Reaction given to Harvey Knibbs situation at Charlton Athletic – “It’s safe to say”.

This post is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which features personal comments from FLW Fan Pundits on breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings, and more.

Harvey Knibbs, Charlton Athletic’s summer signing, is expected to establish his worth at The Valley despite not getting a fair chance under Nathan Jones this season.

Knibbs has started all but one league game from the bench, and his debut start against Hull City lasted only 53 minutes before being replaced.

The 26-year-old has been unable to replace the brilliant Sonny Carey in the attacking midfield position, while his fellow summer arrival has had a fantastic start to life in SE7, netting four league goals.

“Delayed pre-season” partly to blame for Harvey Knibbs’ lack of minutes at Charlton Athletic

Chris Woodward, FLW’s Charlton Athletic Fan Pundit, highlighted that Knibbs’ poor start at Charlton was primarily due to circumstances beyond his control. “Harvey Knibbs is a peculiar person.

When we signed him from Reading in the summer, we anticipated him to slot immediately into the starting lineup as an attacking midfielder in our 3-4-1-2 or 3-5-2 system, depending on how you look at it,” Woodward told FLW.

“He was arguably going to be our most exciting signing in the summer transfer window based on what we expected of him and obviously his overall quality from both Reading and Cambridge,” the coach said.

Knibbs had been Reading’s best scorer in consecutive seasons, scoring 16 goals in all competitions during the 24/25 season after scoring the same number the year before.

His 25 league goals in 88 matches for the Royals drew interest from numerous Championship clubs, including Portsmouth, Derby County and Oxford United, before the Addicks signed him.

It was also observed that Knibbs “came in with a delayed pre-season due to lengthy transfer negotiations with Reading and he finished the previous season with a minor injury, so he wasn’t fit enough to be starting games right from the beginning of the season” .

Sonny Carey has been Nathan Jones’ preferred choice to Harvey Knibbs

Woodward then stated that the issue with Knibbs not starting the season is that “his replacement, or the person who’s been filling that position, Sonny Carey, has probably been our player of the year so far this season.”

“We experimented against Hull, we played both Knibbs and Carey, but it just turned out to be too attacking and it just upset the balance in midfield, and we really didn’t get back into that game until we took Knibbs off to bring on a more defensive-minded midfielder,” says Woodward.

Carey was voted the south-east London club’s Player of the Month for September after scoring in back-to-back home games against Millwall and Blackburn Rovers, earning 44% of the fans’ votes.

Jones dubbed him “the ginger genius” for his devastating long-range strikes, and the Welshman admitted he couldn’t believe Carey attempted the drive that crashed into the net against Blackburn.

“Glimpses of quality” suggest Harvey Knibbs can “still turn out to be another good signing”

Despite his limited opportunities, Knibbs has shown glimpses of the talent that drew Jones to chase him over the summer, scoring a stunning stoppage-time winner against Watford on the first day of the season.

“Knibbs has shown glimpses of quality in his cameo appearances with the goal at Watford, obviously the vital flick-on for the winner at Sheffield United, and other bits here and there, but the way with how Carey’s been playing, it feels like Knibbs is going to have to score a hat-trick if he’s going to make the starting lineup at this rate,” claimed Woodward.

Those contributions, however, demonstrate that Knibbs has the ability to make a difference at Championship level, even if opportunities have been limited at the moment.

“It’s safe to say Knibbs hasn’t exactly hit the ground running, but he hasn’t been given a fair chance to play consistent games to establish his fitness and sharpness.

“It’s clear from his time at Reading and Cambridge he’s a very good player, he can score goals, and he fits that sort of role and the mould of an attacking midfielder Nathan Jones wants in his system,” says Woodward.

While Knibbs may be upset by his lack of consistent playing time, our Fan Pundit believes that patience will be important in allowing the midfielder to showcase his ability.

“If Carey drops off form or gets injured and Knibbs starts to get more consistent minutes, I’m more than confident he’ll find his rhythm and turn out to be another good signing from the club, especially for £1.8m, which in today’s market isn’t an obscene amount of money for a quality Championship level midfielder,” says Woodward.

Charlton is presently sixth in the second tier, with 19 points from 12 games, putting them in early contention for a play-off spot.

After Woodward’s words, the challenge for Knibbs seems to be trying to force his way into a settled side.

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