Oldham 0 - 1 Charlton

[JoeP]

...teams like Sheff Utd.

 

That game was an absolute anomaly......

[GlossopLatic]

To be fair to an extremely poor ref he gave us a man advantage for 2 periods of the game.

Once again though we were extremely poor in and around the box.

Our crossing is at pub football level and totally void of ideas around their box.

 

Before the game i would have settled for a point , afterwards i am very very dissapointed and annoyed that we have yet again allowed an extremely poor looking side walk away with a

1-0 and 3 points when they have only had one shot on target.

 

Time for PD to move over and get Andy Ritche back and at least show a bit of passion going forward.If not i can't see us scoring again this season.

The only thing that will keep us up is if we can somehow scrape 3 or 4 0-0 draws in the last 5 matches.

If not then thanks Latics for saving me £300 next season because i ain't paying to watch that again.

 

I actually agree with this except for the last paragraph for 2 reasons, 1 I remeber how crap we were during the Ritchie years 98-2001. Secondly its upto the players to start to take some responsibility it doesn't matter who you have in the dugout if the players don't take on board what is being said and don't perform your screwed. The pllayers aren't aiming high enough they care but they don't want success badly enough they are just happy to accept mediocrity in their own performance.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

How on earth is Ritchie going to get us out of this predicament? Ritchie, who when like now, he had no cash whatsoever we were bumbling along in the bottom half and one season stayed up on the final day. Ritchie, who hasn't been in management for about 5 years now.

 

He's a legend. He is my all time favourite player. Sadly, he's never in a million years the answer.

[stargazer]

Is Kuqi playing well enough to deserve a starting place every game ?

 

Is our manager too intimidated to drop his most senior player ?

 

Is Tounkara going to spend as much time warming up rather than playing like Matt Smith before ?

 

Why is Simpson back out on the wing when his best form was in the 'hole' behind a striker ?

 

When young players with baggage are released and finish up at lower levels do 'alarm bells' not go off wondering why ?

 

 

We will probably survive by the skin of our teeth , don't allow the club to turn this into a celebration , the last 2 months have been a farce.

[LaticsPete]

For the vast majority of the match, including when the teams had the same number of players on the pitch, the neutral wouldn't have known who was league leaders and who was struggling for wins. the first half Bouzanis had one half hit scuffed shot to save, we were closing them down, harrying and didn't look in danger.

 

Second half they did what we've been unable to do - got a good cross into the box - and scored. All the players seemed to put in effort even if not all of them were as good as they have played (Simmo in particular). Tactics ? There are two types - one is what the manager tells his players to carryout, the other is what happens. The latter is more about decision making by individuals and that could have been improved at times . When we had the extra man in the second half I was frustrated by Hughes and Lee not deciding that one of them should bomb on down the wing instead of coming short.

 

Kuqi ? I can't understand criticism of him yesterday. What we lack is the second striker who will get into the box when Kuqi is causing things to happen by his harrying and presence.

[oafc joe]

Apparently every game Kettle referees is almost unbelievably dirty.

 

I still think we'll turn it round. Do I need to book myself in at the shrink?

Let's take big support down to Wycombe, it could potentially be a massive game

[RobOAFC]

 

Kuqi ? I can't understand criticism of him yesterday. What we lack is the second striker who will get into the box when Kuqi is causing things to happen by his harrying and presence.

Strikers are in to score goals. Kuqi has got something like 3 in 20 odd games with 2 of those being penalties. If that was Reid's record we'd all be screaming for him to be dropped. All his harrying and presence is useless without goals to go with it, ball constantly bouncing off him and to top it all off taking it off players who have a better opportunity to score than him.

[LaticsPete]

Strikers are in to score goals. Kuqi has got something like 3 in 20 odd games with 2 of those being penalties. If that was Reid's record we'd all be screaming for him to be dropped. All his harrying and presence is useless without goals to go with it, ball constantly bouncing off him and to top it all off taking it off players who have a better opportunity to score than him.

 

I obviously disagree . By the way which of our other ace goal snafflers would you replace him with?

[BP1960]

For the vast majority of the match, including when the teams had the same number of players on the pitch, the neutral wouldn't have known who was league leaders and who was struggling for wins. the first half Bouzanis had one half hit scuffed shot to save, we were closing them down, harrying and didn't look in danger.

 

Second half they did what we've been unable to do - got a good cross into the box - and scored. All the players seemed to put in effort even if not all of them were as good as they have played (Simmo in particular). Tactics ? There are two types - one is what the manager tells his players to carryout, the other is what happens. The latter is more about decision making by individuals and that could have been improved at times . When we had the extra man in the second half I was frustrated by Hughes and Lee not deciding that one of them should bomb on down the wing instead of coming short.

