This post is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which features personal comments from FLW Fan Pundits on breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings, and more.
Despite a promising start to their Championship return, Charlton Athletic have endured two crushing back-to-back defeats.
Since their last-gasp triumph over West Brom in early November, the Addicks have lost three consecutive games, beginning with a 1-0 loss at Wrexham.
However, Charlton have conceded goals at an alarming rate in the last two games, suffering a shock 5-1 defeat at home to Southampton, while Nathan Jones’ side lost 3-0 to Stoke City in midweek, conceding two goals in the first five minutes of the game.
This means Charlton has lost two games by an aggregate score of 8-1, leaving Addicks fans perplexed as to why this has occurred so suddenly.
Despite their three-point advantage over the Baggies, Charlton has only won once in their previous five second-tier games, and the team must break out of this slump quickly if they are to re-enter the promotion race.
With this in mind, FLW’s Charlton Athletic fan commentator has shared his thoughts on where things have gone wrong recently and what has to change to rectify them.
Charlton Athletic’s decline is being blamed on a midfield weakness.
Speaking to Football League World, Charlton Athletic fan pundit Alfie believes that leaving Conor Coventry isolated in midfield has allowed opposing sides to damage the Addicks in open spaces, resulting in an increase in goals conceded in the last two Championship games.
Alfie stated, “It’s been a really bizarre last couple of games, coming out of nowhere. I think everybody was really happy with where the team was going, and everyone is still happy, including myself, because I think we’ll be fine in the long run, and we’ve shown enough, but it’s been a really strange couple of weeks, especially that Southampton game at home, where we were all feeling pretty optimistic, but we got absolutely ripped apart.
“I think part of it, and people won’t like to hear this, is that Southampton showed some real quality, and with the Stoke game that followed, we’re talking about two freak goals, which isn’t an excuse, but it’s not quite as cut and dry as ‘Charlton are rubbish’; those two things are factors, those freak goals from Stoke and Southampton moments of quality to punish us.
“The fundamental issue is that our middle is getting completely bypassed.
“The number of times in the last two games we’ve seen guys exploding through, sprinting at full speed towards our penalty box after making a tremendous run at our backline with no one in the center to stop them has been quite weird. It appears that (Conor) Coventry has been left alone to act as a single pivot, which will not work when two to three players are attacking you at the same time.
“I’m not entirely sure where that came from. I believe we are also suffering greatly as a result of our injuries. We have a lot of players out, and we’re losing a lot of defenders to injury, so these are all contributing reasons.
“It’s impossible to pinpoint its exact location. We were half-hearted in our press coverage of Southampton. We had players pressing, committing a lot of bodies forward to this half press, and Southampton could simply build from the back because there were so many bodies forward, and with one long-range pass into the midfield, they had a free run at our backline.
“I thought the Stoke game was horrible, but we were victims of a couple of freak goals. When it rains, it pours, and nothing goes your way. It does feel that way for us right now.”
However, Alfie believes Nathan Jones can solve the situation, and that Stoke City and Southampton fans should not be too critical of Charlton’s recent performances.
Alfie went on to say, “I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’m confident Nathan Jones knows. I believe everyone who is yelling and making fun of him right now, and there is a lot of that going on from both Stoke and Southampton fans, should be cautious, because Jones is the type of manager who takes it very personally, and he generally gets the final laugh.
“So I have a lot of faith that he can turn things around. However, I would be astonished if we turned things around against Coventry, but we’ll see.
Charlton Athletic must get back to basics to contain Coventry City.
Given Charlton Athletic’s recent goal-scoring slump, a trip to the CBS Arena to face Coventry City would have been the last thing they wanted, given the Sky Blues’ track record of blowing opponents away this season.
Frank Lampard’s side leads the way in goals scored by a country mile, having scored 47 this season, including seven in their past two triumphs over West Brom and Middlesbrough.
Charlton manager Nathan Jones has chosen to employ a 3-1-4-2 configuration over the last six games, but modifying that setup has resulted in only one win in that time, so it appears it may be time to boost the midfield and provide Conor Coventry with further support.
Charlton’s last convincing Championship win was a 3-0 triumph over Blackburn Rovers in late September when they used a 4-3-3 style, although Charlie Kelman and Joe Edwards are out due to injuries sustained in that game.
Charlton are currently way too open, and it is up to Jones to correct that in order to see a change in results and move back up the table.
Switching to a back four should be on his mind, with Charlton’s early impetus stifled by a three-at-the-back configuration.
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