View from Charlton

[terryr]

Not much on their boards but what I found I've posted


Charlton Athletic v Fulham
Wednesday 22 January | Kick-Off: 19.45pm

Referee: Stephen Martin (Staffordshire) - Previously officiated in 3-0 win at home to Derby, and 1-0 loss away at Middlesbrough

Previous Result: Fulham 2-2 Charlton Athletic

Introduction
As we enter the biggest two weeks of our season, we first have a London derby to contend with. Due to our opponents success in the third round of The FA Cup, they've been rewarded with a tie against current Premier League title holders and neighbours to our new owners, Manchester City. The original fixture was due to be played this coming Saturday, but after a confusing change of dates, we are set to take on the West London club, who on a winter's day will also experience mist rolling in from The Thames, Fulham.

Opposition
Manager: Scott Parker (45% win rate)
Stadium: Craven Cottage | Nickname(s): The Cottagers, The Lily Whites
Fun facts:
- Whilst Fulham are the oldest professional London club, it is their ground that arguably holds the biggest story of their history. Craven Cottage was originally a cottage situated where the centre circle is now. The surrounding area was used as Anne Boleyn's hunting ground until a fire in 1888 meant it was abandoned. It wasn't until 1896 that Fulham, as we know it now, moved to their home.

- In 2008, Fulham mascot Billy the Badger once got sent off for break-dancing in the corner of the pitch as a match against Aston Villa started. The mascot blamed badger's poor hearing and eye-sight.

One word to describe Fulham this season could be inconsistent. With having one of the most talented and threatening squads in the division, many people would have expected Fulham to be leading the chase for promotion. However, it hasn't all been bad, a run of 4 wins from their last 6 games, including 3 clean sheets, Fulham find themselves in 3rd place and only 4 points behind Leeds United. As a team with the attacking prowess of Fulham, they have only won 5 games this season by more than one goal. A stat which shows just how close and competitive this league is.

Fulham very rarely move away from their favoured 4-3-3 formation, with their previous line up against Middlesbrough on Friday evening being:

Rodak
Odoi | Hector | Ream | Bryan
Onomah | McDonald | Cairney
Knockhaert | Reid | Cavaleiro

In terms of personnel, Fulham are without their main man up front just like us. Mitrović is out with ankle ligament damage which makes it easier for us to prepare who is likely to start in their dangerous front three. In the reverse fixture in October, Mitrović and Pearce had a great battle, but that will not be happening at The Valley in midweek. Instead, the movement and pace of Bobby Reid, flanked by Knockhaert and Cavaleiro is what we have to be very wary of.

Fulham like to play open and expansive football with both full backs pushing up high and wide. They like to dominate and dictate the ball as their 70% possession in October showed. With all of their attacking play and keep ball, they've only scored 5 more goals than we have all season. It shows where our problems are. With every team having their strengths and weaknesses, Fulham is an interesting case. It could be argued that their strength is just as much as their weakness. Full-backs pushing high and wide means Knockhaert and Cavaleiro can cut in and support the lone striker making it very difficult to contain and defend. Their technique and ball manipulation in the final third Is enough to hurt most teams. However, with this means that they're very vulnerable on the counter attack and the space left by the full-backs is enough for players like Williams, Oztumer, and Green to exploit at pace. It means we can drag the centre-backs out wide into areas they're not comfortable in. For this to work effectively though, it's vital to have midfield runners getting into the box, something Gallagher done so well for us.

Charlton Team News
After the defeat at Deepdale, we found out from Bowyer that Forster-Caskey and Cullen have suffered minor setbacks, but the latter is still expected to be part of the game in midweek. The plan on Saturday was for Forster-Caskey to start and Cullen coming on for him. Instead, we now have to hope that Forster-Caskey can recover quickly, and that we do get to finally see Cullen back after two months out.

