Some Basics

Having had to pass on Saturday’s game (a combination of loss of internet in Lyon and painting walls in Givry – more on all that another time), I’m happy to accept the views of fellow Addicks having watched the highlights that we were a tad fortunate to avoid defeat but that there were some positives. We’re all well aware that with so many choices of players and formations we have yet to find any favoured and successful formation to be at least Plan A or combinations in key areas – and with Stockley no longer an automatic selection if fit you can really only say that MacGillivray falls into that category - so each game is a test of whether we have moved towards desired outcomes (even if through the elimination of some options that didn’t work). Yes, we all want to be moving up the table but that will be the result of getting some basics right.

I don’t like to pontificate on these matters as I’ve never played the game to any decent level and happily defer to those that have. Also, we’re not au fait with fitness levels or able to look into the whites of the eyes on the training ground, or spend sufficient time to consider how the opposition will shape up. With these provisos, here’s my take on some basic options.

Again, goalkeeper is sorted, at least for now. Whether we play a back four or three/five is up for grabs, although the notable experiment with the latter, against Wycombe, was a failure. We defended the box in depth only to allow their guy to jink around outside it and score, then played watch the ball inside the area. The loss of Inniss is a blow, thrusting Lavelle to the fore, and it looks as though Famewo, having been effective alongside Inniss, is a little out of sorts without him. Pearce we know can do a job but will get found out for pace in an open game, as against Portsmouth. At the same time, Matthews, Gunter, Purrington and probably Souare (I can’t be certain) are decent full-backs but are not wing-backs, there is a difference. Gunter had that role against Wycombe and I don’t remember him crossing the halfway line.

So if we play a back three/five it is really a five and we accept the limitations that imposes. Maatsen last season was able to be a wing-back but I can’t think of anyone available now. So for me, unless we are going to try to grind out a result and have a midfield for that too, it’s a back four. I don’t know if Famewo is having a harder time this season, think we all expected him to be an automatic choice, but if fit and available I’d like to see him chosen to forge an understanding with Lavelle. Then pick full-backs for defensive capabilities.

How the rest of the team sets up stems from the choice up front. I don’t buy the ‘playing Stockley encourages others to just hoof it up to him’; equally, the ability to win headers 30 yards out and with back to goal is not the crucial factor. Stockley is our most potent weapon in the air in the box – and that depends on service from the flanks. Blackett-Taylor has been a revelation and we look a different team when he is on the pitch and not knackered. He is the most likely to deliver into the box, which of course can be on the deck (as for Davison’s equaliser) but also in the air – yet twice in recent games as he has come on/gone off Stockley has gone off/come on. I would like to see Stockley and CBT on the pitch together.

If those two start/are paired, you have to look at a partner for Stockley, someone to convert the half-chances. Fact is, having been unable to offload Schwartz and get a replacement, we only have one option here, Leko. Washington is a decent, intelligent forward but not a poacher. Lee might be able to play as an outright forward but I don’t really know. If not, and if Leko isn’t considered up for the job, change the set-up and system.

Davison has impressed (especially in the first half against Gillingham) and is now a real alternative to Stockley. If he starts we assume a more flexible set-up, perhaps a front three with players either side, or Lee or Morgan in a No.10 role. For that to work those players simply have to contribute goals. So you look to Washington, Lee and Leko, keeping Blankett-Taylor in reserve against a tiring defence (but please more than 10 minutes at the end, assuming he is fit enough).

With no shoo-in midfield combinations, who gets the shirt in that area really (for me) depends on the combination up front. For example, although they seem to have gone backwards in the pecking order, Kirk and Jaiyesimi as outright wingers are an option. But if you play them both, as we have, you surely need to shore up central midfield with two defensive-minded players, whose job is to win the ball and feed it to the flanks. Otherwise you get overrun, as we have been. The set-up which we adopted in pre-season, of Dobson and Clare plus Morgan in the hole, only (IMO) works if the No.10 – be it Morgan, Lee or Gilbey – scores goals.

Plenty of questions and few answers – but quite frankly the answers aren’t going to come from us, these are decisions for Adkins and his team, who are far better placed to make them. What I would add though is that I’m no fan of a manager prowling the touchline during a game. Curbs liked to be detached and left the job of bawling out those on the pitch and communicating instructions to his number two. For me a manger concentrates on the key aspects of the game: is it working, if not what might we change, when do the subs come on etc. Those decisions I’m not convinced come best from a touchline consortium.

Equally, I was a little surprised to read the part of the Trust’s account of the Roddy/Gallen meeting when Roddy commented that TS “comes to training every day, he has breakfast with the players and comes to team meetings”. Why? It is great that he is involved but here too surely there needs a little distance. TS is the guy who will decide on all the key aspects of the club’s development (aside from how much The Valley will end up costing). Equally, like us supporters he is never going to have the insight and understanding to make decisions about who plays and how we play best. Each to their own styles of course, just that styles, like formations on a football pitch, all have their pluses and minuses.