Match Day Thread Home Vs Bolton

We might get a call after tonight

 

You wouldn’t have allowed Afolayan inside

 

I've had enough Adkins has no excuse, they are his players. Kirk and DJ money spent on and no where near squad. We do not have the second worst squad in division. The tactics and constantly changing players is a joke.. get him out

 

I totally agree.
This squad is capable of competing if they are properly coached, motivated, and deployed with tactical nouse.

I have defended and believed in Nigel Adkins for too long, based on his past successes.
But Adkins clearly cannot coach, motivate or deploy these players with any tactical sense whatsoever.

He should resign. He must be sacked.

 

Our defence is utterly abysmal. Too many of the players we have recruited are simply not very good. Whoever has made those decisions to recruit them or whoever has set the budget so low is to blame for this situation. Whether that is Adkins or someone else I don't know.

But it's been clear for a long while that our players are just not good enough individually. Does anyone think that we would have let that many in with Pratley in front of the defence ? If not then why did we let him go and replace him with Dobson and Watson (positionaly).
For all his energy Washington is just not a very good goalscorer and we knew that from last year. We also knew that Stockley isn't very good with his feet and isn't a 20+ goalscorer. So where is that 20+ goalscorer to play alongside him ? We didn't buy one - basically because they are very expensive - and that is down to TS and his limited budget.

We are also saddled with too many players that are unfit and can't last for 70 minutes, let alone 90. That's partly down to the last regimes, but I'm afraid that the current one has had long enough, but is still recruiting yet more unfit players. Again, that is because they are cheaper.

I'm afraid TS set the budget too low and his sights too high and Adkins (or whoever else made the recruitment decisions) has bought substandard players.

This season is over and we'll be lucky to finish in the top half, which is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

 

We'll be lucky to finish 20th.

Unless Adkins is sacked Charlton will be relegated.
The longer he stays, the more likely that becomes.

If NA is still gaffer by the January window, we're a 4th tier team.

 

Wycombe h in the cup

 

Every team gets dicked in the Cup occasionally.
We are getting dicked twice weekly in the league, and it's starting to feel a bit sore

 

The manager approves all the signings, that was made clear recently, yet the 3 players who cost most, Kirk, DJ and Stockley didn't start, and whoever takes over from Adkins gets the same players. Kirk and DJ were good players before we bought them, and we were all pleased when we bought Stockley, and Lavelle, come to that, so it's possible that another manager could get more ahrt of them, but we'll only find out when Adkins gets sacked, and presumably Jacko takes the reins, probably on a caretaker basis.
I've never ever known the fans so quiet after a game. The station was packed, as two trains were cancelled, with loads of fans packed like sardines under shelter, yet nobody wanted to talk about the game, there was an eerie silence. The ease with which teams can open up our defence, particularly our right, is scary. I think we're a bit shell-shocked. Before the season I picked Barker as my first choice RB, yet he's just been quietly loaned out to Wealdstone for a month, and Elerewe has disappeared from the first-team squad. So much for Adkins not being afraid to bring on young players. And to all the many fans who have said that Albie Morgan is "Not good enough", who have you seen in midfield who is good enough? because we have serious problems there. Watson looks like the only midfielder with any brains, shame he doesn't have the legs. The Upper North is right Adkins "Ain't got a clue".

 

Fair point.

 

OK, I over-played my last comment a bit.
We haven't been dicked in every league game this season. We've seen the team battle to save a point here and there. I applauded them after the Portsmouth draw.

But surely there is no excuse for the drubbing we just got off Bolton.
That is an omen for me - a reminder of the worst mullerings we took before Fraeye was kicked out. 5-0, 6-0...

I didn't want Adkins to fail.
I'm not one of those who has been sticking the boot into him for six weeks.
But sadly I've reached the end of my piece of string when it comes to him.
It's a good thing I didn't struggle across London in the rush hour and dreadful weather to be at the Valley last night, then struggle home again through a city choked by petrol station queues.

