Nathan Jones says Charlton are a ‘work in progress’ and he does not set them up to always play long
Nathan Jones said he does not set his Charlton Athletic side up to play long.
Addicks supporters had aimed criticism at the side’s direct style over the course of this season – particularly after Tuesday’s 2-1 home defeat against Crawley Town.
But the South Londoners seemed to move the ball about on the floor more during Saturday’s stalemate at Lincoln City.
When asked about the change in style, Jones said: “We always work on that. Whatever happens in a game, if you watch our training we can stretch play, we can go into front, but we move the ball with tempo. That is what we work on day in, day out. When we become the side that we want to become, because bear in mind we were 18th in League One when I came here. They hadn’t won in 18 games. Last year we turned things around. We had to lay a foundation, we had to get better defensively, and we were. We did what we had to do.
“This year we’ve tried to be more fluent, more front-footed. We’ve bedded a lot of players in. Defensively, we’ve improved considerably from last year because we’re one of best in the league defensively. It’s all a work in progress. It isn’t going to happen overnight because we haven’t spent 40 million but we are getting there. When you say about midweek, that was just choices from players midweek. I take a lot of the onus on myself and the blame on myself and the responsibility for everything.
“But we don’t set up to go long, long, long. We don’t train like that. That’s not how we train. We train to be fluent, to be front-footed. To move the ball quickly to be aggressive, to run beyond people. That’s what we train to do, and we made better choices today.”
When asked if he is calling for more patience from supporters to become the side he wants, Jones answered: “Supporters pay their money. They turned up today, a magnificent effort today. Patience, or whatever, what we’re saying is that to turn a club around and to go from 18 games without a win to suddenly go and take this team up the league and try and get in another division, and so on, is not an overnight thing. It depends.
“Performances like Tuesday are not acceptable, not from my point of view or the players’ point of view. That wasn’t game plan, that was choices, we have to make better choices. We are a work in progress, we know that. Defensively we’re considerably better than we were last year, one of the best in the league. Now we have to marry that up with a front-footed, fluent performance going forward. Once both of those come together, we’ll be an excellent side.”
But with his side languishing in mid-table and on a run of one win in eight, does Jones think there is still time to make up ground in the play-off race?
“Absolutely,” he said.
“It’s a long season, we’re not even halfway through the season yet. We have a foundation here. We’ve had catastrophic injuries. We’ve had 10 players out at times. Big players out. Lloyd Jones coming back today was a big thing. All our right side has been decimated. We have had big injuries. But once everyone comes back, and we start fluency and get more of that, we’ll be a better side and in a better position to win far more football games.
“We’ve probably won 50 per cent of our football games this season in terms of cup games and everything. We’ve won all our cup games – five. If I could swap – that we’d have 15 more points in the league – then of course I would. Then we’d go out of the cups. But we try to win every game. We are a work in progress. There’s so much to get positive for and we know we can get better.”
PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS