And look what happened when Defoe was brought on...! I'm not saying Solly would have scored a scorcher of a goal, but play your best players if you want to win and not upset the apple-cart. Solly has been undroppable this season and by changing the team we played into Stevenage's hands. We gave too much respect to a distinctly average side.
Defoe did score, but my point bring is isn't unusual for managers to sometimes drop players who've done well, in order for a formation or tactical change. There was logic behind it, and it wasn't because of this reason we lost. Needs to really drum the passing game back in to them, and a good old fashioned rolocking to the guys trying to hit kermo with long ball after long ball.
This is the most pathetic thing I've read so far on these forums, and that's saying a lot considering what JA writes.
Dropping solly was the RIGHT thing to do against Stevenage, they were a big, bullying side that would of aimed for our little solly, yes he has been fantastic arguebly our best player so far this season but i see where Powell is coming from with that move.. Im 99.9% sure he'll be back in the squad for our next fixture.... Dropping Hayes/Waggy was a BAD move, Waggy is hit and miss but on his day he terrorises defences, is full of energy, scores goals, assists goals and is generally a pain in the ass for the opposition full backs, Green so far hasnt offered us nothing (Bar the 1 cross v Sheff Utd), Waggy had played alot of games includin the cup 1s so maybe he was feeling a little fatiged, but in my eyes Waggy should be in the starting 11 miles ahead of Green... Hayes will never score 15+ goals for us but he will get 15+ assists for BWP all day long! And BWP looks far move happier playing alongside Hayes... Everyone makes a mistake or two, we're still in a fantastic position with almost a quatre of the season gone lets keep positive despite the few baffling decisions... Powell and the Team need us bigtime this year, if we dont gain promotion this year with the fans backing we're never get our this league... we have to remember we are like the Man City of league 1 everyone wants to beat you!
So CP gets no credit when we win and gets the blame when we lose? Don't forget that he had to rebuild the squad on a considerably reduced wage bill, so assembling a dream team under those conditions would be quite an achievement!
The point that most people seem to be missing is that prior to Saturday we were top of the league having gone 12 games unbeaten so the question that needs to be asked is. .............Why were we worried about Stevenage? Further more why were we worried about a side enough to make us drop our right back?? Surely when you are top of the league you let your opponents do the worrying? Did Stevenage change their gameplan or tactics? Oh and by the way Arkwright, don't be silly there's a good chap?
I didn't say that. I was delighted with our Summer acquisitions, for which Powell and the board deserve enormous credit. Not one of the players we have signed is a money-grabbing mercenary, most are players who are already good and who can improve - this is in the best traditions of Alan Curbishley. Now Powell has to get the most out of that team - the is the test of any manager. For most of the season he has done that better than we expected, but the last 2 performances have been below par. That happens to all teams during a season, the key is to get them out of the system as quickly as possible. Powell has done a great job so far, he now needs to keep it going. I still think he can.
I remember fans crying out for green, we (as I was one of those sad fools) got our wish & now appreciate Waggy even more. Hayes was berated for not scoring goals, Powell rests him & those same fans are revolting. Its a fact of life the first 11 cannot go 40 odd games without picking up injury or suspension. We have already seen the complaints about the lack of reserve team football. What do the fans want, the first 11 'till injury/suspension when a complete stranger from the reserves moves up or a little tinkering seeing who can fit in where & how they fair. True its not worked & looks like Green is not quite ready, nor can Kermit play with BWP. Solly's rest on Saturday didn't work,(although I understand the logic) but he would not have got to the header Cort almost scored for us. If it had gone in would the view from the terraces be different. We bring Solly, Waggy (who work so well together) & Hughes to feed BWP. Hopefully win a few games, but then what do we do when we pick up the injuries & suspensions. In the real world we have to have some rotation/replacements. The clever bit is which games to do the changes/experiments & when to bring on the subs if its not working. That's what CP is paid for. Not being a Football Manager myself I have no idea when to do these changes, CP may not get it right all the time but while we are up there in automatic promotion I will not be calling for CP head.
