Brief Synopsis!!! (Charlton)

[Biggs]

Biggs - there are 3 good sides in Div 1. There are 4-7 poor sides in Div 1. The rest are average. You cannot ignore the first 20 or so games because the results don't suit your argument. Success or failure is taken over a season.

Without certain key players we are a poor team - see start of season. With everyone on form, we're a good team. By definition that's average.

My point is that you can't just throw a number of ifs and maybes and then claim we're an average team. We're not. And I'm not ignoring 20 games, I'm taking the evidence of nearly 30 games against the evidence of 10 or so games in which we were hit by every bit of bad luck going in an unfamiliar environment with off-the-pitch issues thrown in on top.

Without certain key players, the vast majority of football sides on the planet are nowhere near as good... And I don't agree that anyone outside the top three is average.

My view is that we played badly on Saturday because we played badly. Not because we were missing Bradley and Sarcevic.

 

[oldage]

Charlton had key players out but still had enough to beat us. IMO we are much weaker without Bradley and Sarcevic .We were fortunate to get a win over Bristol Rovers as their replacements struggled .We played badly against Charlton for the same reason.

 

[Knibbsworth]

Biggs - there are 3 good sides in Div 1. There are 4-7 poor sides in Div 1. The rest are average. You cannot ignore the first 20 or so games because the results don't suit your argument. Success or failure is taken over a season.

Without certain key players we are a poor team - see start of season. With everyone on form, we're a good team. By definition that's average.

My point is that you can't just throw a number of ifs and maybes and then claim we're an average team. We're not. And I'm not ignoring 20 games, I'm taking the evidence of nearly 30 games against the evidence of 10 or so games in which we were hit by every bit of bad luck going in an unfamiliar environment with off-the-pitch issues thrown in on top.

Without certain key players, the vast majority of football sides on the planet are nowhere near as good... And I don't agree that anyone outside the top three is average.

My view is that we played badly on Saturday because we played badly. Not because we were missing Bradley and Sarcevic.

You don't just play badly for no reason.

Charlton pressed and harried us, particularly our key men. We stood off them and let them carve us open.

Charlton looked defensively sound. Argyle's back four looked nervy and vulnerable.

Charlton created chances. Argyle whipped balls into the back post blindly with no-one even in the box.

I could go on, but your point that we are not missing Bradley and Sarcevic is laughable. No-one is organising the back four. Vyner is a young albeit talented lad who isn't on a contract here. Songo'o is having a real crisis of confidence. Meanwhile the midfield was completely dominated by Charlton, the little stocky lad steaming into the centre circle and coming out with the ball all the time is exactly what we were missing.

I hope we go back to our winning habit but we are definitely missing some influencers at the moment. When Bradley heads bricks but Sawyer can't win a header at CB, you can't really deny we are a poorer side without them.

 

[Biggs]

Never said we’re not a poorer side.

I’m saying that I don’t think missing Bradley and Sarcevic is THE reason we played badly and lost. And I don’t think we’re a ‘very average’ side without them.

People seem to fall into this trap of taking one game and drawing absolute conclusions from it. They don’t seem to see that games turn on any number of factors. I think that game goes completely differently if they don’t score a wonder goal.

Carey didn’t turn up, Lameiras didn’t turn up, to be honest the whole team didn’t turn up. That’s allowed, it was always going to happen and it doesn’t mean that we are suddenly an average team, with or without Bradley and Sarcevic.

The sensible reaction is to put it down as one of those days after a fabulous run, forget about it and look forward to going again against Southend.

 

[Balham Green]

Never said we’re not a poorer side.

I’m saying that I don’t think missing Bradley and Sarcevic is THE reason we played badly and lost. And I don’t think we’re a ‘very average’ side without them.

People seem to fall into this trap of taking one game and drawing absolute conclusions from it. They don’t seem to see that games turn on any number of factors. I think that game goes completely differently if they don’t score a wonder goal.

Carey didn’t turn up, Lameiras didn’t turn up, to be honest the whole team didn’t turn up. That’s allowed, it was always going to happen and it doesn’t mean that we are suddenly an average team, with or without Bradley and Sarcevic.

The sensible reaction is to put it down as one of those days after a fabulous run, forget about it and look forward to going again against Southend.

Agree to some extent. It's a cliché but very True '- 'goals change games. However wasn't a one off poor performance was it? We were lucky v Rovers and didn't play well at Fleetwood. Southend will tell us a lot but am not confident and fear we may have peaked. Surprised to see they have only lost 1 of last 10.

 

[Balham Green]

We just aren’t the same team offensively without Sarcevic. Granted, we scored 3 goals against Rovers but none were against the run of play so to speak. Without him and Bradley, we look a very average L1 team.

Over the last few months I've seen...

Without Graham Carey, we look a very average L1 team.

Without Ryan Taylor, we look a very average L1 team.

Without Toums, we look a very average L1 team.

Without Reuben Lameiras, we look a very average L1 team.

Etc etc.

This really is silly. We lost and we looked a poor side. IT HAPPENS.

Over the last 25 matches we are in third place with 51 points, so we clearly aren't just a very average League 1 team and no amount of mental gymnastics should convince you otherwise.

Most teams can pick out a good run to prove a point. Southend have lost 1 in 10 so I guess they are not average either!