position........forget it, just look at the picture above Lee.
Lee Clark, having already established himself as someone it easy to take an instant dislike to, managed to go one further and make himself look a fool too on Saturday. Trying to claim that Clayton Donaldson wasn't offside for the disallowed goal was laughable.
Possibly he was trying to outdo the odious Steve Evans who claimed that Skip virtually put the ball up his shirt the other week when bemoaning the lack of a penalty for his team.
Add Uwe " we should have won " Rosler into the mix and it seems we're coming up against some managers who seem intent on making it appear as if Arsene Wenger has twenty twenty vision.
Enough of Clark whose offside nonsense remarks were probably borne out of jealousy at our unbeaten run and his suffering another defeat at the Valley.
Saturday's script pretty much followed that of other recent games. We start brightly, go in front and sit back. I've not minded too much upto now but against a poor looking side like Birmingham then it was disappointing.
As others have observed I'm at a lost to understand why the formation was changed as soon as went ahead. Cousins in particular was doing fine. It didn't help us.
Clearly something needs to be done in terms of increasing our attacking threat. We aren't creating nearly enough chances especially for Igor. He is our most potent threat yet is devoid of a suitable partner or a team-mate who can load the bullets for him. Our midfield on Saturday often failed to spot his runs and he was chomping at the bit to be played through.
Buyens has been a major disappointment in the last few games. The player that in August displayed a fine range of positive and attacking passes has for some reason regressed. This culminated in an error strewn performance at the weekend. Quite how Skip came off and he stayed on I really don't know. Johnnie's reaction to being subbed spoke volumes.
I understand and largely agree with the club's policy of not spending vast amounts on players and associated wages. However, it seems a real shame to see a player like Grant Holt go to Huddersfield when you know he'd be ideal for Igor.
Ironically for someone who's classed as a defensive midfielder, Cousins has, of late, shown that he is more than capable of producing a telling pass.
In terms of Saturday's substitutions then I was saddened that Harriott and KAG didn't set foot on the pitch. There was an opportunity to go for it and both players had incentive, not least Callum who has a point to prove.
In postmatch comments Bob suggested that the players were tired after a tough Championship schedule. They shouldn't be as we've already had one international break already and the lads aren't playing twice a week, every week.
The Addicks seemed to cope ok playing twice a week for 7 weeks at the end of last season with little change in personnel and under some pressure too. Therefore, I'm not sure why the class of 2014-15 should be suffering particularly this early into the season.
I know all of the above sounds and probably is quite critical of Big Bob. It's not meant to be, just a few personal observations on how I think things could be even better. I'm more than happy with the progress being made by the club and it is reflected in a number of areas.
The 4 points earned form the last two games were as excellent as they were unexpected. In addition, I think Bob has been fantastic to date not least with the unbeaten start in the league.
It doesn't seem as if we're going to be signing Fabregas or Costa anytime soon so I hope that we can find someone from within the club who may be able to do a fairly decent job in either position.
The second international break of the season will allow for injuries and niggles to clear and we can go again away to Bournemouth. The chances of extending our undefeated start were helped by Yann's red card on Saturday. We know often our ex-players, most notably the strikers, come back to haunt us.
In the meantime we can relax as the national team goes in search or more glory !
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