Interestingly, Solly has not been part of the squad since The FA Cup third round tie against West Brom, and unless he has joined most of the squad in the treatment room, you would expect him to come in for Matthews with the quick turn around. Williams made his first start since October, whilst Oztumer came on to replace him. We could see that as a role reversed on Wednesday. As always, other possible mentions must be for Pearce to potentially come into the team, Morgan returning to the starting line-up, and Hemed could get his first start in place of the hard-working but inexperienced Davison.

As an additional side note, we can hope that in between the time of this being posted and the game on Wednesday evening, we have signed at least one player to come in and be part of the squad.
Prediction
Fulham are a very good side and with the lack of players at our disposal and seemingly lack of belief throughout the squad at the moment, it makes this a huge challenge for our youthful team. An interesting stat to add is that both teams have scored in both halves in 29% of games this season. Let's hope we add to that whilst keeping Fulham quiet! With Fulham having an extra day rest and remaining in London, I know how difficult this game will be. But I have to remain an optimist.

Charlton Athletic 1-1 Fulham
Green

"Charlton 0 Fulham 3
It's going to be a long, tough evening.  "

" People have said we're gonna get battered every single game so far and it hasn't happened yet.
2-1 CAFC, Hemed gets a goal"

" Is Matthews physically incapable of playing two games in quick succession or has it previously just been a precaution? Would hope with the break until Barnsley that he might play in this one. "

" Comfortable home win 4-0."

" Be curious to see if Solly is involved in some way on Wednesday night - Unless Bowyer was sending a message that we need reinforcements I found it strange that we went for six subs on Saturday rather than having Solly on the bench unless he too isnt fit now
Agree too with Oztumer starting, reckon we'll see similar to Saturday with Williams coming on for the final 30mins
Would also love to see Hemed start, he's clearly getting fitter and is showing that little bit of quality that he has to have played for Brighton for so long"

" It's another free hit .. anything we get will be a bonus but we must keep our GD in tact ..... our season starts Feb 1st when we should see few players return after having 10 days without a fixture plus 3 new signings
A point would be excellent result ..."

" Are you insane? Why is it a free hit? If we lose the other clubs at the bottom have a game in hand over us and we get ever closer to L1.
Come 1st February we could be in the bottom three FFS!"

" We need points. Fact. Another free hit doesn't sum this up."

" Fulham are getting closer to 2nd."

" Cannot be letting us off the hook all the time with the 'Free Hit' scenario!"

" Need a win!.
No free hits in this division....
All very well players coming back, but how long until they are up to speed?...."

" By the way whoever decided to agree to bringing this game forward needs their heads examining. Why not put it back to when we have new signings or players back from injury?"

" It's no free game bonus game don't get those in championship you go into every game needing 3 points when fighting for staying up"

" Assuming Fulham will score we once again have to plan for scoring a minimum of 2 goals with no recognized striker.. a mountain to climb"

" Think we need a plan to stop conceding those two goals first Andy."

" I don't know what will be harder.. scoring or defending!"

" No Mitrovic for Fulham."

" Must Win Game!

"Unsure who will play upfront.
Davidson looked out of his depth yesterday.
Green clearly isn't a striker.
Hemed has been absolutely useless."

" This game might be regarded as a 'free hit' from the point of view that we are not expected to take anything from it.
Perhaps some fans can afford to think that way if they wish.
But Bowyer and the team cannot adopt that attitude, or use it as an excuse - even privately in their own minds - to think they won't be too bothered if Fulham beat them.
They must be getting pretty sick of losing by now.
A victory against Fulham would be a massive boost to morale.
Even holding out for a draw will probably feel as good on the evening as the recent home draw against WBA felt (unless we squander a lead).
And we need points, from wherever we can get them.
I think the team will give everything again, and just perhaps will scrap something out of this one."

" Need some serious signings in the next couple weeks. Can't rely on players coming back from injury anymore"

" This is the weakest Championship for years and we are really making hard work of it. Injury crisis has played a part but our decision making from senior players at times is woeful. All our loses bar Wigan have been by a single goal, which shows we are competitive but just not good enough at the moment. Some investment required before 31st Jan otherwise we'll be playing Accrington and Gillingham again next season."

