Charlton travel to Turf Moor this weekend to take on promotion chasing Burnley after Tuesday night’s shambolic 2-2 draw with bottom club Bolton Wanderers.
Charlton Live’s LEWIS CATT previews Saturday’s game
Charlton travel to Burnley this weekend on the back of a simply horrendous point against the Championship’s basement club and Karel Fraeye will have his work cut out if we are going to leave Turf Moor with any points whatsoever.
A team who were in the Premier League last year with an England international between the sticks, a prolific striker and not to mention a well respected and tactically sound manager, this could prove to be real test for the Addicks. We have some hope though as Burnley have gone 6 games without a win and have failed to score in four of those games. Charlton however threw away a two goal lead for the 2nd time in 3 games and that is something that Karel Fraeye must address.
Our inability to hold on to a lead and see games out for the 90 minutes is becoming more alarming as the weeks go by. One major issue in my eyes is how awfully we defend set pieces. Whenever the opposition have a corner we seem to throw ourselves into panic. Even the reliable Stephen Henderson seems a tad shaky when coming to gather crosses. Tuesday night for me was one of my lowest moments as a Charlton fan. Seeing your club on its knees with the lowest league attendances I have ever seen in my time visiting The Valley is horrible stuff and despite times being hard I do want to call all Addicks fans to come back to The Valley and back this team in this battle.
Team News:
Charlton:
Charlton will be boosted by the return of Patrick Bauer after he served his two match ban. He can come into a leaky defence to try and tighten things up. I expect he will play along side Harry Lennon who has impressed me of late. The BFG returning should see Diarra moved back into midfield which means either Cousins or Jackson could be dropped. Fraeye will be sweating on the fitness of Ademola Lookman and Johann Berg Gudmundsson after both players left the field with niggles on Saturday. If Lookman is unfit this could see Makienok or Ahearne-Grant come in to replace him. Again Vetokele, Ceballos and Kashi are all unavailable.
Predicted XI:
Henderson, Solly, Bauer, Lennon, Holmes-Dennis, Diarra, Gudmundsson, Jackson, Lookman, Ghoochannejhad, Vaz Te.
Burnley:
Burnley lost to table topping Middlesborough on Tuesday but that is just one of only four defeats this season, including a 2-0 defeat to rival Preston. The Clarets will desprately want to get back to winning ways as soon as possible and will see a home game vs The Addicks as a perfect opportunity. The Clarets are expected to bring Sam Vokes back in to the side to play alongside Andre Gray, reverting to a more attacking formation after sticking to playing one up top.
Burnley will definitely be without strikers Ashley Barnes and Lukas Jutkiewicz who are both long term absentees. Matty Taylor will be looking for a chance to come in and impress as Dyche will look to install some attacking fire to his Burnley XI.
Prediction:
The Addicks can see this as a game with no expectation as Burnley are no doubt favouites. However in the relegation dogfight that we are in we should be giving our all no matter who the opposition.
Burnley 3-1 Charlton
You can follow Lewis on Twitter – @LewisCatt9
