Pre Season Friendlies

Charlton Athletic 6-1 Ipswich Town

Granted friendly matches can throw up unusual results, but this is (on the face of it at least) truly remarkable.
I was not there, so I cannot comment on the quality of the football. But I don't think teams playing poorly get many 6-1 victories.

Ipswich Town had a poor finish to last season, losing their last three games and finishing 16th in the Championship.
Their pre-season has not been the most challenging either...

5-0 win vs Drogheda United
3-1 win vs Peterborough United
2-1 defeat vs Gillingham
1-0 win vs Colchester United
6-1 defeat vs Charlton Athletic

It looks as though the Tractor Boys are going to have a difficult 2017-18 season.

For Charlton, the stand-out players of this match going purely by the stats are
Ricky Holmes - 2 goals, 2 assists
Josh Magennis - 2 goals
Tariqe Fosu - 1 goal, 1 assist
Patrick Bauer - 1 goal
Billy Clarke - 2 assists

I read somewhere before this match that the team we were putting out today would not be the same one as will face Bristol Rovers next Saturday.
If so, that's a pity.
This might have been a good time to play an ailing Ipswich Town team. But their problems aren't our concern, they are weaknesses we had every right to exploit.
So well played to our boys this afternoon - and by all means lets take our measure of confidence from it.

In seven days time the battle really begins...

 

Opinions on Amos? Looked decent enough without being tested too much I thought.

 

I read in the match report that Ipswich did not have a shot on target until the last quarter of the game.
It seems Ben Amos did not have much to do.

Anybody who was at the Valley this afternoon, please let us know what you thought of his debut...

 

See my report on this thread.

 

Biased - but looked confident when called upon. Wasn't tested much but was organizing the defence even when we were confident in possession.

With KR's style, you need figures who keep barking orders about shape.

 

Apologies DickPlumb, I did not mean to overlook what you had already posted...

 

Looks like Mick McCarthy isn't taking the result too well...

https://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/31953

Methinks it may not be be very long before he's moving on.

It is actually a pity Ipswich were so poor.
Had they played well we might have learned more about how our team performs when under pressure.
The 6-1 is a confidence booster of course, but now we will have to learn more about the resilience of our best XI under real conditions during the next few weeks.

 

Stick your dough on the wurzels trouncing us next Saturday.

 

He had a bust up with a fan (apparently) then a member of the clubs staff when leaving (witness).

Tough for him. Marcus Evans has always been a supportive chairman, but years of underachieving had taken its toll. Now he works on similar restrictions, to dare I say it, KR.

 

Here is a table showing which of our current squad players featured in which of our pre-season friendly matches, along with a few basic stats related to those games....

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number in black = time played.
number in blue = time played as substitute.
G = goal.
A = assist.

NOTE 1: Time, goal, assist & card information taken from match reports on the CAFC website*
*except data for the welling game, which was taken from a KENT LIVE report (no report found on the CAFC website)

NOTE 2:
Only players who are still in our current squad (30th July) and not suffering long term injuries are shown.


This gives us a quick view of how much game time each player has under his belt, who he played against and how many goals & assists he has to his name.
Unfortunately I can't give any personal impressions of the way our teams have played, as I have not gone myself to any of our pre-season matches. No particular reason for that, it's just something I have never done.
I like to anticipate that first home game of a new season, and that little bit of the magic of possibility that I still feel, going through the turnstiles for the first time and taking my seat. It's an enjoyable moment before any home game, but it's extra special right at the start of a new season.

 

Amazing work again, lardi. Hopefully the team can match that effort

 

Thanks Super, it was a quiet Sunday and I had a mind to put together a summary of our pre-season stats for a few weeks now.

Based mostly upon the players who featured prominently in the Norwich City & Ipswich Town games, we can see fairly well now the 'main' players we have in most positions, as well as some fringe players too.

Main Players Fringe / back up players Players not featured in pre-season

Ben Amos (GK) ... Has already been given the No.1 shirt I believe.
Dillon Phillips (GK) ... Does not seem to have done anything wrong but not rated by KR? May be leaving soon.
Jordan Beeney (GK) ... Played one half at Greenwich. Very much 3rd keeper at present.

Jay Dasilva (LB) ... One of the key players for our promotion campaign.
Patrick Bauer (CB) ... Had a good pre-season. Obviously one of our best.
Jason Pearce (CB) ... Did not feature in the Norwich or Ipswich games (minor injury?) but must be one of our main men.
Ezri Konsa (CB) ... Played plenty of pre-season minutes. Rumours that he will be sold soon.
Naby Sarr (CB) ... Had a lot of pre-season time and good reports from fans at games.
Chris Solly (RB) ... Featured quite a lot in pre-season. Still long running questions over his fitness injury-wise.
Aaron Barnes (RB) ... Played in 7 pre-season games but only for 5 minutes in the last three matches combined.

Ahmed Kashi (DM) ... Played good time in several pre-season games, seems to be in good shape.
Andrew Crofts (CM) ... Had a solid pre-season.
Jake Forster-Caskey (CM) ... Played a lot in the later friendlies. Scored twice, looks like being a regular.
Ricky Holmes (LW) ... Sat out a few friendly games with a minor knock but seems back on top form now.
Tariqe Fosu (LW) ... Missed some early pre-season games but featured heavily later on. Looks lively.
Anfernee Dijksteel (DM) ... Played 90 minutes against Norwich but in-and-out aside from that. Will maybe break through.
Johnnie Jackson (CM) ... More of a coach now. Did play quite a lot in pre-season but apparently struggled sometimes.
Joe Aribo (CM) ... Featured in early pre-season games but not later ones (injured?).

Josh Magennis (CF) ... Big presence as ever in pre-season. An important player but might be moving on?
Billy Clarke (CF) ... Played a lot of pre-season football. Looks like he will feature prominently.
Tony Watt (CF) ... Got early pre-season time but only 19 minutes in the later games. Was talking the talk, but...
Karlan Ahearne-Grant (CF) ... Mostly a substitute pre-season, but played lots of minutes. Was 2 goals enough?
Lee Novak (CF) ... Not much pre-season time; no goals or impact apparently, but always seems to come on late in games.


Lewis Page (LB) ... Injured, or just out of favour?
Harry Lennon (CB) ... Same questions.
Brandon Hanlan (CF) ... Same again. No pre-season minutes at all.
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For me our biggest problem is still where the goals are going to come from - especially if we lose Josh Magennis.

To secure automatic promotion Charlton will need to rack up 70 goals absolute minimum (preferably 80+) and we must make sure we concede 30 fewer goals than we score.
Last season we did score 60 goals in the end, but until that good run in the last 5 games (when all hope of promotion was long since gone) we had only scored 49 in 41 matches. Nowhere near a promotion scoring rate.

Until Mark Marshall is fit again we are also light on the wings (especially right). Marshall himself is primarily a left winger anyway. We have not replaced Jordan Botaka.
Another left back would be useful too. And of course another goalkeeper, as it now seems more likely than not that Dillon Phillips will leave soon.