Tuesday 15 December 2020

Gas in confident mood

In an interview with Richard Cawley, Lee Bowyer has said that a five minute loss of defensive concentration cost Charlton on Saturday.   Fortunately, we were able to recover against a young Wimbledon side late criticised by their own manager as naive.

Unfortunately with Ryan Inniss and Akin Famewo out for a long time, I am concerned that we have more fundamental problems in defence.  Ben Amos is first rate, but he can't stop everything.

One positive from Lee Bowyer's perspective is the improvement in Marcus Maddison's performance: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/best-yet-charlton-boss-bowyer-has-praise-for-close-season-signings-display-against-the-dons/

Bristol Rovers come to The Valley tonight having won their last three matches.  They are only four places behind Charlton in the form table.   They have won more games away from home (three) than at home and have only lost twice on the road, having scored ten and conceded ten.

Their first two goals against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday came from a failure to defend left-wing corners.  Charlton often look shaky when defending from set pieces.

New boss Paul Tisdale, who replaced rookie manager Ben Garner. seems to have a made a difference to the Gas.  He left Exeter City after twelve years as manager and a record of solid achievement.  His spell at MK Dons was less successful.

Majority owner Wael Al-Qadi made the club debt free by capitalising £18.4m of loans and waiving £2.1m of interest.

The Gas are in confident mood ahead of the game: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/zain-westbrooke-praises-paul-tisdales-4796365

Tisdale has settled on a narrow diamond 4-3-1-2 shape, with Ed Upson playing as a single pivot – allowing Josh Grant and Zain Westbrooke to push forward with more regularity as number eights supporting Erhun Oztumer (obviously not playing tonight) or Luke McCormick at the head of the diamond.  Upson divides Rovers fans, but is a technically gifted player.

2010 is the last time that Rovers beat Charlton (2-1).

No comments:

Post a Comment