CONFIMRED: Callum Harriott

[Ian Royal]

I don't understand our transfer policy. Ignore the fact we need a goalscoring striker and are short at both fullbacks and centreback.

Buy midfielders and wingers, selling our two best midfielders, when all the manager talks about is playing a system that you wouldn't expect to include wingers. Who are the wingers going to cross to?

Not saying there's anyyhimg wrong with the individual signed (except Mendes). This lad sounds good. But where are the defenders and strikers?

[Crux]

I don't understand our transfer policy. Ignore the fact we need a goalscoring striker and are short at both fullbacks and centreback.

Buy midfielders and wingers, selling our two best midfielders, when all the manager talks about is playing a system that you wouldn't expect to include wingers. Who are the wingers going to cross to?

Not saying there's anyyhimg wrong with the individual signed (except Mendes). This lad sounds good. But where are the defenders and strikers?

Ian, have you seen Mendes play yet?

[CountryRoyal]

I don't understand our transfer policy. Ignore the fact we need a goalscoring striker and are short at both fullbacks and centreback.

Buy midfielders and wingers, selling our two best midfielders, when all the manager talks about is playing a system that you wouldn't expect to include wingers. Who are the wingers going to cross to?

Not saying there's anyyhimg wrong with the individual signed (except Mendes). This lad sounds good. But where are the defenders and strikers?

Sorry since when does a 4-3-3 not include wingers? Or are they "left forward/rght forward"

[Wycombe Royal]

Wingers don't have to just put crosses in for someone to head home, these players seem more like the types to cut inside, do pull backs, low crosses and shoot. So they fit in perfectly with a 433 formation.....

[Crux]

I don't understand our transfer policy. Ignore the fact we need a goalscoring striker and are short at both fullbacks and centreback.

Buy midfielders and wingers, selling our two best midfielders, when all the manager talks about is playing a system that you wouldn't expect to include wingers. Who are the wingers going to cross to?

Not saying there's anyyhimg wrong with the individual signed (except Mendes). This lad sounds good. But where are the defenders and strikers?

Sorry since when does a 4-3-3 not include wingers? Or are they "left forward/rght forward"

If Ian had seen a game he would see that we are playing with out and our wingers that push up higher than we've seen in quite a while. They are practically on the half way line when we have the ball in defence.

[Muskrat]

Direct quote from a Charlton supporting colleague about Callum Harriott:

"He irritates the life out of me, you are welcome to him"

[Hendo]

Take what other fans say with a pinch of salt most of the time.

Charlton as a club are in a horrific state and a change of club might do the guy a world of good.

[royalp-we]

Take what other fans say with a pinch of salt most of the time.

Charlton as a club are in a horrific state and a change of club might do the guy a world of good.

They are tbf.

With under 24hrs until they kick off they haven't unveiled the squad numbers to their fans yet. Imagine the HNA/Twitter RFC meltdown if that was us

I'm still hopeful of Fosu & Stacy getting numbers; gone are the days when nobody actually cared about such things

[Crux]

Take what other fans say with a pinch of salt most of the time.

Charlton as a club are in a horrific state and a change of club might do the guy a world of good.

Plus they were playing him out of position in a poisonous atmosphere.

All young wingers are inconsistent. Well blood him in gently.

[Crux]

Plus a lot of their fans are saying he has real ability just needs to find consistently.

We have bough potential here. Potential with a load of championship games under his belt.

[Sutekh]

Doesnt look to shabby a player at all, could be something special with a bit of application and belief plus some decent support from us lot rather than getting on his back because he's a typical winger and only has one good game in three.

Actually like the fact he looked a few times before crossing/passing the ball rather than just lumping to where he thought players should be.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Charlton are 25/1 to go down again. That's gotta be worth a fiver.

[Ian Royal]

I don't understand our transfer policy. Ignore the fact we need a goalscoring striker and are short at both fullbacks and centreback.

Buy midfielders and wingers, selling our two best midfielders, when all the manager talks about is playing a system that you wouldn't expect to include wingers. Who are the wingers going to cross to?

Not saying there's anyyhimg wrong with the individual signed (except Mendes). This lad sounds good. But where are the defenders and strikers?

