Charlton Athletic v Huddersfield Town Wednesday 12th March 2014 7:45pm Kick-Off Referee: Brendan Malone Apologies for the lateness of this Match Thread yet after the last couple of days I just wanted to try and clear my head before writing anything as I prefer writing these from the brain rather than the heart. And so since writing my last Thread on Friday for the clash against Sheffield United⦠Football has proven once again how ruthless it can be, firstly on Sunday a lacklustre effort in the FA Cup saw the Addicks once again crash out of the competition at the Quarter-Finals after a 2-0 defeat and then secondly Chris Powell was relieved of his duties early on Tuesday morning ending a three year spell as Manager of Charlton Athletic Football Club. And although some fans felt he was tactically inept I would just like to say thank you to Chris Powell as the period when he joined was one of the lowest in the clubs recent history yet within just one year he guided Charlton to the League One title breaking endless records in the process⦠And for myself that season will always go down as the best for me (beating all the years in the Premier League and the Division One title) Yet back to the present and Roland Duchatalet has moved quickly to replace Chris Powell and tonightâs match will hopefully be the first of many for Jose Riga who becomes the clubs 23rd Manager, and seeing weâve faced tonightâs opposition (Huddersfield Town) three times already this season I thought Iâd do this thread a little differently. Jose Riga⦠Who is He? Little is known about the new man who becomes only the second foreign manager of Charlton Athletic (after legendary Striker Eddie Firmani who spent three years in charge of the club between 1967-1970)⦠Born in 1957 Riga comes from Liege, Belgium where he spent two spells with Standard (first as an Assistant between 2003-2005 and then as Manager of the club for one season in 2012)⦠In between his spells at Liege he was Manager of RAEC Mons taking them the Belgian Second Division to the top tier in 2006. Much of Rigaâs career has been spent with Youth Academies though and after Roland Duchatalet brought Liege⦠Riga still decided to move to Qatar (his own decision) as part of the Aspire Academy before becoming Technical Director at AC Milan Highly rated⦠Jose Riga has developed a method of training called CogniTraining which is focused on the Footballing Brain a style which has impressed the likes of Gerard Houiller and Jose Mourinho with the latter asking Riga to take a Real Madrid training session. Of course with that impressive CV the biggest question is⦠Can Jose Riga adapt quickly to the competitive nature of the Championship and keep Charlton Athletic in the Division Manager Debuts Looking back at the Debuts for other recent Managers and Jose Riga certainly has his work cut out as Chris Powell is the only man in the last six appointments to have won on his debut⦠Alan Pardew came close to victory yet only managed a draw with Fulham whilst all managers going back to when Alan Curbishley took sole charge have lost their first game Chris Powell⦠Plymouth Argyle (H) â 2-0 Phil Parkinson⦠Queens Park Rangers (A) â 1-2 Alan Pardew⦠Fulham (H) â 2-2 Les Reed⦠Reading (A) â 0-2 Iain Dowie⦠West Ham United (A) â 1-3 Alan Curbishley⦠West Bromwich Albion (A) â 0-1 Charlton Team News Little is known about what side will be put out tonight whilst there will also be question marks over whether Jose Riga will be taking charge or whether Alex Dyer or Damien Matthew will take charge of this fixture (after taking training yesterday)⦠One big rumour is that Powell was sacked after failing to play any of the Standard Liege signings so that will be confirmed / denied should the likes of Yohann Thuram and Loic Nego start this evening. Leon Cort has resumed training and played in the U21 fixture against Queens Park Rangers last night so is a bit further away from full match fitness, whilst Piotr Parzyszek and Anil Koc also played in that fixture so we shouldnât expect to see them tonight either. Possible side to face Huddersfield Town Thuram Nego â Morrison â Dervite â Wiggins Wilson â Cousins â Ajdarevic â Poyet â Jackson Ghoochanneijad Substitutes Bench Hamer â Lennon â Wood â Hughes â Church â Sordell â Harriott A4Lâs Prediction: 1-1 (Ghoochanneijad)
Authors Note... I know in the Team News I stated that Jose Riga will probably be picking the Standard Liege players and that the rumour is Powell was sacked because he didnt play them is something I'm quite unsure of... I still believe that the Head Coach (as we must now call Riga) will have the final say on who plays but what I believe didnt help Powell was the fact he was forever saying we still needed to bring in a few more loan signings. When Roland saw the starting eleven for the Sheffield United match (and the subsequent result) he probably thought... "What ze **** iz going on, Powell has asked for players, I've given him players and he still isnt using them" which in my opinion could have been the tipping point for an argument between the two and Powell ending up leaving
Agree that could be the line up, bar Hamer in goal, playing 3 of the signings Roland's given us should be enough...you'd hope. Haven't seen Nego but even if he isn't good enough, Wilson will be able to help out whilst offering more of an attacking threat than Cousins does on the right. And definitely Dervite over Wood. 2-0 win, Gucci with both.
Great work, A4L - but when he speaks, does Roland really have the habit of starting off Belgian, before reverting to English? 2-0 to the Addicks. Jackson and Reza.
I am surprised so many of you think we will win, I think our season will end with a whimper. Players contracts still not sorted out and after seeing Powell leave motivation must be low amongst Jacko, Poyet, Hamer and others. I think we will lose 0 - 3. We have the exactly the same players as under Powell and we still were not scoring, the new manager doesn't even have much more experience then Powell and unless his "technique" is as good as Mourinho thinks, I can't see anything other than an away win.
There are a lot of factors to consider, the managers tactics, who he starts, player moral, crowd reaction and so on. I personally think we'll lose, we've struggled to score all season and found even harder since Kermit left, I just can't see what a new manager will do to change that bar playing 4 upfront. 0-2, though I would like to be proved wrong!
3-0 Loss Won't score any time soon, and people saying the new gaffa may play good football... have they seen the Valley pitch? The Liege players who will no doubt play are far too lightweight for English football, especially a relegation dogfight. Looking forward to hearing from the few who go.
Oi! That's my line! Anyway, evening all Charlton: Hamer, Wilson, Wiggins, Morrison, Dervite; Harriott, Poyet, Jackson, Ajdarevic; Sordell, Ghoochannejhad Subs: Thuram-Ulien, Nego, Wood, Cousins, Pritchard, Green, Church Huddersfield: Smithies; Dixon, Wallace, Clarke (c), Woods; Southern, Clayton, Hogg; Scannell, Wells, Ward Subs: Bennett, Norwood, Gobern, Hammill, Stead, Paterson, Smith So Hamer starts, Cousins is dropped, and Sordell and Reza start together up front. I assume it will be 4-4-2 with The Asteroid on the right.
Sorry Captain, but you go "looking forward to those who were there" I'm suggesting no one goes And if they are line ups, looks like the attack is going to get bullied tonight Clarke could run up the pitch while giving Sordell and Reza a piggy back, we will not score today, surely
Oh but quite optimistic that not all the Liege players are on, god knows who picked the team. Someone on Twitter said it could have been the old guard, doubt it would have been allowed but someone like Jacko and Morro could defo have had a say
Hi all really desperate for any sorta win but not feeling very confidant but do have a quick question does Jose speak English?
