Veni, Foedum, Tum Omnia Pirum Informibus

So it was a case of ‘veni, foedum, tum omnia pirum informibus’. Ronnie Schwartz is clearly not going to be listed among the Charlton greats, but his cameo career with us will I’m sure be remembered. Sure, there have always been signings which came with great expectations soon to be dashed (Barry Endean, Maurice Setters, Ralph Milne, Francis Jeffers spring to mind). But I can’t think of another which began so well – comes on and scores that goal against Rochdale – and fell apart so quickly – next contribution is to block a goal-bound shot to deny us a winner, followed by the penalty not converted at the end against Oxford, which technically cost us a play-off place, then brief substitute appearances marked by the absence of contact between him and the ball, a failure to return for pre-season, injury, then agreed exit.

He leaves with no hard feelings, we wish him well, especially in dealing with any personal issues (although opinion may shift if we hear he’s signed as a free agent for Portsmouth or the like). Sometimes things just don’t work out. It actually reminds me of a Frasier episode when the brothers hear about an actor they revered as schoolboys having fallen on hard times and resolve to restore him to his rightful position by staging a one-man show for him, only to discover that he (played by Derek Jacobi) was a total ham. I have the image of TS having seen Schwartz score goals and keeping him in mind as just what we needed last January, only to discover …

I’m really just glad the affair is over, would have been better if it had been done and dusted at the end of last season. If it had dragged on it would have given the unwanted impression of Sandgaard wanting to pick the team when clearly Adkins didn’t see a role for him (unless of course there was a material change in performance).

The fact is that in a fairly short space of time we have, with I’d say the arrivals of Lee and Leko, achieved stability of a sort in terms of formation if not personnel/partnerships. We are consistently playing a variation on 4-4-2 which could be described as a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3, depending on whether Lee is slotting in as a second forward, alongside either Davison or Stockley, or playing deeper and linking play. He’s doing both, so the technicalities don’t really matter. The formation relies on a back four, two central midfielders, and two either side of the front one/two.

How close are we to a settled starting XI? Not that far off I’d suggest. MacGillivray is first-choice, with Henderson waiting for loss of form or injury. For the back four it’s either Matthews or Gunter on the right and Purrington or Soare on the left, with, absent Inniss, Lavelle and Famewo as the two centre-backs (and Pearce and Elerewe the back-ups). The main forward is either Stockley or Davison, Lee plays, the wider guys up front are one of Blackett-Taylor, Kirk or Washington on the left, Leko on the right (with Jaiyesimi the replacement). That really leaves the central midfield two.

We have Watson, Arter, Dobson, Clare, Morgan and Gilbey to choose from (hopefully Forster-Caskey again before too long). Only two of those six can start and the choice is up to Adkins. Personally I’d be inclined to assume that you have either Watson or Arter as one of the two, unless the choice is to pair Dobson and Clare (and it was interesting to note that in the Mickey Mouse cup we had those two in central midfield with Morgan, Stockley up front, and Jaiyesimi – it looked like a starting XI from the beginning of the season).

With choices for most positions, I’d suggest the bench is going to be very important – and I’ve been surprised by the choices on that front for recent games. You really need the bench for three purposes: replacements for injured players (in extremis for a dismissal), replacements providing fresh legs/replacing underperformers - ie in both cases like-for-like – and to change the formation if it isn’t working and/or we are chasing the game. We went into with Fleetwood game with only Pearce as a defensive replacement. Why? Seems too much of a risk to me, I’d have him and one of the unchosen full-backs. Presumably either Davison or Stockley is on the pitch and the other on the bench. Taking account of the reserve keeper, that leaves three other places. One needs to be a central midfielder, one another wide man, the third a second for either of those two positions.

The piece in the jigsaw we are missing is the outright goalscorer, the guy to score that scrappy one from a knockdown. It should have been Schwartz, just didn’t happen.