Charlton women news - Brighton v CAFC (p232)

My first WSL game yesterday. The sun was shining, i had a couple of pints in Brighton, easy journey to the ground, good atmosphere outside, nice padded seat, Harvey's available at the bar, able to drink at leisure in the seats, a good atmosphere from the small travelling contingent, one nil...yesss!! Then it all went horribly horribly wrong. I've seen some shit performances over the last 40yrs, but that was awful. Brighton were so much better at every aspect of the game, and they hadnt won a match all season! This is going to be a brutal season i fear.

Leuth said:

Has any team, men or women, in their country's top professional league, ever scored 0 points in a season? 

Liverpool Women did it in 2001. Played 18, lost 18, scored 13, conceded 89. 

The lowest since then is 2 by Yeovil Town in 2018.

Garrymanilow said:

Crusty54 said:

Sword65pf said:

fenaddick said:

J BLOCK said:

Sword65pf said:

With respect if the owners have decided not to invest overly much on the men’s team, why would anyone expect anything different for the women? 

This, I’m really not sure why people are surprised. The men’s team spent less this summer than last summer. 

No one is surprised, just disappointed 

I’m a bit surprised in the lack of investment in the men’s team after what was being said at the end of last season. Unfortunately the decisions that have been made are having a knock on effect to the women.

There is WSL TV money which is the budget for the women's team.

What I find shocking is the pass accuracy rate (69%) from yesterday's game. Passing out from the back and then thumping the ball up the pitch to nobody is clearly not working. Why are Karen and the coaches persisting with it?

It's something players revert to when they can't play any other way. I don't think it's a coaching thing, Hills is constantly screaming 'passes!' when we do get the ball and trying to encourage them to calm down with it but they get forced into cul-de-sacs and panic. We don't have midfielders who can play on the half-turn and receive the ball from each other. Flannery is decent with the ball but she needs it played into her when she's facing forward and on a few occasions yesterday she got the ball with her back to goal and turned into trouble. EvE and Davidson are both spoilers more than anything else and they can't knock the ball around the midfield. We send the ball out wide to Hutton when we can but we often get pressed at the back because teams know we want to send it down the line so most of the time we have to skip out the midfield, send it up for a header which we do often win, and then get picked off at the second ball. Lobato is the only one who consistently tries to put the ball into a useful space but it's difficult when you're getting pressed and don't have an outball. Any pass into the middle is just starting a turnover

Playing out from the back is down to the coaches as in playing down the wings.

The team scored with a goal down the middle in the Wolves friendly proving that they could exchange accurate passes.

Garrymanilow said:

Crusty54 said:

Sword65pf said:

fenaddick said:

J BLOCK said:

Sword65pf said:

With respect if the owners have decided not to invest overly much on the men’s team, why would anyone expect anything different for the women? 

This, I’m really not sure why people are surprised. The men’s team spent less this summer than last summer. 

No one is surprised, just disappointed 

I’m a bit surprised in the lack of investment in the men’s team after what was being said at the end of last season. Unfortunately the decisions that have been made are having a knock on effect to the women.

There is WSL TV money which is the budget for the women's team.

What I find shocking is the pass accuracy rate (69%) from yesterday's game. Passing out from the back and then thumping the ball up the pitch to nobody is clearly not working. Why are Karen and the coaches persisting with it?

It's something players revert to when they can't play any other way. I don't think it's a coaching thing, Hills is constantly screaming 'passes!' when we do get the ball and trying to encourage them to calm down with it but they get forced into cul-de-sacs and panic. We don't have midfielders who can play on the half-turn and receive the ball from each other. Flannery is decent with the ball but she needs it played into her when she's facing forward and on a few occasions yesterday she got the ball with her back to goal and turned into trouble. EvE and Davidson are both spoilers more than anything else and they can't knock the ball around the midfield. We send the ball out wide to Hutton when we can but we often get pressed at the back because teams know we want to send it down the line so most of the time we have to skip out the midfield, send it up for a header which we do often win, and then get picked off at the second ball. Lobato is the only one who consistently tries to put the ball into a useful space but it's difficult when you're getting pressed and don't have an outball. Any pass into the middle is just starting a turnover

I didn’t notice our two spoilers spoiling very much yesterday in midfield. Totally agree with your post and you are clearly very knowledgable on the women’s team. When we did occasionally hit Hutton down the line, she was quickly nullified and that was absolutely the end of any potential attack. I feel like they knew that was all that was needed to cut us out of the game. 

