Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.
POST-MATCH THREAD: Stoke City V Charlton Athletic: Tuesday 25th November 2025: KO 19:45
Comments
-
I was with you up until the "scrape into 6th place, win at Wembley" bit, because that's definitely "be careful what you wish for" territory. If we got promoted it'd be a whole season of the late November experience, and probably coming straight back down with a record low points total. I'd much rather a solid mid-table finish and then further squad building in the summer, and see where that takes us.masicat said:We were over achieving. Get the Coventry game out of the way , reset , and go again. Stay faithful to the players and the manager, they deserve it. A few new players January, scrape into 6th place, win at Wembley. Fairytale complete.7 -
The TC thing is a matter of opinion. I see the benefit of what he does off the ball but genuinely, we need impact when he is on the ball. He just isnt contributing enough to the winning of games. Play him as an outright winger and then see the improvement.1
-
"Jones, guilty of forcing the current available players to play how he wants rather than how best they can, I wouldn't expect a total abandonment of his ways but we have no left wing back and no real pressing forward so, mix it up a little I guess, solve that and get us through to returning players and hopefully the heavy losses will stop".CL_Phantom said:Expected a tight loss but a loss nonetheless, as with Southampton and most probably Coventry, it'll be the manner of the loss rather than the actual result.
Jones, guilty of forcing the current available players to play how he wants rather than how best they can, I wouldn't expect a total abandonment of his ways but we have no left wing back and no real pressing forward so, mix it up a little I guess, solve that and get us through to returning players and hopefully the heavy losses will stop.
As an aside to the amount of goal conceded in the last two, that's two games where we've let them in in quick succession - mentality not right there.
Meh, didn't get carried away with the wins, won't with these two results, if we're still getting carved open and letting in 2+ goals against Pompey and Oxford then I might.
Good point CL! But will he change? Doubt it?2 -
Jones has certainly got the credit but like most modern managers, he is rigid in his approach.CharltonManor1966 said:
"Jones, guilty of forcing the current available players to play how he wants rather than how best they can, I wouldn't expect a total abandonment of his ways but we have no left wing back and no real pressing forward so, mix it up a little I guess, solve that and get us through to returning players and hopefully the heavy losses will stop".CL_Phantom said:Expected a tight loss but a loss nonetheless, as with Southampton and most probably Coventry, it'll be the manner of the loss rather than the actual result.
Jones, guilty of forcing the current available players to play how he wants rather than how best they can, I wouldn't expect a total abandonment of his ways but we have no left wing back and no real pressing forward so, mix it up a little I guess, solve that and get us through to returning players and hopefully the heavy losses will stop.
As an aside to the amount of goal conceded in the last two, that's two games where we've let them in in quick succession - mentality not right there.
Meh, didn't get carried away with the wins, won't with these two results, if we're still getting carved open and letting in 2+ goals against Pompey and Oxford then I might.
Good point CL! But will he change? Doubt it?1 -
Smacks of Ange at Spurs!? He refused to change his system......king addick said:
Jones has certainly got the credit but like most modern managers, he is rigid in his approach.CharltonManor1966 said:
"Jones, guilty of forcing the current available players to play how he wants rather than how best they can, I wouldn't expect a total abandonment of his ways but we have no left wing back and no real pressing forward so, mix it up a little I guess, solve that and get us through to returning players and hopefully the heavy losses will stop".CL_Phantom said:Expected a tight loss but a loss nonetheless, as with Southampton and most probably Coventry, it'll be the manner of the loss rather than the actual result.
Jones, guilty of forcing the current available players to play how he wants rather than how best they can, I wouldn't expect a total abandonment of his ways but we have no left wing back and no real pressing forward so, mix it up a little I guess, solve that and get us through to returning players and hopefully the heavy losses will stop.
As an aside to the amount of goal conceded in the last two, that's two games where we've let them in in quick succession - mentality not right there.
Meh, didn't get carried away with the wins, won't with these two results, if we're still getting carved open and letting in 2+ goals against Pompey and Oxford then I might.
Good point CL! But will he change? Doubt it?
Surely any system of play is only ever as good as the players available to play it? A good manager must surely be adaptable and use his players according to their strengths and weaknesses?