" We seem to agree that if there are no quality player signings in January, Charlton will be relegated.
No manager could save us with our squad in its current state.
We also seem to agree that players returning from injury will not be enough to save us either.
The injury crisis is only easing very slightly. It shows no sign of going away.
If I understand correctly, you believe Lee Bowyer is not a good enough manager to save Charlton's season even if ESI do buy three or four good quality players before the end of January.
And only a manager such as Neil Warnock would be able to use the ESI signings to avoid relegation.
I believe Lee Bowyer is a good enough manager to save Charlton from relegation, if he gets those same ESI signings to work with.
I accept Warnock could do that as well.
But I think Lee Bowyer represents a possible future of stability and success at Charlton over the next decade. A long term rise back to the top division like what we saw under Alan Curbishley in the mid-late 1990's.
Although it is through no fault of his own (just his age and the stage of his career that he is at) Neil Warnock cannot offer that longer term success. He would only be a short term fix."

" Swansea (a) 02/01
West Brom (h) 11/01
Preston (a) 18/01
Fulham (h) 25/01
I'll say four points."

"Probably 0.
1 at best I reckon."

" A draw tomorrow night and then nothing from the 3 after that."

" No chance !"

" 4 points. I reckon we'll be able to beat Fulham, who aren't doing as well as you'd expect and by that point we should have new signings and players back from injury. Draw away to Preston."

" So at the moment it's one on the board. Who expects anything against Fulham? At best a draw for me"

"If we put out the same side as today I can't see anything other than another defeat against Fulham."

That's all I could find but I'll check back tomorrow

UPDATED BELOW

" We are due at some point to get a right royal thrashing, and I think this might be that time. Knockhaert will love running at whoever is our left back, and that will leave Naby exposed again to pace.  Deji must play instead of Pearce (or as well as). Will be great if Cullen is back but I can't see him starting just yet. Our only hope is that they have one eye on the weekend game...
5-0 defeat..."

" Id definitely keep with oshi williams and davison. Maybe drop dempsey.
Funny feeling with this one being under lights and midweek derby. We are due a win. 3-2"

" "biggest two weeks of our season"
It always bloody is at Charlton.  "

" We have not been spanked as of yet, could this be the one? Oh how i would love a scrappy 1-0 win!!!"

" I'd take a draw, but hopefully they have one eye on Man City and we sneak a win with Sarr grabbing the winner in a 2-1 win."

" https://www.londonnewsonline.co.uk/the-reason-chris-solly-missed-preston-game-as-charlton-boss-hopes-three-injured-players-back-for-fulham/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Bows hopeful for Taylor and Field to be on the bench with Cullen, very interesting!!"

"  Finally Pratley to get a 20 mins break"

" If we're under the cosh he might not. Long break til Barnsley and he's as fit as anyone."

" Isnt Taylor supposed to be injured until he transfers to another club?"

" It will be a cold evening and a small crowd."

" Call me optimistic, but I think Hemed is going to come up with the goods in this game."

" Groundhog Day. 2-1 to Fulham."

" Fulham too good for us at the moment.  Can't see us getting any points from this one. No new signings; Bowyer still not signed up; the depression continues."

" We will win!
Didn't fancy preston away but anything can happen in a derby under the lights.
Mitrovic out and we are well aware of their main threats.
We've looked a midfielder short of being able to get points and now there is potential of all williams ozzy cullen field and aneke back to feature.
We'll surprise ourselves and bowyer signing up will be released at 7.30pm. COYA"

" And we arent on sky which is a plus as it can put the mockers on us"

" We will need a proper full back to mark Knockhaert, so Purrington back I reckon, maybe flat back 4."

" Knockheart will ruin purri. Give doughty a go. "

" Aneke stuck 3 in for the u23s on sat, surely a shout for the bench?"

