Schumacher's Charlton Preview

It is very hard to write a preview for an Argyle game this Saturday without referencing the Pilgrims’ 5-2 defeat at Peterborough United last Saturday.

For manager Steven Schumacher, the spectre of the loss at the Posh is being used as a guide to hone the squad for this weekend’s challenge, posed by the visit of Charlton Athletic.

That analysis does not just mean going over the mistakes from that loss, but also emphasising the good things that emerged from the performance.

“It's important that you put it away quickly,” Schumacher said. “You can't dwell on one bad performance or one bad result. It's important to also that you go over it and figure out what went wrong, which we did with the players.

“We had a good chat on Tuesday and went through the clips, spoke about where we could have done better.

“But I also showed them that we did some good things in the game. We played some half-decent attacking football, we had more penalty box entries than Peterborough, more final-third entries than Peterborough, but we didn't make the most of them.”

Prior to Peterborough, Argyle had lost four league games this season. In the four individual games that have followed those defeats, the Greens have won three and lost one, showing that their reactions to disappointment generally stand up to scrutiny.

“That's probably another reason why we are in where we are in the league, at the top end of the division, because we've shown that ability to not dwell on it, not let it fester for too long and to try to put it right in the next game,” said Schumacher.

“If we show a reaction, learn from our mistakes from last week and get the game plan right, then hopefully we can get another good result and get a few more points on the board.”

One those defeats earlier in the season was at Charlton, in the fourth game of the campaign. Argyle lost 5-1 on an August evening in London, with James Wilson’s sending off in the course of conceding a penalty at 1-0 a crucial factor.

After that night, Argyle went on a run of winning 12 of their next 14 games, setting the tone for a season in the top two positions. Charlton’s inconsistency has seen them in 13th place, but with the notable capability of beating any side in the division on their day.

Curiously, and coincidentally, Charlton played at Peterborough on Tuesday night, and drew 0-0.

Thinking back to August, Schumacher said: “We will watch that game back again, to go over their players, figure out what their strengths are, what they do when they get the ball and where they go. I know they've got a different manager who is playing a slightly different style, but the players are still the players and have still got their threats.

“I watched them [against Peterborough] on Tuesday night. They played each other and played out a 0-0 draw with all those attacking players on the pitch. It's just mad. The season's mad.

“We're going to have to do better defensively against Charlton because if we don't defend better, if we don't play better as a team, then we'll get punished again.”

Argyle go in to Saturday without long-term injury victims Mike Cooper, Dan Scarr and Conor Grant, as well as Adam Randell and Tyreik Wright, with issues to their ankle and calf respectively.

“We haven’t got Tyreik Wright available, because he’s got a bit of a calf issue,” explained Schumacher. “That's why he wasn't available at the weekend. Adam Randall is still not available.”

They will miss the first game of a quickfire trilogy of matches for Argyle in the next week, with Charlton’s visit followed by Derby County at home, then a trip to Barnsley the following Saturday.

“It's important we try to get off to a good start and look at Saturday's game first,” said the boss. “We need to get a result, get a performance, then we've got a massive game against Derby County and then another tough one against Barnsley.

“We spoke last week that it was important to have a clear week and gets some time for the players to rest and refresh. We're going to have to use all our energy and all our quality again over the next few games because they're all hard. We’re confident that if we play well, play to our standard, then we can take some good points from them all.”