Agree that Jones is massively in credit but just feel he is going to have to adapt his system especially in view of all the injuries......1 -
Everyone seems to be forgetting 1) NJ changed his system 12 months ago and 2) he changed it about 4 times in the second half last night and 3) we started with a different system last night to Southampton. He's not stubbornly doing one thing at all8
-
It’s like some people haven’t watched any of our games since he took over. He’s trying to work out a solution, like he was trying too this time last year and then stumbled on something that clickedfenaddick said:Everyone seems to be forgetting 1) NJ changed his system 12 months ago and 2) he changed it about 4 times in the second half last night and 3) we started with a different system last night to Southampton. He's not stubbornly doing one thing at all3 -
What’s the score prediction against Cov ?0
-
Currently 16th and just 8 points from relegation0
-
Sponsored links:
-
So it could be only 5pts away from relegation place by end of the Coventry game. This is worrying.oohaahmortimer said:Currently 16th and just 8 points from relegation1 -
I know it’s very scary but try not to shit your beds just yet.msomerton said:
So it could be only 5pts away from relegation place by end of the Coventry game. This is worrying.oohaahmortimer said:Currently 16th and just 8 points from relegationWe will only be 5 points from 22nd if we lose whilst Oxford and Sheff Utd win as well as Pompey and Swansea both getting at least a draw.
We are 4 points from 6th.8 -
fenaddick said:Everyone seems to be forgetting 1) NJ changed his system 12 months ago and 2) he changed it about 4 times in the second half last night and 3) we started with a different system last night to Southampton. He's not stubbornly doing one thing at all
Shifting players around like dropping the TC role slightly back and making it carey is one thing and not a massive change in formation in reality but maintaining the kamikaze press that was brutally carved apart by saints is something else entirely (to me)
The better teams, having done their homework will pass through it, as evident, plenty of people have said this including a load of the "my sh!t don't smell, I'm a better supporter than you because I don't criticise anything so make those wanky comments like how you don't watch games, should stop watching football or should support Chelsea" type of posters.
As sage ( an often well highly thought of poster, itknower and not exactly known for doom posting and bed wetting) said at the start of the thread we haven't looked great for weeks, the injury woes have just highlighted it 🤷🏻♂️1 -
It really isn’t that simple, if we do it well then it works against anyone, we’ve seen that this season against some of the best teams.CL_Phantom said:fenaddick said:Everyone seems to be forgetting 1) NJ changed his system 12 months ago and 2) he changed it about 4 times in the second half last night and 3) we started with a different system last night to Southampton. He's not stubbornly doing one thing at all
Shifting players around like dropping the TC role slightly back and making it carey is one thing and not a massive change in formation in reality but maintaining the kamikaze press that was brutally carved apart by saints is something else entirely (to me)
The better teams, having done their homework will pass through it, as evident, plenty of people have said this including a load of the "my sh!t don't smell, I'm a better supporter than you because I don't criticise anything so make those wanky comments like how you don't watch games, should stop watching football or should support Chelsea" type of posters.
As sage ( an often well highly thought of poster, itknower and not exactly known for doom posting and bed wetting) said at the start of the thread we haven't looked great for weeks, the injury woes have just highlighted it 🤷🏻♂️It’s really not a case of us having now been worked out because teams have seen us play. We played the exact same way last season so why didn’t any of the teams we played in August-October just simply do their homework and pass through us? Because we had a full team and carried out our game well and it worksOur gameplan is less effective because of the injuries, it’s not that teams have worked us out. The gameplan still works when we can field a decent team1 -
I’ll take that in May.oohaahmortimer said:Currently 16th and just 8 points from relegation
12 -
It won't happen this year so is irrelevant, but if we ever did have a season where we sneak the playoffs then, ready or not, bring it on. No team is ever ready for the Premier League, but the money you get is transformative. Need to be in it to win it.aliwibble said:
I was with you up until the "scrape into 6th place, win at Wembley" bit, because that's definitely "be careful what you wish for" territory. If we got promoted it'd be a whole season of the late November experience, and probably coming straight back down with a record low points total. I'd much rather a solid mid-table finish and then further squad building in the summer, and see where that takes us.masicat said:We were over achieving. Get the Coventry game out of the way , reset , and go again. Stay faithful to the players and the manager, they deserve it. A few new players January, scrape into 6th place, win at Wembley. Fairytale complete.6 -
Currently 16th, and just 4-pts from the Play-Offs... Works both waysoohaahmortimer said:Currently 16th and just 8 points from relegation8 -
This is true, but in all honesty, we've very rarely looked 'great' even when we were winning. With the exception of half an hour at Ipswich and a few odd moves and goals here and there, it's not been scintillating football. It's been hard graft that has won our points, not silky skills. If we were to try and match the other teams by playing 'great' football we'd soon be overrun as we found that most of the players for most of the opposition teams are technically more gifted than ours. That's why there was a constant theme in the dialogue of opposition fans early on that despite winning we were 'the worst team they'd played' or words to that effect.CL_Phantom said:fenaddick said:Everyone seems to be forgetting 1) NJ changed his system 12 months ago and 2) he changed it about 4 times in the second half last night and 3) we started with a different system last night to Southampton. He's not stubbornly doing one thing at all
...we haven't looked great for weeks, the injury woes have just highlighted it 🤷🏻♂️
When we were winning, that didn't matter. The adrenaline of the victory was enough to keep us happy. 'Win ugly' was a phrase that we often bandied about while chortling that we'd 'done a job' on the opposition. Now that we're not winning, the style of play is a problem. Losing is always painful, but losing ugly is the absolute pits.
