Its 48 hours until the kick off of the 2008-2009 Coca-Cola Championship Season, 48 hours until we are all back at the Valley for the start of what we are hoping will be a huge season for the Addicks. I can’t wait for the season to kick off. I’m nervous and I think its going to be a long and frustrating season, but I’m confident that with a few additions to the side we will have that formula needed to progress back to the Premiership.
I thought I’d put down a few thoughts about the forthcoming season, the squad and just some general comments as we countdown to kick off.
The Squad
With the squad numbers announced for the season, we can now decide which player’s name we will get put on the back of our replica shirts (which the club shop might not have in the necessary size due to unprecedented demand!), but I’m not so sure we are all confident about what the starting eleven will be come Saturday. It’s always bemused me why players opt for random numbers (take my mate Kyriakos Papadopoulos who plays for Olympiakos as an example) and why we don’t just go back to the old system where 1 to 11 were your first team, the rest were subs and your second team! But rather than digress as I usually do, I’ll try to keep focus!
The most affected area of the team is clearly the back 4. With the sale of Majid Bougherra and Paddy McCarthy, the release of Ben Thatcher and the return of Sam Sodje and Greg Halford to Reading and Sunderland respectively there has been a lot of change in this department and it worries me that we’ve only really brought in Mark Hudson from rivals Crystal Palace. Our defense last season seemed quite settled and I didn’t think it was the poorest part of the team, even if they were susceptible to the odd moment of madness and lapse in concentration. I’m much more concerned this year that it will take the back four more time to bed in and settle, time that we cant really afford to waste! In addition to this, I think we are very light at the back and should we encounter any injuries we may well find ourselves scouring the loan market for a replacement!
Zheng Zhi’s participation in the Olympics ruled him out of the entire pre-season and means he will miss the first few weeks of the new season which is cause for concern in my opinion. ZZ looked to really tire during the middle of last season, I think he looked visibly shattered on the pitch and what worries me is that he will have forgone a preseason to continue where he finished last season and move straight into a relatively intense competition on the other side of the world. ZZ at the top of his game is a quality member of the side, but for much of the middle of the season I thought he was a passenger in a midfield that needed his youthful presence! I’m hoping that he will be substituted a bit more this season and that we can start to utilize some of the younger members of the team to give them the all important match experience that they’ll need to eventually take over the mantle as we move back into the Premiership.
To finish up with the midfield, I am expecting big things from our younger midfielders. Ambrose and Thomas really need to step up to the plate and ‘grow-up’ in a footballing sense. All too often last season both players faded into and out of matches showing brief flashes of brilliance in what were largely mediocre performances. I want to see Thomas roll up his sleeves and learn to tackle rather than shitting out of every tackle he goes into! Both players have promise and with the departure of big Chris Iwelumo, they should be encouraged to stamp their authority on the game and run at players and generally attack attack attack, rather than hoof hoof hoof!
I’m hoping that the departure of Iwelumo will rule out the ‘route 1’ hoofing that we became so used to last season and that with Andy Gray, Luke Varney and Toddy all fit and fighting for places we will be able to use the speed and skill of these players (and I really do think they are great strikers all of them) to tear apart Championship teams this season.
I think August is going to be a crucial month, I think we need two or three more additions to the squad to give us the depth to cover the entire season…..I’m largely against mid-season spending, rather prefer a proactive manager who will see the gaps in the team and plug them earlier rather than later (and usually at a higher price!)
The Season
I’ve spoken with a few people this week about the forthcoming season and the one thing that has been common throughout all of my conversations is that EVERYONE thinks this season will be infinitely more difficult than last season. In what was my first season of watching the Championship it became crystal clear that the Championship is not somewhere I’ll be putting my money this season. It’s the most random league I’ve ever witnessed with random results occurring throughout the course of the season.
Offering my prediction, I think that the top 6 will be made up of: Birmingham City, Watford, Wolves, Charlton, Crystal Palace and Ipswich this season. But beyond that I think its too tough to call who will get promoted out of this group! Well, I’m sure that Palace won’t, well, I hope not!
Final Word
I’ve had two more friends move down from Liverpool this year both of whom are mad Reds and one of whom I travel away into Europe with following Liverpool. I’m hoping to get them along to a few games this season so if you do bump into three Scousers at the match that’ll be us!
I’m going to try to get to a few more Charlton away matches this season too, I enjoyed the ones that I got to last season, even though we didn’t win any of them, they were always good days out and usually involved lots of beer and a pizza on the way home!
Get some rest tonight and tomorrow night….. its going to be a long ride this season!
No comments:
Post a Comment