Sorry since when does a 4-3-3 not include wingers? Or are they "left forward/rght forward"

Forwards. I see there being a distinction. Wingers predominantly supply strikers, tending to hug the touchline and aiming to get to the byline and cross or pull back. When the ball goes down the opposite flank they can either tuck in and attack the far post / edge of the area or stay wide to keep width. They tend to defend deeper helping the fullback. You tend to want two strikers for the wingers to feed - see McAnuff & Kebe, Convey & Little etc. Or at least one striker and an attacking goalscoring central midfielder... but then I'd say that would be better described as 4-2-3-1 - it maybe that's what we're going for with Swift being the 'Gylfi' in the hole. It's not the impression I've got from Stam though.

Forwards play narrower, tend more towards cutting inside, through balls and scoring goals and do their pressing and defensive duties in the opposition half. They tend to try to play between the lines of traditional 4-4-2 defence set upts. See Blackman and HRK / Vydra at the start of last season.

That's my view of forwards versus wingers anyway.

The point is, we've now got Beerens, McCleary, Stacey, Meite, Mendes, Swift, Tanner, Fosu, Harriott, Samuel and Rakels who could conceivably fill one of these winger / forward roles. That's 11 players for two slots - and plenty of quality there for sure.

Whilst at the same time we've got Samuel, Rakels, Kermorgant, Mendes for striker - none exactly inspiring though certainly some potential. We've got McShane, Cooper, Gravenberch and some Academy graduates with little senior experience at centre back. We've got Gunter and Obita at fullback - one of whom is a converted winger, and some of our weaker or younger Academy graduates as cover.

For about the third season in a row, if not much more, I look at our squad going into the season and it looks totally unbalanced and not set up for a particular system, but instead half set up for two different ones.

[Ian Royal]

Quick, tenacious, positive and a good long shot.

As highlights reals go it's pretty good. Quite alot of getting the rub of the green or looking a bit uncoordinated, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[SCIAG]

I agree with the point you're making, Ian. Another winger would have been a long way down my priority list. Of that list, I think Samuel would only play as a winger in an emergency, Mendes will probably mostly be used through the middle, and Rakels will also get a lot of game time up front. Swift is also going to play centrally a fair amount. But that still leaves seven players (plus Barrett?) and it's hard to see how we could keep them all happy.

It completely goes against what Brian T was saying about not signing players to be back-ups and block our own youngsters. We physically can't fit Beerens, Meite and Harriott in the team at the same time, and Tanner, Stacey and Fosu are the sorts of players who should be getting chances to fill in. Maybe they think they've signed a few high-risk high-reward gambles, if they don't come off then the academy players come in, if they do then we win matches and sell them for a profit. Meite and Harriott both look raw but exciting, but they're also the sorts of players who always look better on YouTube.

I think most of the players we've got would be comfortable as wide forwards so that's a bit of a distraction.

[Ian Royal]

I agree with the point you're making, Ian. Another winger would have been a long way down my priority list. Of that list, I think Samuel would only play as a winger in an emergency, Mendes will probably mostly be used through the middle, and Rakels will also get a lot of game time up front. Swift is also going to play centrally a fair amount. But that still leaves seven players (plus Barrett?) and it's hard to see how we could keep them all happy.

It completely goes against what Brian T was saying about not signing players to be back-ups and block our own youngsters. We physically can't fit Beerens, Meite and Harriott in the team at the same time, and Tanner, Stacey and Fosu are the sorts of players who should be getting chances to fill in. Maybe they think they've signed a few high-risk high-reward gambles, if they don't come off then the academy players come in, if they do then we win matches and sell them for a profit. Meite and Harriott both look raw but exciting, but they're also the sorts of players who always look better on YouTube.

I think most of the players we've got would be comfortable as wide forwards so that's a bit of a distraction.

Yeah, just to clarify... I'm not saying Samuel, or Rakels for example c/would play as wingers... but I could definitely see them getting game time as wide forwards - hence the distinction between the two positions.

[seahawk10]

Keep Callum and carry on!

[Thai Lady Royals]

Quick question. Who signs the players for Reading? Does Brian sign them or do Stam and Brian decide together?

[tidus_mi2]

Theoretically, since he played for both Charlton and Colchester, was he relegated twice last season?

[Platypuss]

Quick question. Who signs the players for Reading? Does Brian sign them or do Stam and Brian decide together?

Give it up, Crux/Lacoste/whatever.