I don't think our squad is better than Blackpool's. Half of our squad are crocks. Even when they recover from lengthy injuries enough to kick a ball around in a training session they take weeks and weeks to regain any match-sharpness - if they ever do at all. Add to that a rookie manager who only got the job because he was the cheapest option, and no investment at all for over a year now, and it's a miracle we are anywhere near the top 6. All of that is down to the owner and his philosophy of zero interest and zero ambition. The best part of two weeks off for most of our supposed best league players, yet shots (on and off target), possession, corners and even fouls committed are on a downward trend. Less effort is being put into every performance. I can understand players being unable to bust a gut if they only played a few days earlier, but our team was well rested and they still couldn't put a shift in. Not fussed I guess.
There's a lot of moaning going on here. Would lapslie, beliek and fosu be starting in midfield if others were fit. We're asking a bit too much if you ask me.
Cheers for the report, SIG. We seem to lack flexibility Gobbo had his 4-2-3-1, Bowyer has his diamond. It would work if everyone was fit, but if you rely on players, especially loanees who either are injury prone or who haven't been playing the outcome is predictable.
Here is a table comparing the number of fouls committed by Charlton players in our league games so far, compared to results. The left hand side is ordered by absolute numbers of fouls committed. The right side by how many more (or fewer) fouls were committed compared to the opposition. (For away matches opposition name is in purple) The left hand table shows that Charlton have generally been more aggressive away from home (at least in terms of committing more fouls) and this has mostly served us well by results. The only away game Charlton have lost when committing more fouls than the opposition was at Sunderland on the opening day of the season. All of our three other away defeats show that the opposition out-fouled us as well as out-scoring us. The right hand table shows that of our six league defeats this season, only one (that Sunderland game on the first day) came in a match where Charlton committed more fouls than the opposition. For the other five defeats, our opponents out-fouled us as well as out-scoring us. As a rule of thumb this season so far, the less we get stuck in the poorer our results tend to be. The Blackpool game may be an aberration, but it is perhaps a matter of concern that Charlton did not apparently show much of their customary aggression from earlier this season - conceding only 8 fouls ourselves, while being fouled considerably more by the home side. This suggests Blackpool were dominating the physical side of the match. Other factors affected play as well of course; the bad weather for instance may have played a part, and the individual choices of the referee. But even accounting for that it is not very encouraging to see our team - many of whom were rested for over a week and should have been hungry to give maximum commitment in this important game - apparently not putting as much into the contest yesterday as they have done in some previous away games. The upcoming Portsmouth fixture may have been in the minds of some, but that cannot be helped. Maximum commitment to yesterday's game and three points would have lessened the impact of a midweek defeat. Football being the unpredictable game it is, it could be that Charlton will bounce back and defeat Pompey on Tuesday evening. If that happens it will be a remarkable result indeed, considering Portsmouth have lost only 2 of 26 games in all competitions so far this season.
There’s a lot of moaning because we are all genuine Charlton fans & we are all p1ssed off at the state of the club. And it feels like we are not going to get promoted, again. 7 points behind the mighty Luton Town, who were in League 2 last season.
Fosu was outstanding last season, and by common consent has been poor in this one. Bielik is a good player, but belongs to Arsenal ? Lapslie is a headless chicken, can’t see him having a career even at L1 level unless running 20 miles a game is the criteria. He should be learning his trade in the lower leagues.
Not at all, that is years of travelling away and being able to get a good idea of our folllowing. That is another breakfast that Mr van Gerwen has to buy.