For me it's not as simple as Powell either being cut out for management or not. In most cases both players and managers aren't either good or poor, it's not black and white. It's clear Powell has put together a good League 1 squad. Most might not be proven in the Championship yet but there is plenty of potential there. However Powell has had a good budget - not only for signings players but off the pitch, such as the investment in our scouting set up. Unlike Parky he has no players on big money with another year or two on their contracts. Not only has he signed a new team, but we have competition in every position (and no doubt if BWP or Jackson got injured, he'd be able to bring in a loanee or two). Will he have us challenging? I don't see why not, this is our best squad in a few years. We have the goalscoring striker, we have goals from midfield, we have competition for places, we have committed and intelligent players that should get better. Even a supposed terrible manager in Parky, with no goalscoring striker available to him, players who many of our fans no longer rate in Racon, Sam, Semedo etc managed to have us fighting for the top 2 all season and lost on penalties in the play-off semi-final. With this budget and support from the board he should have us challenging for the top 2. We've not spent millions like Southampton but you don't need to at this level. Powell has pretty much everything he could want at this level. He will make mistakes along the way, we will drop points to teams we expect to beat. Powell is still learning as a manager. Many of the better managers at this level in the last few years weren't experienced, and a few mistakes along the way won't stop a team winning promotion.
Am just curious. Alan Curbishley had a really great start back in the mid-Nineties cant remember the exact year, but it was mentioned on the O/S a few weeks back commenting on other great starts we've had over the years. Unfortunately that season we fell away and finished mid-table. I doubt the exact same will happen to us this season as it did that one but look what happened when we stuck by our Manager that year and others when Curbs failed to get us into the Premiership (took him 4 attempts didnt it?). Maybe if we'd been as impatient as we're being now Curbs would have been sacked, we'd have got a clueless joke in, i.e. a earlier Dowie (especially as we had no money) and we could have ended up in League Two or even lower a lot sooner. And dont tell me Curbs was appreciated / loved back then because even he says in his book that fans didnt like him at the start when he took sole charge because a lot of people felt he'd ousted Steve Gritt who was the "long serving club hero"
Nice response Scoham And Addick4Life, you make a good point. In general I like to give people time - and I believe Powell has now had that in modern terms. More importantly, I think the context now demands promotion - financially it is crucial.
The difference when Curbs (and Gritt) took over, was that we were a small team in that division, we were getting 6000 at Upton Park, and then only had the 8300 capacity (and portacabins) when we went back to The Valley, with no money for transfers, so compared with the likes of QPR, Leicester, Boro, Newcastle, West Ham, Birmingham etc we had no right to be up there, fighting for promotion. We fell away either because out small squad couldn't cope (e.g. 1991/92, 1993/94) or because we had to sell our best player to get back to The Valley (1992/93 Robert Lee). Charlton are now a much bigger club, and in L1 we are a giant, in the top 3 as far as size goes, we have far better facilities than most clubs in the division, and CP was given a decent transfer budget to mould his team. So far he is doing a decent job, but with the resources he has it's hardly genius that we are up there. And to be fair to Parky, we were in the Top 2 for a long time in our first season in L1.
Look at the last 5 games: > MKD very lucky 1-1 draw. Should have lost > Sheff U - good result. but pretty dire game > Brentford - garbage > Tranmere - dire > Stevenage - dire and poor decisions. > Carlisle - ??
At the start of the season we were forcing our style of play on to the opposition and making them chase us. But for some reason, in the last four or five games, we are setting ourselves up to survive games and perhaps nick a win - like against Sheffield United. That was a fine result and Powell made the right changes, but since then we have either played dreadfullly (Tranmere) or offered huge respect to an average side (Stevenage). The changes have been minimal but enough to stop us in our stride. A small amount of tweaking will see us back to winning ways on Saturday. It is just a shame that we have dropped five points in the last two games when it really shouldn't have happened. No disrespect to Tranmere and Stevenage but we are in a different class to them. Or should be, I add hastily.
houndal, were you at MKD? I was, and we fought hard to get back into that game, we had 2/3 chances and took one, defending well in the second half bar 1 or 2 instances. A draw was a fair result, prehaps agree about the rest. Especially Brentford. although if we had continued playing well in the league Brentford would have been forgotten, but now we are playing poor its brought up again to boost statistics... just a point.
Japan, my son was at MKD - I was not so fair enough 2nd hand comment. But Ponders is spot on - why are we changing tactics, particularly against a team winless in 5 (Stevanage). Surely we should be putting them under pressure - play same defence and use Wagstaff/Hughes - rather than basically tell them we are scared of you by playing a third CB out of position, and then play hoofball up to Kermorgant.
