Happy new year – We aren’t barcelona

I was having a drink last night with a mate who was a professional footballer in the championship. Having posted a couple of days ago a plea for us to be more direct , it was really interesting to hear him say that the quality of the championship is not very good partly because every team now from the u-18’s level upwards think they have to play like Barcelona.It makes the play too slow , too many sideways and backwards passes. The younger players , particularly from prem clubs who go out on loan don’t know how to tackle or take a tackle . They struggle with the physicality of the league .

He asked me ‘who are the 2 players in your team who ideally you would like to have the ball the least’.I answered I suppose it should be the centre halves – he then said who do you think has the ball the most at charlton – I said that I strongly suspect it is our centre halves.

Ask yourself if mick mccarthy of Ipswich who had 16 corners last night and as a result won 3-0 and will get them promoted while we dominated the middle of the park understands the pointlessness of trying to be Barcelona unless of course iniesta is on our January shopping list.

My biggest wish for 2015 is a happy peaceful and healthy new year to anyone who takes the time to read my ramblings

My 2nd wish would be for charlton to say goodbye to the ‘patient build up’ and get a couple of wingers who can beat a man plus a centre forward who can head the ball and get the ball into the box at least 3 times more often per game than they did in 2014.

HAPPY NEW YEAR and BIG LOVE to all you addicks out there !!!!!

Route One

Perhaps it’s just me but I’m not really a fan of bob’s tippy tappy football. I know it looks pretty and it’s lovely when it works,but has anyone apart from Swansea got promoted from this division having a hundred passes before they passed it into the back of the net.You have to have a couple of tiny blokes in midfield like Leon Britten who can continually drop the shoulder and change the play effortlessly making hundreds of passes without cocking it up – we don’t have players like that.

Boxing day’s 2nd half was the first time this season ,by necessity, when we have turned to route one and we ended up having more chances in 45 minutes than we have had in the previous 3 or 4 games put together.
It was exciting, it was fun , it was joyful , it was thrilling, it was entertainment.
Bob, please can we have some more of the direct stuff.

Yann

I know I have to move on , I know at my age, I really shouldn’t have football heroes any more , but please , please can we have Yann back . Let’s face it , using a team made up of old fashioned British players , mostly recruited from the lower leagues , Bournemouth are absolutely nailed on to get promoted and they aren’t even using yann the fantastic from the start. On Saturday, Brett Pitman was preferred to start . I mean Brett Pitman , what would you think if you were as talented as Yann and you were bench warming for Pitman. Sure enough when he comes on , he scores a trademark brilliant free kick.
But let’s face it they are never going to love him as much as we do and we need him much more than they do . Igor looks like a bloke who has just woken up to realise that even though he is only 5 foot 8 , he is the only forward at the club capable of heading the ball .
With the Russian rouble in free fall surely the Bournemouth owner would be up for accepting a cheeky offer for Yann.
I can’t help thinking he’s really our man , Yann.