Post Match Thread: Hull City v Charlton | Sat 02 Jan 2021

Chunes said:

LB saying Watson has done his hamstring and will be unavailable for a while. And what with Pratley now banned for three games, I must say, I am feeling pretty happy about this news. 

Garrymanilow said:

Right, I'll start by saying that that was bad, and that I don't agree with how Bowyer's been setting up recently. I don't have an issue with playing Pratley at CB as he's a better CB than Oshilaja and we all know it, though he let us down today with some silliness. Playing Matthews at left back is odd, especially given that Purrington is a player that really doesn't let us down. You can see what Bowyer was trying to do today with going to a flat 4-4-2 to try and get some solidity, and in many ways he tried to do exactly what he did against Hull post-lockdown. He's gone with a flat four with Albie on the left. You could even argue he's put Matthews there to deal with their threat cutting in on the right, which is exactly what he did last time, except he used Oshilaja then, and to some decent effect. What didn't help is that McGeady, average as he was, was a right winger whereas Maatsen is a LB he put on the wrong flank so there was no hope of width. Similarly Bogle isn't as good as Bonne or Hemed so we were always going to struggle in attack.

That aside though, you can see where the real problems lie. We started the season with a plan, and that plan was to use Alfie's pace out wide to counter attack off the back of a solid defensive unit. We lost Alfie, which massively affected our abilities on the break and stopped our good passers like Gilbey and Forster-Caskey having anyone to aim their raking passes to. We adapted though and settled for solidity alone, which worked. We weren't electric but we didn't concede and we were winning game after game without conceding. We then lost both of our Goliath centre backs, as well as our midfield creator in Shinnie and that's killed us completely. We now lack the pace and the solidity to play the way we'd hoped to, so Bowyer has tried to fall back on his tried and tested methods, but we didn't build a squad to suit those systems so we're not as good at it anymore. We don't have the abilities of Cullen, Bielik, Aribo and Gallagher anymore. Our midfielders are much slower and that causes us to lack any coherence between attack and defence. Add to that the fact that instead of having Lyle Taylor we have Omar Bogle and you can see where the true issues are. We desperately, desperately need pace, and we need Inniss and Famewo back. I do agree that Bowyer's attempts to pivot from our strategy have gone a bit Twilight Zone, but all this talk of sacking the manager is just bonkers when you actually think about what we're dealing with. How many other teams wouldn't struggle losing the three players absolutely vital to their way of playing long term, and then a boat-load on top of that? Add to that the wage cap and our late takeover, meaning we haven't got much depth in the squad in line with our change in style and I think any team would struggle. We're in a squad transition; remnants of one way of playing are alongside new players and when you have to mix them together in too-large quantities problems show.

Despite all that, this was our first loss in 5 games. Granted we've only won 1 in that period (though we should bear in mind there were two late equalisers in there to make things look worse), but we're still 6th. Still on for the Play-Offs despite the ridiculous amount of obstacles that have been put in the clubs way leading up to and during this season. Yet there's people who want the manager out because we've lost to probably the best team in the league and drew with Swindon. I get that people don't like the performances, but that's all part of the larger issues we've had. The entitlement since Sandgaard came in is astonishing. It will take time for us to to rebuild as a club, we might not go up this season and it might not always look pretty, but the knives coming out for Bowyer off a few dodgy decisions and the fact we're not pissing a league that we apparently 'deserve' to get promoted from is uncomfortable. Hopefully in January Schwarz can hit the ground running and we can get some pace to take the pressure off the defence and things suddenly won't look so bad. Bowyer can definitely help by making some more logical decisions but playing Maatsen and LB and our worst CB isn't going to fix the combination of injuries and the legacy of bad club management that Lee and the club have to deal with every step of the way. Chill. It'll be ok.

lancashire lad said:

we must remember that TS has Ged Roddy at the club who is his man on the football side - I hope that Ged is in contact with TS

palarsehater said:

Not a happy bunny 

killerandflash said:

ricky_otto said:

killerandflash said:

palarsehater said:

Not a happy bunny 

Unprofessional to post such a message, blah blah BUT in this case I can't blame him

Think he is also on about his time at Hull where he hardly played. 

But he is also talking about today

I imagine Bowyer won't be happy, but then I for once am on the player's side

stonemuse said:

AFKABartram said:

stonemuse said:

Astonished that the majority of Charlton Life seem to want Bowyer out ... fortunately it would appear that Thomas does not agree with you. 

How the hell do you work that out????

Read the comments ... it’s very clear 

AndyG said:

palarsehater said:

Not a happy bunny 

Well he will probably get a roasting for that on Monday morning and find himself back on the bench on Friday. But you have to admit he has a point 

john3 said:

Bowyer out, Curbs in please Thomas.

J BLOCK said:

ForeverAddickted said:

https://twitter.com/jpearce05/status/1345443947821355009

Wonder what he thinks of bowyers tactics 

ForeverAddickted said:

https://twitter.com/jpearce05/status/1345443947821355009