" My Mum said "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all", so I won't tell you what I think of our chances in this match. "

" Got to find a way to limit the Fulham scoring to give us a chance. A clean sheet would be ideal."

" Remove the goals from the pitch - 0-0 draw. Simples!"

" Just remove one of the goals and swap them around at half time. So long as it's the goal we score in, who cares?"

" Still 0-0 for me! Game is a week early for us, shame we couldn't put it back!"

" Just to let others know, apparently Sky Sports have now confirmed they'll be showing the game live on Sky Sports Football."

" Further to this... Looks like it'll be the red button
https://www.skysports.com/watch/football-on-sky
Kilmarnock v Celtic will be the Live game on Sky Sports Football"

" It was our decision to change it to the 22nd instead of 29th. Had a conversation with another poster on here, and believe it is to allow us a period of time without distractions to get deals across the line before the window shuts."

"  Well that's us definitely fudged then... Though we drew 2-2 in the reverse on Sky. I'll take that again."

" The lack of signings makes our decision to host this game on the 22nd instead of the 29th look even stranger. Pretty sure we won't see any before the game either, which is a shame as a couple of bodies through the door could be a much needed morale booster (for the team, manager and supporters), leaving aside the positive effect they could have on the game.
Hopefully we will see Hemed get a start up top to see what he is capable of and Taylor could come on at the end if we still have a chance of points. Matthews has done well down the right and we don't have another game for a week and a half so he should keep his place. I wonder if we will keep some of the ones who are not quite 100% back for the Barnsley game - six pointer that it is."

" Full throttle London derby. Similarly to West Brom we raise our game and frustrate Parker - 2 - 1 to us Green and Hemed. Knockaert for them"

" Yeah defeat tomorrow for Fulham really will be a Knockaert blow!!"

" Stoke won against WBA so let's hope for a miracle win to keep them as a buffer between us and the bottom 3. However, as we're in the habit of losing by one goal and lack confidence I can't see anything other than a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as we lose again. I'm going to be very nervous heading into febuarary with all the key fixtures after this dreadful run. "

" Watched Fulham Friday and they were dump! Not good defensively at all! I think we will score it's just how many we ship! We still have only lost by two clear goals on 2 occasions! I'm sticking with a Desmond the same as some others have already mentioned!
Green and Doughty our scorers "

" far better to get well beaten by Fulham this week and then give the team a decent time to prepare for Barnsley"

" Wonder how many Fulham players will be thinking of their one chance to face Man City @ the Eithad though rather than on our game
Get in their faces whenever possible, well and truly unleash Darren Pratley - Bet they wont want it getting scrappy"

" Fulham last 10 games have either won or lost by 1 goal (with a 3-3 draw thrown in too).
Fancy a score draw too. "

" I wonder if Aneke might be on the bench after his hat-trick, but hard to disagree with Sage.
Stoke winning tonight means they've collected ten points from their last five matches, while we've collected four. Can see their run continuing unfortunately, and the pressure increasing. Genuinely think Derby and Brum's potential points deductions might be something we'll be praying for in a couple of months.
Fulham are always tough opponents. Oztumer and Hemed looked decent on Saturday, but we need to improve our possession stats and our crossing. And our pressing, which we used to leave almost exclusively to Gallagher.
Perhaps it'll be one of the nights when everything clicks?
2-3 with Taylor coming off the bench to score the winner (penalty).
Nurse!"

" We haven't actually had a sherlacking yet.  Its also on Sky... the joy of it!
0-5 to Fulham
Lee inches closer to signing that contract.
Matt starts avoiding the lounges."

" If WE were playing at the Etihad at the weekend it would be a massive distraction, but their team is full of players who've played there already..."

