Has Pritchard been dropped? Or is he injured? One through ball does not justify Jackson's inclusion. He was anonymous today, largely anonymous on Tuesday, and certainly not fit enough to warrant a place in the side. Honestly, Captain B, if you saw how awful we were today, you would struggle to defend Powell and his players.
I can't find any reference to Pritchard being injured, so I presume he has been dropped. As he probably should have been given his poor performances recently. As for Jacko, given that the team as a whole played really well on Tuesday there was no reason whatsoever to change it - if Powell had, and the we had got the same result (as I suspect would have happened) he would have been criticised for tinkering unnecessarily. I won't try and defend the performance today. I do still think Powell is the right man for us though.
I wondered when Pritchard's name would come up. Well, nobody can blame him and nobody can blame Hamer.
Yeah and I have never forgiven Danny Mills since then! It's funny that every time we have had a managerial vacancy since then Alan Curbishley has always been the favourite for the job!
No one is blaming Pritchard for today's debacle. I used him as an example of how some players keep their place despite sustained periods of poor form, yet Danny Green is given the boot after one average game. Green is a decent player with the ability to plant the ball into the danger areas, and this was something we desperately needed today. As for Jacko, he didn't play well on Tuesday and he was even worse today. Even after a win, the weakest link can be removed. Why start with a player who is clearly struggling for form and fitness? Don't get me wrong, I will always appreciate Jacko's efforts, but he is fading fast.
I find myself agreeing with Vol, at least in part. CPs tactics have been shown a little lacking, to put it mildly, but getting him out by Monday morning would achieve nothing. This is his squad, who would you put in temporary charge whilst you find a permanent replacement, Dyer ?. CP will keep us up, it won't be pretty but I am confident the outcome will be us above the bottom 3. After that is a different matter. I would like to see CP stay but only if he can demonstrate he has learnt someu new tactics other than long boot up to no one in a Charlton shirt. How to work a throw in would be a nice start.
In his 2 or 3 seasons with us I can remember him playing well at welling scoring a worldy at Derby and most other games he's played in anonymous I much preferred wagstaff and
Barnsley sacked Flitcroft last night. Another manager who has had "no resources". At any other club, with any other manager, Powell would be down the road. We can't score goals, we don't pass the ball, we kick it long at the first opportunity, and crowds are well down as a result. Lots of gaps in the North Upper yesterday, please wake up !!! As for Powell milking his so called legend status, come off it. The tannoy announcer must have announced six times during that filth yeaterday that Powell is attending the Back to the Valley dinner as guest of honour. Typical Charlton...a manager who will attend the opening of an envelope, but can't coach our team.
I really don't believe that The Doctor sends the team out with the instructions to play hoof-ball. When we came out for the second half we passed it around quite nicely for several minutes, we just seemed to slip back into the hoofball whenever Ipswich closed us down. Although when you see a midfielder like Stephens pass the ball back to Morro then run upfield leaving him no-one to pass to you know what's coming next. It was a poor team performance, there's no need to scapegoat anyone, we didn't improve when Jacko went off. Jacko was playing poorly at wide left earlier this season before CP shifted him inside and his form picked up. CP has tried different tactics this season, for me the midfield diamond was the most effective. Maybe because the players are closer together, and there is going to be someone to pass to more often. OK you lose a bit of width, but I don't believe we have wide players who are good enough, although Harriott can play at the top of the diamond.
It's just oh so typical of charlton fans to be honest ...sack him...sack him blah blah blah as for flitcroft true Barnsley have no money but they are in a worse situation than us and for the record I think his sacking was wrong . It's today's mentality your not in the promotion picture sack the manager
jacko looked like he had words with powell at one point in the second half. i think it was suggested that he beat his man... can see why he may have taken it the wrong way. i think its genuinely bad to be bringing on piggott to try and save us. we had nothing up front or were we creating chances from midfield. putting him in, in games like that could destroy him. you cant say powell is milking it - he's had no money to spend, he's had to chop his squad down to a starting 11 plus youth team, he's probably the lowest paid manager in our league, his contract is being allowed to run down. why does he do all that? - must be because he's milking it, or maybe he just really cares about us. we wont get another manager like him, he represents us so well. you can say he stands there and does nothing, but really, what are his options? - takes off a top scorer and has to bring on a youth player.
I don't think any Charlton fan expects us to be challenging for promotion, but it is not too much too ask that we be slightly entertained on a Saturday afternoon. Too many excuses on here, and too many are happy to accept sub-standard for the sake of one man. The death of the club will sit in the laps of those who believed they cared the most.
Nail on the head Ponders. "Entertainment", or lack of. Its like watching paint dry. The Club is being slowly being run down the tubes, just so we can see a couple of tunnel jumps a season.
I don't think anyone at Charlton was happy at what they saw yesterday. It was very very poor. Whoever makes the decision on his future it won't be any keyboard warriors. If the take-over falls through he will probably be allowed to see out his contract; if the take-over goes ahead the new owner will make his own decision in his own time. What I'm beginning to wonder is how much the players trust his managerial ability. There's no way that he'd tell them "Pass the ball back to the CB/goalie so that he can welly the ball up the park", yet that's what keeps happening. If his players don't play according to orders that's no better than if the orders are wrong, and the end result is till the same, including the eventual sacking of the manager.
Same positions being reiterated by Vol and Ponders as well as by SIG and FHB so itwill come as no surpise which side I come down on. Yes we were tactically niaive yesterday and McCarthy obviously had his plan worked out. A couple of crunching tackles on Cousins and Stephens early on and we moved from playing through to either hoofball or wingplay where Jacko is no longer comfortable or Lawrie Wilson has lost his confidence... My fear is that the tackles on Cousins which went unpunished allowed the Ipswich team to dominate midfield and may shake his confidence. What could we have done with the resources we had. Maybe play a tougher and more experienced midfield for the tractor tacklers, possibly Hughes and Jacko. stephens in the hole with with Church or Kermit up front. A back four of Wiggins Wood Dervite and Morro with Stewart and Harriot or Green out wide It wouldnt have been pretty, but might have achieved the effect of nullifying McCarthy's 80 minutes of defence by preventing the damage inflicted in the first ten.
Yup, wont be pretty if we did that, but I'd take ugly football and survival and possibly moving up the table any day
Yeah, Scratchy, but we'd just beaten Donny 2-0 and if we'd come out at home with the intention of stifling Ipswich, a lot of loud protests on here would have been the result. Unfortunately, CP did'nt use his cristal ball to discover what the first ten minutes would be like, and we don't have the quality to break back into the game. I wil say (again) in answer to Ponders and Volly that any incoming manager will be confronted by the same squad CP has, and the same one we were all mildly happy with on tuesday. I've said before that in my view, CP is learning some of the lessons very slowly, but until new cash comes in, his hands are tied. Patience!
Dont disagree with you ken. we would have all groaned if the side i proposed appeared, and after Tuesday would have been dissappointed if the Tuesday team had not. However, McCarthy did his homework and we walked into his trap (as did the referee who didnt stop the tackles that went in in the first ten). Had the referee issued an early yellow card the outcome may have been different as well. with hindsight we can all see the errors, but it is just that, hindsight.
