Charlton v Millwall...updates & post match comments

Attendance-wise yes. I was in the Upper North and they made a lot of noise though. More than the Millwall fans anyway (as far as I could hear).

 

Wilson - 6 - OK, though he's never going to offer much penetration down the right.
Stephens - 5 - Couldn't make his mark on the game at all, and played a few sloppy passes.
Jackson - 4 - I fear his best days are behind him. Doesn't look fit in any case.
Church - 6 - fluffed the one chance he got, but will run all day for the cause. No reason to drop him at all.

 

I don't think so

 

Jimmy, you criticise Vol for saying what is blatantly obvious - poor tactics, wrong line-up, hesitant substitutions - yet all you can do is blame the owners. In doing so, you are just wearing out your Joker card, and it is getting boring. The fact that you condemn Vol for using a series of arguments is really quite ridiculous considering you only have one argument for the defence.

And when will you criticise Powell? Next season in League One?

The same players that ended last season so well are now underperforming and look hopeless. Is that really the owners' fault?

Are the players so money-orientated that they cannot possibly perform without a contract in the bank? If so, they need to dip their noses into real life and see how us mortals survive.

 

All changed after the goal!

 

Ponders, this is a quote from you just 3 days ago:

Is 1 game enough to change your mind?

 

Yes.

I have now watched the match twice. I feel sickened by how crap we are/were.

If I ever feel my anger abating, then I shall just stick on the recording.

Anyway, I am not saying Powell should be sacked, but I am saying he needs to be criticised for his genuine mistakes.

 

Wilson... Struggled first half as everything went through Wiggins, improved second (5)
Stephens... Some passes including a peach of a long ball to Wiggins early on (6)
Jackson... Didnt notice him much but he's a great leader (5)
Church... Didnt stop running, doesnt know a lost cause (6)

 

Agree. He needs to work out why things have gone wrong the past 2 games and fix it. I think he can.

 

We're all upset, do you think your mind will change come Monday/Tuesday? Or has CP run his course in your opinion?

 

Only thing that changed was you lot stopped singing - we were loud from start to finish!!

 

good one! we only heard you when you scored.

 

Could that be because you stopped?
We couldn't hear you before or after we scored

 

Ha! That is the nub, SuperC. I am an impetuous git at the best of times, let alone when the chips are down. But I do know I will be at every match this season and that my support for CP will not diminish. However, during the aftermath of a bad result (and performance) my ire will be aimed at the manager - and that, as a paying punter, is my prerogative.

 

After a defeat like today the only thing that depresses me more is the priapic ramblings of those who believe it is immediately time to change the manager. I have heard it before with curbs and i heard it when lennie was in charge but that was before the days of the internet boo boys. Yes i also heard it with dowie pardew and parkinson, none of whom i particularly rated when they were appointed. However, i do rate CP and am certainly willing to give him more time.

A season is 46 games long, not 90 minutes. I will reserve judgement till the end of this particular season not the middle of September. The board may take a decision before i do and that is their perogative, but the alternatives suggested on here by Vol would make Dowie seem like an inspired appointment.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

I will criticise Powell when Powell is to blame Ponders. It is not a joker card, or an opinion, what i have said is fact.

Are we good enough? No.
Why are we not good enough? Because we do not have the quality.
Why do we not have the quality? Because the board did not give Powell any money.

Everything i have said, i have explained my reasons for saying it. I have not talked nonsense, or just waffled because Powell is my idol or any of that, i have merely pointed out something that should never have been up for argument in the first place.

We do not have the same squad as last season, we have a watered down weaker version with no strength in depth, that has been topped up with promising youngsters from the academy not because they are Championship quality, but because otherwise we wouldn't have a squad at all.

And i haven't criticised Vol for stating the obvious, i have asked him several times now what tactics would have won us the game? What formation would have won us the game? Which variation of poor would have morphed into excellence? This is what makes me laugh, all those blaming Powell yet deep down everyone knows it doesn't matter how you try and sugar coat it, the team is poor. Are we that bad that we will lose every game this year? No, but if players like Stephens, Hamer, Morro, Pritch, Sordell, Wilson etc do not start putting in consistent performances we will be in serious trouble. From Powells point of view, how do you fix that? Drop Hamer and play Alnwick? Drop Stephens and Pritchard and play whoever else? Yes we need to shake things up but we will still be a poor side, and when that doesn't lead to a 15 game unbeaten run people will still whinge that it is Powells fault, when it isn't.

I am glad most Charlton fans are well aware this is not Powells fault, but in the nicest possible way, anyone who blames Powell has lost the plot completely

 

Scratching,

I too was around in the days of Lennie and Curbs. I can't believe you were serious to even compare CP to those two. There is a world of difference between idiotically calling for Curbs head after 15 years of brilliance, including seven in the PL, in comparison to what is happening now. It is your opinion that Powell is good. It is my opinion that he is dining on ten England caps and the supporters who have a middle class guilt complex because they buy their shopping off Ocado (same as the debate on Pritchard).

@ Jimmy

I think we have done the tactics debate. Powell is to tactics what Susan Boyle is to Ann Summers. How can long ball not be his fault ? He bought the players. He coached the players. He picked the players. Its down to him.

A Spurs fan mate of mine texted me the following during the game yesterday, he was watching us on Sky....

"why are Charlton playing **** hoof ball? "

 

That indeed is the question- why were we playing hoofball? We kept trying to pass it round, but since we didn't have anyone in the team who could deal with tight (or any sort of) marking the ball could only go sideways and backward, until someone would hoof it just to get rid of. Not the plan, just lack of technique, or fear, or because there was no-one who made themselves available to receive the ball. The player who usually does put in the effort to make himself available is Pritchard, but he had a nightmare yesterday, as did poor Joe Pigott, who must feel terrible this morning.
I don't think Hughes is injured, so he should come back in since he is the only genuine Def-mid we have, we have Cousins, and we Kermit and Solly to come. If we're still playing hoofball in a month's time I'm afraid it will mean that the rot has set in.

 

Can't understand why we don't play to Simon Church's strengths.

 

Vol

I am not comparing Powell with Lennie or Curbs, nor am I comparing him with Dowie or Pardew. Each have individual characteristics good and bad. I am comparing the failure of some supporters to live in the real world and recognise where the club is today both financially and in the pecking order. We re not a glamour investment or a glamour club. We are a traditional football league club with aspirations above our means that we have previously achieved. Calling for the managers head now is a delusion brought on by to much premier league television and fantasy football league.

I do believe that powell is a manager who is developing from a player who could read the game well and is a manager who will recognise the failings of yesterday. Whether he chooses to do with the information he gleaned what I would do with the information or you would do with the information is up for debate.

However, unlike the Dowie situation where we wasted many millions on gormless players, I do not believe Powell has done that. He has worked within a tight budget to put together a journeyman team that has lost its way this season so far. If he can turn that round as he did last year then I will be happy, if he doesn't then we will be relegated and he will almost certainly lose his job or fall on his sword.

You seem to believe that we can just recruit another manager, such as Poyet without incurring additional cost and one who will loosen the purse strings of Slater and Jiminez to such an extent that we will have a guaranteed top six team. Get real. The other alternative managers you have identified are all failures already, where at least Powell has not yet failed us. Failure is measured by the season and not by a fixture against Millwall. We've had bad runs under Powell before as we did under Lennie and Curbs ( I used to hate March). Powell turned around one bad run last season and I for one will give him the chance to do so again.