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Charlton Athletic v Southend United preview
Charlton Athletic v Southend United preview
Written by Chris Thompson
Friday, 08 February 2019 07:30
Lee Bowyer revealed that he is trying to recruit another striker at his Thursday press conference.

Bowyer‎ was left frustrated on deadline day when moves for Mo Eisa and Erhun Oztumer floundered due to their parent clubs missing out on their own targets.
Currently suspended Lyle Taylor, Reeco Hackett-Fairchild, recently arrived Josh Parker and Igor Vetokele – just back from injury – are Bowyer’s current striking options.
Taylor still has a further match of his suspension to serve, and Hackett-Fairchild struggled at Fleetwood.
Here is what Bowyer had to say about a possible new recruit:
“There’s one that we were trying to get anyway, but I think the lad is just weighing up options at the moment.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure if he’ll come.
“There are not many out there, otherwise we’d have brought them in before. But this lad was at a club and now he has been released, paid off.
“Now he has become more available. He was out of our price-range before, now he might be in it.
“He’s a good player. I don’t know if he is going to come.”
Plenty of clues there. Looking at the recently released list, Wolves’ Joe Mason looks the most likely target.
Mason is 27-years-old and started his career with home town club, Plymouth. Argyle are also thought to be interested in the player which could be a problem.
Bowyer will be without suspended duo, Patrick Bauer and Taylor on Saturday. And Chris Maxwell may come into contention for a starting place, as the Addicks look to bounce back after the Fleetwood reverse ‎last week. Bowyer said this:
“The lads have given me everything all season, Saturday was the same, and I was never going to criticise them after the game, even though we lost.

“I thought we were the better side but it just didn’t happen for us. Certain things just didn’t fall for us or go our away. They are human beings and that can happen on the odd occasion.

“Saying that, we can’t afford too many more days like that and I was glad to be back out on the training pitch on Monday.

“We have had a good week of training and I’m looking forward to having two home games because we have had two tough away games.

“We probably haven’t got the rewards that we deserved in both of those away games but we go again, we have worked hard and we will be ready for Saturday.”

Southend are managed by Charlton legend, Chris Powell, of course, and he always gets a warm reception when he returns to The Valley. Bowyer had this to say about Powell:

‎”I’m sure Chris will get a great reception from our fans. He was of course a player here, like I was, and he did a good job as manager here too.

“He deserves plaudits and whenever someone does well for a football club they deserve recognition for it. Chris is no different.

“I played with Chris as well, I hope he gets the cheer he deserves and I’m expecting his team to give us a very tough game.”

Krystian Bielik looks certain to replace Bauer in defence, with Josh Cullen sitting just in front of the back four.

In attack, Parker will probably make his Valley debut, and Bowyer will have to decide whether it is too early for Vetokele to start. The boss added these thoughts:

“Krystian can easily slot in there, he’s the only person we have that can play there so it won’t be a difficult choice!

“That is the luxury we have with Krystian. He is someone that can do both roles – centre half and midfield – and because he has been playing in midfield he is fit, ready and strong for Saturday.

“I don’t know if he (Vetokele) is ready,he played maybe 75 minutes the other day in our Under-23 game.

“I haven’t seen him since Saturday because he played in that match on Monday and his wife had the baby on Tuesday.

“I’ll see him this morning and find out how he feels and I’ll look at his clips for the Under-23s. Playing Under-23s is completely different and QPR had a young side out as well.

“So I don’t know if he is actually ready to start.”

‎Charlton could look something like this:

Phillips; Solly, Bielik, Sarr, Purrington; Cullen, Pratley, Reeves, Williams; Parker, Vetokele.

Subs: Maxwell, Dijksteel, Stevenson, Lapslie, Marshall, Fosu, Hackett-Fairchild.

The referee will be Simon Hooper from Wiltshire.
It will be a difficult afternoon, but the Addicks really need to find some consistent form now.
The last couple of games have illustrated just how big a miss Taylor is.
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