Pages

Plasticise

02 March 2011

Charlton 1 Carlisle 3

Ditto, if not more so. Horrible defending and disjointed attacking. I think the problem going forward is that Chris Powell is trying to change the way the team is playing and they're not familiar with it yet. He seems to have banned the long hoick, which is a good thing, but the players aren't yet on top of the short-pass game, so are losing possession as often as they used to. Only now they're doing it at ground level, not head-height or higher. I'm such a mug I believe this will eventually come good.

But at the back, oh lord, what problems. Christian Dailly is finally showing signs of his age (37) despite his impressive fitness. Beside him we had Gary Doherty in the first half, 31 but never quick, and Jon Fortune in the second half (surprisingly, still only 30 but looking well off the pace). Rob Elliot had a poor game too, and with that sort of defence behind it the rest of the team can't be relaxed. Basically, there's never been an adequate replacement for Richard Rufus, and although it would be simplistic to blame Charlton's decline entirely on that, that's what I blame it on. Entirely.

No comments :