Friday, September 29, 2006

Bottom time?

Forgive the puns, but a defeat by the Arse could leave Charlton with a bottom-placing to deal with! Let's hope not eh?!?

How can Iain Dowie get his team a win, or a result of any sort, against one of England's finest? Having a fit team would help, but we can count that one out! I doubt that in Arsene Wenger's ten years in charge he has had to put up with an injury list as lengthy as Charlton's has been over recent weeks...

At least there is a light at the end of the treatment room tunnel according to Dowie. Andy Reid could be back tomorrow, though I doubt he will start the game, and Diawara and Traore are running again it seems, but still out of contention. Pouso is still not fit enough, while Thomas and his broken foot have disappeared off the radar.

What are the areas that Charlton can hope to compete in?

Luke Young is obviously key to any good performance by the Addicks these days, and he will have his work cut out against a resurgent Thierry Henry, who is likely as ever to wander out to the left wing and come up against the Charlton skipper.

Scott Carson can expect a busy day too, but hopefully this sort of effort will benefit him, as there may be evidence that he loses concentration in games when Charlton have lots of posession. Scott will need a big game tomorrow if Charlton are to get anything other than a walloping, and let's hope that he shows the fans once more what he is capable of.

Dennis Rommedahl, if he has a good day, could cause some alarms, especially if Charlton find themselves defending but can get the ball wide to Rommedahl to run at the opposition. Always an enigma, Dennis has been quoted as saying that maybe his time at The Valley is up; I hope not, as he is a genuine class player, but only if he is used correctly within the team set up. With a 4-5-1 formation, he is great, as Curbs stumbled across this last season. Now, Dowie expects more so Dennis has to work harder or move on...

Darren Bent seems to have lost a bit of confidence, but a goal against Arsenal would look good on his CV, so I expect him to be striving to gather any crumbs of decent ball that his midfield might offer in his direction.

Alongside Dazza, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is experienced enough in playing the Woolwich exiles, and he won't be phased or dominated by Toure and co. He will be looking for his first Charlton goal at The Valley, and last weeks best efforts at Villa Park came from Jimmy's boots. He is getting a bit of stick on forums over his workrate, but a few goals would dispel any of those arguments - Killer never worked that hard but he made up for it by scoring regularly!

This is the team I expect Dowie to put out tomorrow -

Scott Carson
Luke Young
Talal El Karkouri
Jonathan Fortune
Hermann Hreidersson
Dennis Rommedahl
Bryan Hughes
Radostin Kishishev
Darren Ambrose
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Darren Bent

Subs: Myrhe, Ashton, Reid, Holland, Bent (M).

My one-to-watch tomorrow is Scotty Carson - he will defo be busy, and at some time during the game, he will be all that stands between Charlton and a defeat; hopefully, that will only happen late in the game, if at all.

Pedro45's score forecast is another defeat I'm afraid; I do expect it to be closer than one might imagine though, and reckon 2-1 may be about right.

If the amount of fight shown in recent home games against Arsenal can be replicated (we have drawn at full time and led at half time over recent seasons) then we could snatch a surprise scoreline. This Arsenal team started the season poorly, but have picked up now the European games have started. Let's hope that a return to poor league form is on the cards and that midweek Champions league exersions have taken their toll.

Come on you reds!

Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Enter your email address below to subscribe to Charlton Athletic Online!


powered by Bloglet
Sports Business Directory - BTS Local
Custom Search