" A cold Wednesday evening in January ... with a threadbare, patched-up squad ... on a terrible run of form ...
Oh boy, am I looking forward to going to this one!
I'm hoping we'll have some senior players available for this one because I'm guessing most of our youngsters will have to be tucked up in bed before the second half starts; it is a school night, after all.
Silly stats time:
In our 28 league matches this season we have conceded 2 goals on 15 occasions; since the win against Derby in October (the start of our form slump) it's been 11 times in the last 16 matches.
A side has scored three goals in only four of our league fixtures ... and we've got three of them, the other one being a Massive result (although their last goal came in stoppage time as we chased an equaliser). That's also the only time we've conceded more than two goals in a game.
Most common score this season? 2-2 (7 times) closely followed by 2-1 defeat (6 occasions).
We've only managed two 1-0 wins: Brentford and Leeds ... they were a long, long time ago!
This season we've had more trouble keeping a clean sheet than an adolescent schoolboy, four in the first 12 league games (the last was against Derby on 19-Oct-19) and none in the last 16.
The only nought-nought this season came against Forest Green Rovers in the League Cup (which doesn't really count).
Prediction for tomorrow: Fulham score twice, we'll probably only bag one, and Williams is substituted in the second half with frostbite resulting in an amputated foot."

" Dont we have a terrible record against Fulham in general anyways?"

" 1-3, Fulhams wingers/ Inside forwards are going to prove too much. Its a shame earlier in the season we played great against them and deserved 3 points"

" 0-3 Fulham ."

" Bad omens for this one......
We dont win local derbies
We dont win night games at The Valley
old boy (Parker) returning
No new players
Playing kids that are just not good enough
Cant see anything but a defeat. 1-3."

" It's just a game of football, Golfie.
You never know on the day, otherwise there would never be any FA Cup upsets."

" I think Fulham will be too strong for us, but stranger things have happened and Cullen being back is massive for us.
2-1 loss."

" Every game I think we can win, and this one's no different. However, bar one, my optimism has been unfounded in the last 16 games.
Would take a draw, but I'd like to see 2-1 to the Addicks, Sarr and Hemed."

" The only reason i can see us bringing it forward from the 29th is so that we have a full week, rather than 2 days, to prepare for the Barnsley game, which on the scheme of things is a much more important game to win."


That's it for this week

[WhiteJC]

thanks for these Terry their a good insight into how our opponents fans view both us and their own team.

[Milo]

They've got a busy forum! Rack up the posts quite quickly.

[fulhamfan]

Would be great to win this game and put even more pressure on Leeds!

[bobbo]

Thanks as always terry

[Fulham Tup North]

Always impressed with some of the intelligent comments, on every clubs boards. Not all full of idiots shouting everyone down, but people who understand football. Got to say, this is the best thing about the Championship, genuine fans who know their players and their limits. No one has a team of superstars and most fans know this. Big game......need a result COYW 👍⚽🙏

[love4ffc]

Always impressed with some of the intelligent comments, on every clubs boards. Not all full of idiots shouting everyone down, but people who understand football. Got to say, this is the best thing about the Championship, genuine fans who know their players and their limits. No one has a team of superstars and most fans know this. Big game......need a result COYW 👍⚽🙏

Agree, they seem more solid in their understanding of both the league and their situation.  No grand delusions of how things could play out for either club. 

[Carborundum]

Charlton were good at the Cottage early October.  In a making-the-best-of-what-you-have way.  Our players were individually more capable, but their better cohesion made for an even game.  Sounds like injuries are depriving them of their key strength.  We are likely to be less disjointed.  Hopeful that we will be considerably better than them tomorrow, but the number of times the ball goes into respective nets always subject to the vagaries of football.

[PaddyAddick]

Alright gents - Charlton fan here. Lurked on here on occasion as a few mates, as well as my CEO, are Fulham fans, so always keep an eye on how you guys are doing.

Fair to say that most of us are realistic about this one and would be happy with a draw. We simply don't have the players fit - even with Jonny Williams, Jake Forster-Caskey, Josh Cullen, and potentially Sam Field coming back into the fold. Williams is somewhat made of glass while JFC missed all of last year with an ACL tear, and a couple of months this season after going off against Bristol City in the away fixture. The other two haven't played in around two months. Add the recall of Conor Gallagher by Chelsea, and that added insult to injury.

