Central Midfield. Someone? Anyone?

Last year it was so simple.

Romain Vincelot ran around bossing the centre-circle, Lloyd James laying balls into Mooney's feet, Lisbie's chest or out to the wings where Cox and Odubajo were always available.

When we needed to be stronger Bartley could come in and harass teams and Lundstram more than adequately filled Lloyd James' boots when he was tiring towards the end of the season.

So how can all four players, who were superstars last season, now look like they've never kicked a ball in their life? Quite simply, tactics. Or a lack of them. This year we have no tactical plan due to having a fraud masquerading as manager.

John Lundstram
He looked good last year because he could spray the ball around knowing where Cox and Odubajo would run to. Why did they know where to run to? Because their supporting full-backs would create space for them. When they made their run, they in turn would create space for the strikers. And then we would score goals.

This year he looks rubbish and looks like he couldn't pass wind. He hasn't become a bad player overnight. We just have no tactics.

Has just been sent back to his parent club.

Jack Price
When at Orient earlier this year he moved the ball from side-to-side aimlessly. Fans were split on him being a half-decent kid, or more league two fodder.

He's gone back to playing at Wolves in the Championship were he can pass the ball wide to Henry or Sako and now looks a world-beater.

Josh Wright
Pretty much the same mould as Price, much maligned for not passing the ball forward, but who to? The players aren't being instructed to make certain runs, or hit certain areas. Some fans can see this, some think Wright is a pretty-boy who should be playing Conference level at the highest.

Simply put, he hasn't anyone to offload the ball to.

Romain Vincelot
The ever industrious Frenchman just doesn't stop running. This year he looks like a headless chicken, last year he had purpose. That's right, it's down to tactics again and certain areas to attack and defend.

How do we solve this?
We appoint a real manager, a tactically aware one, one that knows the players, can communicate with the  players and has a general idea of what he's doing.

The Italian Job - Russell Slade's Pre-Season Signings - Part One

There's been a lot of criticism of Russell Slade's Pre-Season signings. Let's delve into what happened, why it happened and how it happened.

The takeover from Hearn to Becchetti is complete. If rumour is to be believed, Russell was asked to name five players for each position in the squad, funds not a problem, anyone you like. Mauro Milanese (of whom we'll discuss later) and Becchetti would do the rest.

Naturally Russell went shopping in the Championship as any sane fella would do.

Adam Legzdins - Signed a two-year contract on the 13.06.2014.
According to both Slade and Legzdins we'd been in for him the previous season when he was at Derby and we needed a keeper. Derby were reluctant to let him go, fortunately for us we got Jakupovic.

Slade obviously liked the sound of Legzdins and at 6' 4'' he certainly sounded like the dominant type of keeper that Jones wasn't.

Bradley Pritchard - Signed a two-year contract on the 10.07.2014.
On the face of it, nobody really knew what this signing was about. We'd lost Moses to Brentford, but Pritchard certainly didn't spring to mind as a direct replacement on the wing. Personally i put this signing down to adding a bit of depth in midfield, providing cover and competition for Vincelot and James.

Regardless of what Slade had in mind, we'd been picking from the Championship again so no complaints on that front, plus the few Charlton fans that piped up said that we had a livewire-workaholic type of player. That definitely fits the Slade mould.

Gary Woods - Signed a two-year contract on the 17.07.2014.
Wow.. We can afford two Championship quality keepers of our own! No loans for a change! Similar to Legzdins in that we as fans had no real idea of what we were getting.

We knew that he played a load of games for Doncaster when they were promoted from the Division Three though. Gotta be a good keeper.

Shane Lowry - Signed a two-year contract on the 21.07.2014.
A player that we've heard of! I think Russell brought Lowry to Brisbane Road to shore up the left-back position and add some more quality depth to one of the best defences in the league.

25 years old, over 100 games at Championship level, this was a top-notch signing.


The Lowry signing had me (and no doubt others) starting to realise that Slade's shopping list wasn't a fabrication at all. We had a new owner, we meant business, and the four signings so far had definitely improved on what we had the previous season.