MATCH THREAD (+POSTp22): Gillingham vs Charlton Athletic: FA Cup🏆(2): Sat 2nd Dec 2023 | KO 3.00PM

Melrose said:

roseandcrown said:

Awful no bottle or heart. 

Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough.  I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants. 

Appleton needs replacing as well

Seriously?? Look at paper thin squad, the mess we were in and his stats. If he had started the season we would be comfortably in the top six.

I cannot agree with any calls to get Appleton gone but he got it just as wrong yesterday as the players, it was clear early to everyone that a lot of those players decided they could not be bothered to compete in the cold against a team who were always going to be up for it, so he should have been bolder with the subs, as at least the youngers like Mbick & Kanu had enthusiasm to try. 

To most Charlton fans it is hard to understand but as someone who has Gillingham fans in the extended family, this was their cup final, they absolutely despise us as a club, so throw in a few ex addick players keen to make a point and this was always going to be a fight, so our team of softies rocking up with a terrible attitude, sadly was inevitable we would be turned over.

Weirdly now a day later, I will take the two nil as they should have smashed us for four or five.

Six-a-bag-of-nuts said:

Never at any point did we look like we were going to turn it around.
There were a number of stoppages, due to injuries etc, when the players ran to the touchline.
Surely there was an opportunity for Appleton to cajole, motivate, inspire, bawl them out etc.
Clearly not his way but,  fcuk they needed a firework up their arse.
I certainly don't advocate sacking Appleton.
I suspect he knows his squad is peopled with mediocrity but can't say much other than, don't knock on my door demanding to be picked.

I can imagine Thomas Frank would be getting his white board out & having a mini team talk. 

Have thawed out this morning but am still absolutely livid at that performance.

Tyreece Campbell's performance will go down in folklore. Played liked he'd never seen a football before. 

NabySarr said:

Garrymanilow said:

supaclive said:

Garrymanilow said:

supaclive said:

AFKABartram said:

Callumcafc said:

Braziliance said:

Callumcafc said:

The way people are talking about Appleton you’d think we’ve lost half of our last dozen odd games.

3 losses in 17…

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

It’s a limp compare though Callum as Appleton has had a number of players signed or fit (for part) that Holden / Pearce didn’t. 

I’ve not particularly taken to Appleton so far, not from a pre-conceived dislike as I’ll happily support him and can see as you’ve shown there have been wins. 

But because I’ve no clear idea of how he wants to play, he doesn’t seem to engage during games so no desire or urgency is being driven from the touchline, and we’ve 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. 

My most concerning point, I’ve not seen a single player get better since he’s arrived, yet many are performing worse. That might be coincidental and not down to him, but I’ve no real faith in seeing an improvement over the next month. Boy I hope I’m wrong, last thing we need is to get to the January window and there is no point to it as we’ll be playing for nothing. As @Cabbles said, it’s last season all over again. 

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 conjecture 

That’s just a completely fundamental misunderstanding of football at an almost impossible level. Players play different roles in different positions. May doesn’t have the size or the strength to play as a lone striker and we’ve seen that with our own eyes. It’s not conjecture, it’s right there in front of us

Surely it would be obvious to play him up front with Tedić? Might help Tedić be less shit as well

                 AMB 
      Jones Hector Thomas 
Watson    Dobson        Edun 
          Watson  Fraser
             Tedić  May

Can use CBT as an impact sub or start him on one of the flanks against weaker sides, and upgrade the centre back options in January. 

I’m still baffled we appointed Appleton when this was the system we were building for all summer. he’s done well but we are going to have the exact same problems next season when he’s still trying to work out where to play May 

May on the right means we are defensively better and have more control, but May is less likely to get into scoring areas. May central means he will score goals, but I think it hurts us defensively. Unless Appleton switches to 2 up top we are going to have the exact same issues next season 

I quite like that team. More solid, on what was going to be a tough battle against a motivated Gillingham team, with 3 in midfield AND a great opportunity to see if Tedic and May could work alongside each other. Even if we played Asiimwe and Ness, I think they'd be less exposed in that side.

Garrymanilow said:

supaclive said:

Garrymanilow said:

supaclive said:

AFKABartram said:

Callumcafc said:

Braziliance said:

Callumcafc said:

The way people are talking about Appleton you’d think we’ve lost half of our last dozen odd games.

