Charlton Athletic star Thierry Small has offered a piece of insight into how head coach Nathan Jones is preparing his side ahead of this weekend’s visit from league leaders Portsmouth.
The Addicks are now 15 league games without a victory, 17 in all competitions and find themselves in an unwanted relegation battle so late in the season. The South-east London club currently sit one point above the drop zone and could potentially move into the bottom four with another defeat this weekend.
The former Premier League outfit made the tough decision to relieve Michael Appleton of his duties at the end of January following a 3-2 home defeat against Northampton Town. However, in five matches since Appleton’s departure, Charlton are still yet to win a game, including three matches under new manager Jones.
Nevertheless, the side saw an improved performance last time out away at title-chasers Bolton Wanderers. Unfortunately, Charlton Athletic did take the lead twice during the game but failed to hold on for the victory and now face an unenviable task of trying to topple Pompey at The Valley this Saturday.
One of the goalscorers at the Toughsheet Community Stadium at the weekend was winter signing Thierry Small. In his first start for the club, the former Southampton star equalised for the visitors, cancelling out Victor Adeboyejo’s early strike.
Small spoke to club media ahead of the home game against Pompey tomorrow and revealed that Jones has been drilling his side all week on team structure and shape in hopes of getting a result against the League One leaders.
“You always want to be playing against the best sides. We were unfortunate not to get the full three points at Bolton because the lads played well,” Small said.
“The manager has been drilling us the whole week on our structure and shape. It’s really good to get that discipline and cohesion between each other so we can play good football. If everyone is on it on Saturday we can get the three points and hopefully that is what it brings.
'Any time I play on the pitch for this club I will put my all into it and the fans are definitely going to see passion and hunger.' 🗣️
Thierry Small talks us through his debut goal, settling in and working with Nathan Jones again ⬇️#cafc pic.twitter.com/xhwP3nB5NF
— Charlton Athletic FC (@CAFCofficial) February 23, 2024
“I worked with the manager at Southampton a little bit. He was really good and intense, and he gets a lot out of his players. That’s one thing I was going to expect when he came in – that intensity, discipline and hard work which I love to do as a player anyway.”
Writer’s View
Small was a fantastic signing for Charlton Athletic midway through the campaign. Despite only being 19, the fullback can be utilised on either side of the backline and already has experience playing at this level from his time at Port Vale.
It’s nice to see how Small talks about the new boss and should certainly give fans a boost that the team are going in the right direction, but Jones’ men will need more than a good shape to beat Portsmouth this weekend.