 

Kuqi ? I can't understand criticism of him yesterday. What we lack is the second striker who will get into the box when Kuqi is causing things to happen by his harrying and presence.

 

We had one but subbed him when he was looking sharp, Charlton kept on 2 strikers with 10 men.

[RobOAFC]

I obviously disagree . By the way which of our other ace goal snafflers would you replace him with?

A chance to other players.

Tounkara is likely to be playing for a contract next season, so why not give him a chance for a few games?

Bunn has come with a good reputation from City, and has hardly been given a chance upfront. He's played around or just over 90 minutes upfront, with a couple of games out on the wing.

We've got plenty of options upfront now, so what is the point in continuing to play a misfiring striker who isn't adding that much to the team currently.

[LaticsPete]

A chance to other players.

Tounkara is likely to be playing for a contract next season, so why not give him a chance for a few games?

Bunn has come with a good reputation from City, and has hardly been given a chance upfront. He's played around or just over 90 minutes upfront, with a couple of games out on the wing.

We've got plenty of options upfront now, so what is the point in continuing to play a misfiring striker who isn't adding that much to the team currently.

 

But neither of them have scored goals in any quantity at this level! Bunn - as the out and out striker? He's young and has potential, maybe, but didn't pull up trees at Dale. Tonk - I'd like to see him alongside Kuqi but not replacing him. Kuqi is adding to the team , shame he's become a whipping boy....

[LaticsPete]

We had one but subbed him when he was looking sharp, Charlton kept on 2 strikers with 10 men.

 

So you'd have taken a midfielder off? Fair enough but at that point in the game which one? One of the wide ones or leave the centre a bit light?

[RobOAFC]

But neither of them have scored goals in any quantity at this level! Bunn - as the out and out striker? He's young and has potential, maybe, but didn't pull up trees at Dale. Tonk - I'd like to see him alongside Kuqi but not replacing him. Kuqi is adding to the team , shame he's become a whipping boy....

Neither has scored goals in any quantity at this level? Well they won't get the chance to if they ain't being played. Bunn was playing at Rochdale in a team low on confidence, played out wide there aswell as Eyre didn't want to drop Grimes and the team was changing every week with a new lot of loan players.

What is Kuqi currently adding to the team? He ain't scoring, half the time he can't control it and he's taking the ball of other players when they are in a better position to do something.

But no let's carry on playing a misfiring sriker. What a genius idea. It's not like we need goals. We're seeing the same problem as last season. We're struggling to score goals and the manager continues playing a striker who can barely score at the minute.

Like I said before, if it was Reid who had only scored 3 in 20 odd games then we'd be calling for him to be dropped. But because it's Kuqi we can't drop him because the others haven't scored much. Well they aint gonna do if they don't get the chance to because we insist on playing a striker who is out of form.

[BP1960]

But neither of them have scored goals in any quantity at this level! Bunn - as the out and out striker? He's young and has potential, maybe, but didn't pull up trees at Dale. Tonk - I'd like to see him alongside Kuqi but not replacing him. Kuqi is adding to the team , shame he's become a whipping boy....

 

But it's not working Pete and PD may have to try something completely different,particularly at home.

Maybe Simpson behind Bunn flicking through balls for him to run on to might be an option ?

Kuqi looks very jaded to me and at times he could barely raise a trot to support an attacking movements around the penalty area - where he's needed most.

For a big man the number of times he loses possession when on the ball is alarming.

 

* Incidentally, just watching Man United now on TV and noticed when a wide man got the ball 4 players suddenly appeared in the penalty area, Latics players show hardly any movement at all, is that down to the quality of players, desire or coaching ?

[bossrocks]

Yesterday pretty much summed up our season for me. Plenty of effort from the boys (much improved from the Orient shambles) and we probably deserved a point but ultimately another toothless display up front.

 

Our best chances (or should that be half chances?) came when we played football yet for long periods we simply lumped it up from the back, even with the extra man. I'm starting to think Tarky is responsible as this style of football seems to have become the norm since he's been in the team (although Brown was doing it too). I don't mind the odd long pass but they were doing it almost every time they had possession at the back - thinking they're Gerrard! We don't have the players for this kind of game and its pretty clear its not working.

 

Bunn I thought played well up front - he looks more effective there than out wide and caused Charlton a problems when he ran at them. He shouldn't have been subbed.

 

Probably the most depressing thing was how bad Charlton were. They didn't impress me any more than Leyton Orient or Yeovil. Maybe they had an off day but if that's the benchmark for this league its a pretty poor state of affairs. It was another easily winnable game.

Edited April 8, 2012 by bossrocks