Danny Addick said:

Garrymanilow said:

Crusty54 said:

Sword65pf said:

fenaddick said:

J BLOCK said:

Sword65pf said:

With respect if the owners have decided not to invest overly much on the men’s team, why would anyone expect anything different for the women? 

This, I’m really not sure why people are surprised. The men’s team spent less this summer than last summer. 

No one is surprised, just disappointed 

I’m a bit surprised in the lack of investment in the men’s team after what was being said at the end of last season. Unfortunately the decisions that have been made are having a knock on effect to the women.

There is WSL TV money which is the budget for the women's team.

What I find shocking is the pass accuracy rate (69%) from yesterday's game. Passing out from the back and then thumping the ball up the pitch to nobody is clearly not working. Why are Karen and the coaches persisting with it?

It's something players revert to when they can't play any other way. I don't think it's a coaching thing, Hills is constantly screaming 'passes!' when we do get the ball and trying to encourage them to calm down with it but they get forced into cul-de-sacs and panic. We don't have midfielders who can play on the half-turn and receive the ball from each other. Flannery is decent with the ball but she needs it played into her when she's facing forward and on a few occasions yesterday she got the ball with her back to goal and turned into trouble. EvE and Davidson are both spoilers more than anything else and they can't knock the ball around the midfield. We send the ball out wide to Hutton when we can but we often get pressed at the back because teams know we want to send it down the line so most of the time we have to skip out the midfield, send it up for a header which we do often win, and then get picked off at the second ball. Lobato is the only one who consistently tries to put the ball into a useful space but it's difficult when you're getting pressed and don't have an outball. Any pass into the middle is just starting a turnover

I didn’t notice our two spoilers spoiling very much yesterday in midfield. Totally agree with your post and you are clearly very knowledgable on the women’s team. When we did occasionally hit Hutton down the line, she was quickly nullified and that was absolutely the end of any potential attack. I feel like they knew that was all that was needed to cut us out of the game. 

I was actually surprised to see how often we played short goal kicks considering how poor our passing was. Brighton were having a Field day. 

You're right, the midfield is sufficiently off the pace that they aren't even really getting involved in the nasty side of the game. EvE gets about a bit more but she's 33 and was part of the Leicester team that got relegated last season and couldn't even beat us. Davidson runs around a lot but she's always trailing behind where she needs to be. I think the idea is that she plays as the most advanced midfielder pressing high but it just creates a gap in the middle.

Hutton is our only realistic outlet now and teams know it. What we could really do with in January is a left back with a bit of pace who could run beyond Hutton if they're boxing her out or force teams to give Hutton a bit more space. I don't think Hills has ever really figured out how to construct an effective midfield, we got through last season having a very solid defence, two wingbacks who were lower WSL level in Hutton and Newsham and being able to win by the odd goal by always creating slightly more than our defence let in. I don't know who we could bring in at this point to take control of the midfield but I reckon that player would cost more than the board invested in the summer so I'm not holding my breath

Tickets for the WSL away game against Palace have to be sold by Charlton.

I bought a seat for the game last Wednesday (and wished I hadn't).

The Fitzgerald family were in the stand too.

It wasn't from the club but it did come from the player at the time

EpsomAddick said:

I asked about the injury situations in the CAST Zoom Q&A just now, and Karen said that Linda Boama is anticipated to be back sometime around Christmas (unless I misheard?)

That's fantastic news. I did sort of think it might not be the full season as I remember Hills making a comment about how the WSL would have to wait a little longer to see Linda Boama and it felt like a slightly odd thing to say given there was every chance we'll not be there next season! Time to pin all our hopes on her being a megastar

MattF said:

It wasn't from the club but it did come from the player at the time

For those in the know, how much of a loss should this injury have been to us? Was she a punt or is it a reason to think it’s derailed us?