Harriott off, Pigott on. Gudmundsson goes on a great run and pulls the ball back for Pigott, but he can only put it wide.
Or our LM problem. And Morrison and Ben Haim as a CB pairing? No option of playing a high line with those two together. At least Bob gave his chosen XI a solid hour together before all the silly substitutions break up the game. But this stage of preparation is where we should have been at a month ago. (Not Bob's fault).
Although we can't score I am still looking forward to a week on Sat in the hope that everything finally clicks into place!
Full time 0-0 Lots of good, creative football from Charlton but no end product. Look forward to hearing from those who were there (if anyone was).
LOL. No harm hoping! Finished 0-0. Anyone sense a theme developing? I would be more than happy if we finish our first five League matches 0-0, but our opponents may have other ideas.
To have any chance of finishing in a decent position though you need to have the ability to score regularly or it'll be another relegation battle...
Do you seriously expect anything else with our strikers? Unless RD gets his chequebook out to buy a couple, and ideally borrow a third. Because I honestly think we will lose them all. Then a point at home to Watford and our first league win away to Rotherham in our eighth league match. Today was easily our best performance to date, but still falls short of average Championship standard. With only 10 days to go Bob is experimenting with this and that hoping something will click. I think he should be certain of eight positions by now and only be experimenting with the three problem positions left. If you keep changing the whole line-up it is hard to judge players. Maybe they disappointed but would have done a lot better playing alongside/behind/in front of a regular stalwart. We know these players work in these positions: Solly RB (Gomez as cover if Solly's problems are temporary) Morrison RCB Wiggins LB Wilson RM Cousins RCM Jackson LCM (or Moussa or Buyens) They are not wonderful, but it was none of their faults we struggled last season. So leave them there and tinker with the rest Henderson looks OK for goal and I would find a place for Gudmundsson (at least until we have better) even if it meant playing only one up front. Hopefully Ben Haim or Bikey can play LCB (stupid to have shed Dervite). Hopefully Moussa at LM. Just leaves two strikers to buy, though realistically he would only borrow one of them.
I wouldn't be. 5 draws = 5 points. Win 2 and Lose 3 = 6 points and no threads about our unbeaten start or our lack of goal scorers.
It was Morro at LCB and BenHaim at RCB tonight and it worked fairly well. Ben Haim reads the game exceedingly well and what he lacks in pace he certainly made up for in his positioning. There was some long ball but on the whole Henderson rolled the ball out rather than hoofing it which was useful since both Morro and BenHaim distributed the ball fairly well. Not certain that the Fox Wiggo combination on the left worked all that well nor did the Wilson Gudmonsen but Ventekole and Harriot worked well up front and Harriot certainly showed some commitment and was unlucky being close marked by a POSH defender who looked to be close on 6'7". Ben Alnwick had a good game for them and was applauded by the travelling support when he came out for the second half. For a pre season friendly the stewards were overly officious and we even had the travelling metropolitan police contingent trying to impress the Cambridgeshire constabulary. It reminded me a little of the Sheffield FA cup match last season where all police leave in Sheffield was cancelled and we tripped over a policeman every five yards ( the crime rate rose in the rest of the Sheffield and Rotherham which was largely unprotected from marauding Owls) . The side showed touches where they were gelling quite well. If it clicks - we could be surprised. Gomez looked to have the makings of a very very good player when he came on and Jordan C was a class above Buyens (no surprise there)
That's interesting, and potentially a tad worrying, to hear. I would imagine that RD might not be too happy if 'his guy' Buyens sits on the bench. It seems Jacko is still considered indispensable, so could there be conflict over whether Cousins or Buyens plays alongside him? Thanks for the report
In case you are interested in a Posh point of view ..... Although mainly about our players I'm afraid http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/271336-POSH-vs-Charlton
Interesting comments. The common themes from the pre season friendlies are that the opposition has been uniquely poor...a few years ago we were being given a footballing lesson by Sporting Braga....and yet we have still failed to score. One obvious action is for Peeters to front up to Church and tell the lad to his face that he is never going to cut it as a Championship striker. How much more evidence does he need ? For me Cousins must be the first name on the team sheet at Brentford, he brings energy and bite to our midfield and just needs a run of games in his best position before he takes off. The chronic lack of goals to date points to another season of struggle
People looking to Moussa as our saviour should remember the lad is a free transfer from a League One side.