 

I was in shock at the end of that. We looked good for most of the first half, and the Bolton equaliser, badly defended as it was, felt a bit against the run of play. But there was a worrying five minutes after that when our heads dropped and we clung on for half time. Second half was an even affair - Bolton looked a lot better but we were right with them, up until the second goal. But there ws a horrible look as a number of our players ran out of gas and needed replacing. And then Bolton scored again, and again our heads dropped, and tis time Bolton had time to turn the screw, which they did - thye had what looked like a clear penalty turned down too.

By the end, we could all see this is a team with relegation written all over it. I wanted Adkins to succeed but he won't be turning this around - 24 changes in four matches is pure desperation. But a new manager will inheirit the same problems. A big number of our squad can't do 90 minutes, and we're at the end of september. Where is Kirk and the lad we bought from Swindon (who's name escapes me)? We looked good for 45 minutes against Gillingham and again tonight, so why do we disintegrate so badly.

Adkins time is up sadly, but all the problems will remain within the playing side. We need a good appointment to get the team playing to a system they can all work in, but the worry is we will get another knee jerk appointment who will need instant success and be fired when it doesn't happen. It's notable a lot of those yelling for Adkins to go don't really have a plan to take the club forward beyond sacking everyone and starting again. That ain't gonna happen. Curbs made a good point post match, that continually changing the squad and the tactics is near impossible when you only have two training days between one match and the next to implement the new plan, But after Bolton, we'll need to do it again.

Enough! I have no idea who we could lure into Adkins empty seat on the bench, or if we'll be promoting Jackson, which apart from the huge bond etween him and the fans, would be a big risk. But we are in a dire position now, after only ten games, and we need a manager who can convert the its of our squad into a team. And patience for it to happen. Saturday will be fun.

 

Wigan outplayed, ditto Cheltenham and Bolton. Portsmouth should have wrapped things up.
You're not too far off the mark mate.

 

Sadly I have to agree. I was happy when we appointed NA but for some reason he is failing miserably. I don't believe it's all his fault but I have to say that some of his decisions and lack of positive substitutes is causing us problems.

Leko was causing their left back to have nightmares in the first half and could beat him at will. So what happens ? At half time NA asks him to switch to the left where he had far less success and Blackett-Taylor was obviously too knackered to beat the same left back that Leko had roasted. But did NA swap it back ? No. He carried on with Leko on the left until he run himself into the ground and only took him off once he broke down and he left BT on the right even though he could barely run after about 60 minutes. Likewise Clare had a good first half but was knackered after 60 minutes but again was left out on the pitch to struggle. NA's subs were too late and ineffective and he appears to have lost the plot tbh.

There is some excuse that the squad was assembled too late and players are still not fully fit, but my question is WHY was it assembled so late. Who's fault was that ?

 

Arguably our two first choice wide players would be DJ and Kirk, who presumably are fit, but not considered good enough. Clare was one of the first players we signed, so should be fit by now, I didn't think he looked knackered. Even so, we are quite capable of fielding a team of players who have had a pre-season, and there isn't a lot to choose between the ones who play and the ones who don't. The way we faded after a good opening 30 minutes seemed more a change of mentality than physical tiredness. The way we started this infuriating tippy-tappy starting with a short throw by McG, ending with a pass back to him, and a long kick back to the opposition under pressure. Same thing used to happen before Adkins, before McG too, and as soon as it started you knew Bolton would score and our heads would drop.

 

The short throw out, tippy-tappy sideways passing, pass back to the keeper and hoof up front is just another sign that we are basically crap. The movement is crap, the technical skill of the player on the ball is crap, the thinking is crap, our strikers are crap and other teams know if they pressure us we can't cope.

We are basically crap.

Jesus, how did it come to this ?

 

Elfs, are you accepting now that we are crap or are you still clinging desperately to the 15 game reckoning point ? I admire your stubbornness/strong will/hopeless optimism if its the latter.

 

I stand by the barometer, BUT we have been absolute toilet and things need to change dramatically.

 

I think 2021-22 is the only one of those that is/was a third tier season.

Correct me if I'm wrong by all means.