Burnley preview

With the Zabeel deal having been a mere pipe dream, attention turns back to Charlton's form on the pitch, a situation rapidly resembling a nightmare.

There are several troubling statistics relating to this season, but it's the simple fact that we've lost 7 out of 12 games that troubles me the greatest. If one takes the final 10 games of last season too, it's now 13 defeats from 22.

In starker terms, we've fallen behind 7 times during this campaign, and have failed to salvage a single point from those situations - this is the type of trait that relegated sides have. Our politicians were finally forced to mumble the 'R-word' (recession) today - it's probably about time Pards began using the 'R-word' (relegation) more forcefully in his teamtalks, because the threat is very real.

He has promised changes to the line-up, and I don't doubt that we will see them. However I don't sense fans necessarily want change for change's sake, but might actually prefer stability if there was greater evidence of a 'masterplan' at work that simply needed time.

We have scored plenty of early goals this season, suggesting that 'Plan A' is to attack from the off and force the opposition onto the back foot. Indeed reports suggest we completely dominated the first 25 minutes against Bristol City. However if the goal doesn't come, or more importantly if a soft one is conceded instead, what is the 'Plan B'?

I believe the squad has talent, and on the rare occasions that it clicks, we can play some terrific stuff. However I don't sense that Pards has a true system in place into which any player can slot into, and moreover his penchant for loan signings and general tactical tinkering does not help matters either. Thus performances like the one at home to Reading are more likely a function of randomness, rather than an inevitable consequence of weeks of hard work in training.

Pards bemoaned the fact that Lloyd Sam tried to do several jobs when introduced on Tuesday night, and not simply the one that he was asked to perform. Surely this is simply poor coaching? And if not, shouldn't Sam simply be banished to the reserves for a while? For sure Moutaouakil would have been.

Our goals meanwhile have dried up, scoring just 6 goals in our last 9 games. With just four goals from open play between them all season, a Gray/Varney partnership is clearly not working. Each has something to offer in his own way, but neither is a natural goalscorer and pairing them together thus makes little sense. The time has surely come to offer the likes of Dickson, McLeod or Fleetwood a proper run in the side.

As I expected, Burnley have recovered from a poor start to tuck into an early play-off position and are certainly not missing Andy Gray it would appear. As a seemingly perpetual member of English football's second-tier, they have a degree of stability that we are lacking, and like Reading, Hull or Stoke before them, they may well secure some Premiership football based upon that simple virtue alone.

I think Pards will select as follows: Weaver, Moutaouakil, Basey, Hudson, Primus, Bailey, Wright, Sam, Bouazza, Todorov, Dickson. Subs: Elliot, Semedo, Holland, Gray, Varney.

NY Addick predicts: Charlton 1 (Wright), Burnley 0. Att: 20, 711.