Whilst the games at Palace and Cardiff have taken their toll on the players, meaning they were unable to press the opposition in midfield as normal, I think we should also recognise the quality in the Charlton team. Ricardo Fuller has always been a player I have admired. He is obviously no spring chicken any more, but he was still able to exploit the weaknesses in our central defence today, easily out-muscling Sir Bobby Hassell. Charlton also had two good wingers, with Harriott on the left being particularly impressive. Not only was he very quick, but also he crossed with great accuracy. At the heart of their defence, Charlton were also strong with two man mountains snuffing out everything in the air. I am a great fan of David Flitcroft and everything he has achieved at the club since Christmas. However, he could surely read the game today as well as I could. So, from the start of the game, why did he set Dagnall against their two huge centre backs, whilst O'Grady took up the Davies position on the left wing. Nothing was working for us in midfield. And yet he chose not to try dropping Dagnall back in there to make a five in order to try to exert some control in that area. Instead, he decided to weaken his midfield further by removing Cywka, going for a very direct 4-3-3, in spite of the two huge centre backs at the heart of their defence. Not only did this mean that the ball had to go back to front very quickly by missing out midfield, it also meant that there was no protection in front of the full backs meaning their wingers were granted a field day. As things went from bad to worse, the one glimmer of light came when Dagnall was finally asked to play deeper behind Harewood, who took up positions that actually help Dagnall's game, granting him the space to run. On a day when no-one has escaped totally unscathed, the club owner and directors should reflect on their inability to strengthen the team during the loan window, and consider whether it will be this that costs us our place in the Championship, rather than the efforts of the players or the management team, who have worked wonders during the last 4 months. If indeed we do go down, then in spite of my criticisms in this posting and in spite of his over-arching enthusiasm and positivity, which I consider twee , our first signing for 2013/14 should be David Flitcroft.
Yep, Flicker was too quick to pull Cywka off and go 4-3-3 as this left us wide open down the flanks and Kennedy in particular struggles without some protection in front of him. A bad day all round and it will require a massive effort now to save us from the drop. Flicker and the squad will certainly give it their all though, of that there is no doubt...
Praise for Charlton......................................foooking no chance.................FFS !!! Why give credit to the opposition ???
Cos they played well, took their chances, whipped in some great corners and crosses and were deserved winners on the day. Down side from them was easily going to ground early on int game and time wasting when 4-0 up which for me took some shine off their performance. For us bad day at Black Rock.
It's called being gracious in defeat, the best team won. We had a very kind Leicester fan on here the other week after we beat them.
I aint gracious in defeat...........not in mi nature..........would imagine its not in Flickers nature either A kind Leicester fan = foooking wimp
You obviously don't watch any of flickers interviews either then, as well as any of the games. But hey, game of opinions
Flicker is in the football business..........what he says and what he thinks will be different...........mine arn't
Charlton weren't spectacularly good...but I thought it was a solid grafting performance that as a fan I would have been proud of,as for playing Daggers up against big centre halves..no problem if you play it into feet..he had at least three good chances
Sorry, but am not particularly fond of the attempts at Churchillian rhetoric in his descriptions of his players and their efforts on a Saturday afternoon. I find all this "fight them on the beaches" type stuff out of place when describing the efforts of footballers as compared to what happens in real life. If it works for you, then fair enough, but for me it is just out of place.
Because they took us apart! ffs!! There's no shame in admitting the other team were better than us on the day.
