players."
Quote from Unai Emery. The manager of Aston Villa who just qualified for the Champions League, they just took a hiding from Columbus Crew. Ill take that view over the massive over reaction on here
I'd gladly swap places with Villa if it meant getting hammered by Columbus Crew 3 weeks before the start of the PL season.
“Of course, the result is not good but, for us, now the result is not the most important. Most important is to build a team, get information about the players."
Quote from Unai Emery. The manager of Aston Villa who just qualified for the Champions League, they just took a hiding from Columbus Crew. Ill take that view over the massive over reaction on here
I wonder if he said the same thing to the players…
Nothing wrong saying they need to do better. They are professional Football players who should/would want to win every game.
But it is pre-season. At this point it is fitness and getting a general overview of the players from Njs perspective to better prepare for the season ahead.
“Of course, the result is not good but, for us, now the result is not the most important. Most important is to build a team, get information about the players."
Quote from Unai Emery. The manager of Aston Villa who just qualified for the Champions League, they just took a hiding from Columbus Crew. Ill take that view over the massive over reaction on here
I'd gladly swap places with Villa if it meant getting hammered by Columbus Crew 3 weeks before the start of the PL season.
But you would still be doing your nut about the result! Point is if a top level manager at a top level team can say that, why are some people losing the plot and already binning this season off?
“Of course, the result is not good but, for us, now the result is not the most important. Most important is to build a team, get information about the players."
Quote from Unai Emery. The manager of Aston Villa who just qualified for the Champions League, they just took a hiding from Columbus Crew. Ill take that view over the massive over reaction on here
The majority of people here aren't concerned about the result on Saturday, it's the tepid performance they're a bit unhappy about, against a team at the same stage of pre season that we ought to be imposing ourselves against. We looked pretty toothless, with a lack of creativity and a lack of an attacking system.
“Of course, the result is not good but, for us, now the result is not the most important. Most important is to build a team, get information about the players."
Quote from Unai Emery. The manager of Aston Villa who just qualified for the Champions League, they just took a hiding from Columbus Crew. Ill take that view over the massive over reaction on here
I'd gladly swap places with Villa if it meant getting hammered by Columbus Crew 3 weeks before the start of the PL season.
But you would still be doing your nut about the result! Point is if a top level manager at a top level team can say that, why are some people losing the plot and already binning this season off?
It is a completely incomparable situation again though. You are exactly right, Aston Villa have just had their best season in a very, very long time, and have a nucleus of one of the best squads right now in Europe.
Us, on the other hand, have just had our lowest league placement in however many years, have just lost our POTY, club captain, and arguably our best player all in the space of a few months. They are on a completely different level to us and our pre-season shouldn't be used as a basis vs theirs, or any other team on that level for that matter.
No one is completely writing the season off (unless they're being a tad dramatic), and I don't believe anyone is really losing the plot. It is just quite concerning, that a few weeks out from Wigan away, and it's becoming quite clear that we might not have a squad ready to give us the best chance of having a good start to this season.
It would be very different if we had just marginally missed out on promotion, had kept most of that squad and had bolstered (similar to Bolton) but we haven't, and are essentially starting from scratch again, and ignoring the results, the football doesn't look all that.
It doesn't haven't to be one extreme or the other, it's just people expressing their concerns after a few horrid, boring, miserable few years in this tin pot league.
Comments
He put in more tackles/presses yesterday than our entire midfield combined.
NJ just needs to accept what is staring him in the face. Dixon WP may allow the penny to drop.
Agree with everything else you say.
If I have one other gripe it’s that a thousand Charlton fans turned up for the game. It’s a pity not everyone on the pitch seemed to do likewise - I’m not saying they should have been rushing around on a hot day or doing anything likely to get themselves injured but they could have looked like they were mentally sharp. Switching off and wayward balls kicked in hope last season was what nearly got the team relegated.
still, it’s yesterday’s chip paper now, onwards and upwards to Saturday and the Pompey game. Winning that isn’t important if Pompey are the better team on the day, it’s all about how we play.
We should be ready to go for Wigan. We have known it was likely we would be a league 1 team for 24/25, we had a manager in place with a decent track record, plenty of time to make the right signings and part ways with the players who we didn't want. We also had plenty of games with Jones for him to determine what needed to be done.
This squad should be more than ready by Wigan away, and the goal should be 3 points and 3 points only. Anything else is poor planning, and low ambition. You can't throw away potentially 6-9 points at the start of the season like we did last time.
Good post.
Ramsey and Small as wing backs are surely paramount in the system Jones wants to deploy.
Alex Mitchell looks strong at the back and the midfield I'm still trying to work out who's who !
Coventry appears to have the gig as the defensive midfielder but like others I'm still waiting for him to impose himself on a game over 90+ minutes.
If you have reached the level of being a professional midfielder in the 3rd tier then you must surely be capable of passing the ball ? I don't expect KDB type precision but this talk of a special play maker who can pull all the strings just won't happen in League 1.
Berry, Docherty, Taylor, Coventry, Anderson, and IF Bishops signs we have the numbers in midfield but they will need not only good attacking wing backs but movement from forwards for this system to gel.
The Fact that Ahadme was a sub who then got subbed is a concern as the person who gets the longest contract as in Charlie Kirk seem to struggle. Early days for Ahadme but we need him up to speed ASAP.
Kanu looked Sharper and ironic that he gave a smart pass to Campbell and not the other way round.
Godden will do fine IF the team can find partnerships all over the pitch and especially down the flanks with the attacking full backs or anyone else who drifts wide to open up space.
If Chuks Aneke could play 45 minutes either 1st half or 2nd half guaranteed we would be such a stronger team but that is in the hands of the football gods 🤞🏼
Nathan Jones needs to get it right for Wigan with formation and personnel. It's his gig and we have to hope he will make the right calls. Both Dobson and May looked like big misses on Saturday so we need players to step up to the plate.
It was such a friendly that the ref didn't even bring his cards with him for the two blatant pull backs by Johnnie Jackson's side.
Quote from Unai Emery. The manager of Aston Villa who just qualified for the Champions League, they just took a hiding from Columbus Crew. Ill take that view over the massive over reaction on here
But it is pre-season. At this point it is fitness and getting a general overview of the players from Njs perspective to better prepare for the season ahead.
Nathan Jones wasn't happy either.
Us, on the other hand, have just had our lowest league placement in however many years, have just lost our POTY, club captain, and arguably our best player all in the space of a few months. They are on a completely different level to us and our pre-season shouldn't be used as a basis vs theirs, or any other team on that level for that matter.
No one is completely writing the season off (unless they're being a tad dramatic), and I don't believe anyone is really losing the plot. It is just quite concerning, that a few weeks out from Wigan away, and it's becoming quite clear that we might not have a squad ready to give us the best chance of having a good start to this season.
It would be very different if we had just marginally missed out on promotion, had kept most of that squad and had bolstered (similar to Bolton) but we haven't, and are essentially starting from scratch again, and ignoring the results, the football doesn't look all that.
It doesn't haven't to be one extreme or the other, it's just people expressing their concerns after a few horrid, boring, miserable few years in this tin pot league.