Whilst it's true that Jones has changed the system and the personnel, what he hasn't changed is the ethos. Whatever system we play, we're still going to see long balls as we try to minimise our midfield deficiencies. We're still going to have lower possession stats, we'll still make more blocks and we'll still see our goalie feigning injury as Jones needs time for more coaching sessions.
I've no idea what the solution is, but I'm sure that our problems won't be solved by getting rid of Jones, or by getting on the backs of the players or suddenly expecting us to play more expansive football. We've had enough in the locker to get out of sticky patches before, I'm sure we can do it again. Until we can afford to compete in the transfer market on more even terms, we'll have to continue to cut our footballing cloth accordingly.
Up the Addicks!11 -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cn09xeg5wk2o
The need to start accruing points in December is obvious, because survival - staying up, pure and simple - is now the only aim I'm afraid.
2 -
On the same number of points after 17 games as the last time we were in the Chanpionship back in 2019.oohaahmortimer said:Currently 16th and just 8 points from relegation
Great start, then injuries and a rough spell kicked in0 -
Sponsored links:
-
I've come round to the idea that actually the injury crisis has sort of come at an ok time. We were likely to lose Southampton through to Coventry anyway, maybe it would have been less demoralising but it would still have been losses. If we get Bell back for all of December and the others arrive around Christmas then we will pick up points again11
-
Yes but it’s not 2019 ffs!!shirty5 said:
On the same number of points after 17 games as the last time we were in the Chanpionship back in 2019.oohaahmortimer said:Currently 16th and just 8 points from relegation
Great start, then injuries and a rough spell kicked in1 -
As usual I'm a bit late to the party so apologies if this has already been covered.fenaddick said:
Talking about the first goal did Carey say 9 times out of a hundred he (kaminski) would have saved that ? Blimey even the players are having their doubts about him now
3 -
Language Sword. It’s a guide from where we were last time to this.Sword65pf said:
Yes but it’s not 2019 ffs!!shirty5 said:
On the same number of points after 17 games as the last time we were in the Chanpionship back in 2019.oohaahmortimer said:Currently 16th and just 8 points from relegation
Great start, then injuries and a rough spell kicked inTake it or leave it1 -
Thinking that myself if it’s going to happen may as well be against the best 2 sides in the league and a reformed Southamptonfenaddick said:I've come round to the idea that actually the injury crisis has sort of come at an ok time. We were likely to lose Southampton through to Coventry anyway, maybe it would have been less demoralising but it would still have been losses. If we get Bell back for all of December and the others arrive around Christmas then we will pick up points again1 -
NJ does not want a big squad, so talk of a lot of new players in January is not going to happen.
It would mean moving out a lot of players, which again is not going to happen
Perhaps one or two with the injured players coming back.
Mid table end of season and I would be happy3 -
2 or maybe 3 incomings depending on what happens with Bree is what I think will happen. And that’s probably all we needross1 said:NJ does not want a big squad, so talk of a lot of new players in January is not going to happen.
It would mean moving out a lot of players, which again is not going to happen
Perhaps one or two with the injured players coming back.
Mid table end of season and I would be happy3 -
It reads like we've missed out on a big target or opportunity. Survival has always been the only aim for me.shirty5 said:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cn09xeg5wk2oThe need to start accruing points in December is obvious, because survival - staying up, pure and simple - is now the only aim I'm afraid.
4 -
Is now, was and only was!shirty5 said:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cn09xeg5wk2oThe need to start accruing points in December is obvious, because survival - staying up, pure and simple - is now the only aim I'm afraid.
4 -
The Championship is a brutal league, and most teams will have tough runs of form, when injuries hit and confidence is lost. Swansea have lost 4 in a row, Hull 4 in 5, Pompey 5 in 7, WBA 4 of the last 7.
The danger is when the run keeps going, as confidence gets lower and lower. Norwich haven't won since the 30th August...
2
