Official Ralph Hasenhüttl is saints boss (merged with DTLW's)

Charlie who can't move hasn't been much for goalscoring, unfortunately. He doesn't move enough to get into the spots where he might be able to get good shot opportunities; he fashions fewer shots than any of our other forwards bar Long, and has hit the target less than any of them to boot (the only regulars with worse accuracy are Redmond, Lemina and Bertrand. Redmond holds the distinction of being the league leader in percentage of shots blocked, at a nearly unimaginable 60%).

 

Dunno about that. Wasn't Charlie our leading goalscorer last season, despite being injured for most of it?

I'm not exactly singing his praises btw. and I agree with what you say about not fashioning chances. But he quite clearly does now how to find the net. He hss the instinct for goal most players lack.

Ings and Armstrong seem to be the only two players in the squad, other than Charlie, about whom you can say that.

 

Think the Charlie of years past is a distant memory; his injuries, age and lack of effort have seen to that.

 

Maybe Ralph can resurrect his career, as Chilco suggested.

I'm not holding my breath, but I wouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand

 

Think I'll dismiss it out of hand. I don't know that Charlie's physically capable of returning to those heights even if motivated, but he didn't exactly cut the figure of a person fighting to prove his worth to a new manager. Think he's far more likely to be shipped off to another poor team struggling to score goals that plays in the South and has an appetite for large wages...so, Palace. Palace feels right.

 

He’s the same age now as a certain Rickie Lambert was when he joined Saints, and he got fit pretty damn quick. That was Pardew cracking the whip too, not the Austrian rabbit hutch!

 

Blimey didn’t realise that. I’d have assumed he was the age that Rickie was when we sold him.

 

He will go to QPR in the summer.

 

So maybe our coach needs to find away to play that leaves him in the middle and someone else doing the running.

 

Not quite Chilcs. Rickie was 27 and Charlie is 29.

 

Makes you feel old though that people are writing off a player as ancient, who is genuinely young enough to be my son!

Weird how conception is. I see my daughter as a child (even though she is married with 2 of her own), but Charlie is only 1 year older than her and I look at him as an adult.

Weird.

 

Fair enough, but my general point still holds. Charlie is similar to Rickie in that he wasn’t brought up his whole life as a professional footballer, so may not have the same core fitness as someone who’s played week in week out for 8 or 10 years at a high level. He should however still have a residual fitness good enough to be able to get back in shape in a very few weeks of an intensive regime. I would think that Ralph had his eye on Charlie from the moment he came on at Wembley last week, wondering on how he would get him running. I dare say he has come up against similar players in his coaching career with varying success. It’s really down to Charlie what happens next.

 

Possibly. He still needs to get fitter and work harder, but he's never going to be running for 90 minutes.

He's a big old unit, and naturally big blokes find it harder to achieve and maintain fitness. That's one reason why heavyweight boxers are usually more likely to tire in the later rounds of a fight than the little guys.

 

Remember when Ruud Gullitt first came over here? One of the first thing he asked was why our CFs run around so much (admittedly a different footballing time) rather than stay near the goal.... I lived off that for a few years!

 

No one minds a goal hanger when he scores Fats

 

People with big muscles overheat...ok for short sprints, but not for prolonged activity. Horses for courses. Ralph may have his plans, but will have to adapt a bit for the players he has...though a general increase in fitness would be useful.

 

Genuine answer to Fran. Could Usain Bolt last 95 mins in a Premier League game?

I'm well over 100% sure he can out run anyone, but over 95 mins of stop start? Or maybe I'm over thinking a true athletic legend?

Genuine question and not meant to be controversial.

 

Pretty sure he plays a lot of football.

He doesn't have a typical sprinters physique though. Carl Lewis would probably have struggled

 

Don't running athletes get less 'built' as the distances increase? Lewis was slight for a sprinter.

 

Absolutely. All to do with twitch muscle stuff. Sprinters are built for short, powerful bursts, but those muscles eat up oxygen quickly so they won’t last long.