eastterrace6168 said:

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...🙄
On to the next one eh...

Braziliance said:

ElfsborgAddick said:

Braziliance said:

ElfsborgAddick said:

redbuttle said:

Melrose said:

redbuttle 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

He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interview 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Raith_C_Chattonell said:

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. I’m 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 can’t keep sacking managers to solve club’s ‘cultural issues’ That comes back to mentality. That’s something that has to change at the football club. I’m not trying to take pressure off me, but I don’t think it’s a managerial issue. “You can keep changing manager every three or four months if you want. It’s deeper than that. It’s a cultural issue. It’s a mentality issue. That’s harder to change, but that’s what we’ve got to do.

Appleton 30/9/23 Draw at Shrewsbury

“The first half – I can’t take that, I can’t accept that. I made the players aware of that at half time. “I think no matter what game of football you play in, whether it’s in the Premier League or the National League, you’ve got to compete. You might not be the most aggressive person but you’ve got to be competitive. You can’t have a career in football if you’re not competitive.”

Appleton 24/10/23 Lincoln defeat

“We just didn’t give ourselves a chance tonight. We didn’t compete enough with them,” he told CharltonTV. “And if you do that against a really physical side like Lincoln, there’s only going to be one scenario that’s going to happen and that’s what happened.” Appleton also noticed some heads dropping after Charlton went behind: “Once the second goal went in, there were one or two players who looked like they didn’t really think they could get back in the game.

Appleton 2/12/23 Gillingham

“But if you change three or four players in the team, you certainly don’t expect the performance levels to drop as low as what they’ve done today. “That’s the slightly worrying thing from my point of view. “The players coming into the group, they’ve all had minutes at some point and they’ve all been exposed to this type of game. “From 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. “There wasn’t enough players asking questions of me today. “None of them can knock on my door and ask me why I’m not in the team.

AFKABartram said:

Raith_C_Chattonell said:

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. I’m 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 can’t keep sacking managers to solve club’s ‘cultural issues’ That comes back to mentality. That’s something that has to change at the football club. I’m not trying to take pressure off me, but I don’t think it’s a managerial issue. “You can keep changing manager every three or four months if you want. It’s deeper than that. It’s a cultural issue. It’s a mentality issue. That’s harder to change, but that’s what we’ve got to do.

Appleton 30/9/23 Draw at Shrewsbury

“The first half – I can’t take that, I can’t accept that. I made the players aware of that at half time. “I think no matter what game of football you play in, whether it’s in the Premier League or the National League, you’ve got to compete. You might not be the most aggressive person but you’ve got to be competitive. You can’t have a career in football if you’re not competitive.”

Appleton 24/10/23 Lincoln defeat

“We just didn’t give ourselves a chance tonight. We didn’t compete enough with them,” he told CharltonTV. “And if you do that against a really physical side like Lincoln, there’s only going to be one scenario that’s going to happen and that’s what happened.” Appleton also noticed some heads dropping after Charlton went behind: “Once the second goal went in, there were one or two players who looked like they didn’t really think they could get back in the game.

Appleton 2/12/23 Gillingham

“But if you change three or four players in the team, you certainly don’t expect the performance levels to drop as low as what they’ve done today. “That’s the slightly worrying thing from my point of view. “The players coming into the group, they’ve all had minutes at some point and they’ve all been exposed to this type of game. “From 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. “There wasn’t enough players asking questions of me today. “None of them can knock on my door and ask me why I’m not in the team.

It’s all words. I’m fed up with words. Be it from owners, employees, managers or players. 

They can all talk the talk. No one has delivered anything approaching the walk for years. 

Braziliance said:

SamB09 said:

Braziliance said:

ElfsborgAddick said:

Braziliance said:

ElfsborgAddick said:

redbuttle said:

Melrose said:

redbuttle 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

He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interview 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

cabbles said:

Both Garner and Holden shouldn’t have got anywhere near this job.  Way too big for them, and they were lucky we were in such a state that they even got a foot in the door.  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 he’s more experienced and can probably make meals longer from the scraps in the kitchen 

What’s clear as we head into December is that we have another group of owners who don’t know what they’re doing.  The dial hasn’t 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 it’s unlikely to change.  

Bookmark this as I feel the current owners will put the club up for sale in the summer of 2025 

Covered End said:

Valley Ant said:

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.

oohaahmortimer said:

we’ve missed out on a home tie against Sheffield utd 
oooh a  prem team 

Braziliance said:

Kindoncasella said:

Braziliance said:

SamB09 said:

Braziliance said:

ElfsborgAddick said:

Braziliance said:

ElfsborgAddick said:

redbuttle said:

Melrose said:

redbuttle 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

He inherited this bunch of bottle jobs. How do you think he feels? . I actually think we know now after hearing his post match interview 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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 takeover 

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

AFKABartram said:

Meant to ask those watching on the streams,t he collision where Williams had to go off, should we have had someone sent off for it?