3 losses in 17…

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

It’s a limp compare though Callum as Appleton has had a number of players signed or fit (for part) that Holden / Pearce didn’t. 

I’ve not particularly taken to Appleton so far, not from a pre-conceived dislike as I’ll happily support him and can see as you’ve shown there have been wins. 

But because I’ve no clear idea of how he wants to play, he doesn’t seem to engage during games so no desire or urgency is being driven from the touchline, and we’ve 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. 

My most concerning point, I’ve not seen a single player get better since he’s arrived, yet many are performing worse. That might be coincidental and not down to him, but I’ve no real faith in seeing an improvement over the next month. Boy I hope I’m wrong, last thing we need is to get to the January window and there is no point to it as we’ll be playing for nothing. As @Cabbles said, it’s last season all over again. 

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 conjecture 

That’s just a completely fundamental misunderstanding of football at an almost impossible level. Players play different roles in different positions. May doesn’t have the size or the strength to play as a lone striker and we’ve seen that with our own eyes. It’s not conjecture, it’s right there in front of us

I genuinely don't misunderstand football.

Our ownership and manager buy the best centre forward in League 1 then play a formation and set up that doesn't play to his strengths and DESPITE him scoring goals this set up sees us knocked out the FA Cup in the 2nd round of the FA Cup and sitting mid table in the division DESPITE his goals and apparently one of the highest wage bills in the Division.

They also think they can break even in this Division.

Yet it's me that misunderstands football.

Right-o.

I'm not arguing May can play wide.  I'm arguing it's mental to buy him and then not set the side up to maximise his abilities.   That's not understanding football!

Unless we make the play offs, the managememt will have failed on their first objective.

IAgree said:

Melrose said:

roseandcrown said:

Awful no bottle or heart. 

Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough.  I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants. 

Appleton needs replacing as well

Seriously?? Look at paper thin squad, the mess we were in and his stats. If he had started the season we would be comfortably in the top six.

It’s not really a paper thin squad, is it? Both Holden and now Appleton were unlucky to lose Leaburn and you may as well say that if Holden had had him, Aneke and Camara he’d still be manager. We have enough fit players - they are just not good enough or at any rate don’t perform. There will always be injuries.

Any club needs squad players, will have failed signings, injuries and players who lose form. We have too many who just aren’t good enough, including a number signed in the summer.

IAgree said:

Melrose said:

roseandcrown said:

Awful no bottle or heart. 

Appleton knows a lot of these are not good enough.  I just hope he can get them out and replace with players he wants. 

Appleton needs replacing as well

Seriously?? Look at paper thin squad, the mess we were in and his stats. If he had started the season we would be comfortably in the top six.

It's not a paper thin squad. It's far too big.

It's the lack of quality is the issue

Appleton cheap as chips appointment!
You get what you pay for.
Please don't play T Campbell and Assimwe in freezing cold weather!
What's happened to Anderson and C Campbell?

Charlton fans suddenly caring about the FA Cup where was everyone at the valley v Cray Valley … ??? fact is the game was a pain in the bum for us we knew it was Gillingham final and MA was forced to play a team he most likey did not want to … and said before it was a case as they walked out the door “ just don’t do anything to get injured “ and you could tell that in the performance 

3rd round draw about to start everyone!!

RonnieMoore said:

Charlton fans suddenly caring about the FA Cup where was everyone at the valley v Cray Valley … ??? fact is the game was a pain in the bum for us we knew it was Gillingham final and MA was forced to play a team he most likey did not want to … and said before it was a case as they walked out the door “ just don’t do anything to get injured “ and you could tell that in the performance 

I think you are right. 

. 

MuttleyCAFC said:

The problem playing May in his best position is that we only have him and CBT that can score goals even close to reliably. In that situation, it can be an advantage for him making late runs rtaher than have two men on him all the time. Stats show he has scored more for us playing out of position than in the central role so not sure why Appleton is getting criticism for that. The problem lies elsewhere in the team/squad and I strongly suspect that Appleton is trying to find a way round it. 

He scores plenty in the 10, but the debate is more about whether him playing there isn’t actually helping us as we can then only play 2 central midfielders. We lose some control and are less protected defensively. 

I think Appleton is aware of this, hence why he has been playing him on the right a bit, but then May doesn’t look as likely to get into scoring areas, so that hasn’t worked great either.