This has meant an influx of small children from the youth system - indeed, rumours persist that they all have their own changing room away from the senior pros because of safeguarding (I jest). And as commendable an effort as they put in, it's clear they're not ready.

One thing I will say, though, is that the tune Bowyer gets out of this team is absolutely amazing for what it is. We play cohesive, committed football, which can on occasion be quite attractive, though somewhat limited in ability at the moment.

That said, we struggle off the ball. I think the likes of Cavaleiro and Reid - and possibly Knockaert - will have a bit too much for us and really test our defence. Which hasn't been that injury hit, but they've had so little support in front of them lately, that they're fatigued generally, and easy to exploit.

Even though you're missing Mitrovic, I don't actually think he would be totally effective against us - the battle he had with Jason Pearce was titanic at the Cottage, and I think relatively even (yes he scored, but was a tad fortunate, but definitely got the better of Pearce at times). Cairney worries me, too. We may just have a tad of joy if Davison plays up front - he works incredibly hard against the centre backs as an old-fashioned target man, and if he can hold it up and allow our wing backs to push forward, that'd be great for us.

That said, I expect you to have too much in attack. But we likely won't succumb to a "comfortable" defeat as I've seen on the predictions thread: we place a high price on our goal, and when we lose, it's often by one goal - we've done that eleven or twelve times this season!

If you're coming to the Valley tomorrow, enjoy, but (hopefully) not too much. All the best for the season from Thursday onwards.

[ALG01]

More interesting when fans are realistic and sensible than deluded... good interesting read, thanks.

[Twig]

Cheers Paddy, it's refreshing when the opposition fans come on to have sensible discussion not just some sort of wind up.  Inconsistency has been our key problem but the team seem to be settling a bit. If we put away the chances we will probably create then we should have a bit too much for Charlton, but against Middlesbrough we should have been out of sight after 45 mins but only scored once and it almost cost us the win.

[terryr]

UPDATED

[charlieFFC]

" Wonder how many Fulham players will be thinking of their one chance to face Man City @ the Eithad though rather than on our game "

Lol at this comment - does he not realize we were in the prem for?!   We are not Brentford or bleedin Luton

[PaddyAddick]

Cheers Paddy, it's refreshing when the opposition fans come on to have sensible discussion not just some sort of wind up.  Inconsistency has been our key problem but the team seem to be settling a bit. If we put away the chances we will probably create then we should have a bit too much for Charlton, but against Middlesbrough we should have been out of sight after 45 mins but only scored once and it almost cost us the win.

No worries. No point in antagonising really - leave that to the WUMs on Twitter and Facebook!

Yeah, even earlier this year I could see the inconsistency in a microcosm. Knockaert, for instance, would look like he had us in all sorts, then do something really stupid to give the ball away. You didn't seem to flow too much until after around 75 minutes, when we clearly tired and you amazingly didn't sneak a winner.

Saw you against Boro the other night - cannot believe you only scored the one! Even if you create chances though, I can see us doing quite well in some aspects of preventing a goal - Phillips is one of the best pure shot stoppers I've seen at Charlton, while to a man, we will throw ourselves about in trying to block the shot, so there might be the odd "should've scored" moment where we do brilliantly to defend. We've done it several times this season (Brentford, West Brom, Nottingham Forest are all home games that immediately spring to mind for that sort of defensive attitude).

If some of the stuff I've read in the last few hours is true, then we might have Josh Cullen, Lyle Taylor(!!) and Sam Field involved in some capacity. I cannot overstate how massive this would be for us: 34 year old Darren Pratley has had to play every minute in the last couple of months, so a breather for him and some options to rotate would be immense. Probably too early for this fixture though - but there will be a palpable morale boost in the crowd if the above named players are even on the bench.