Claim made on James Bree situation at Charlton Athletic - "He's likely to receive more criticism" | OneFootball

Loanee defender James Bree has come in for strong criticism from Charlton fans, but FLW's Addicks fan pundit is backing him to succeed at The Valley.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Following a reasonably strong start to the season, Charlton Athletic's 2025-26 is starting to look as though it's turning into a fight to stay in the Championship following promotion from League One at the end of last season.

The Addicks were in a play-off position in the middle of October after winning six and drawing five of their first 14 games, a run which included impressive away wins against Sheffield United and Ipswich Town. Ahead of their home match against Portsmouth on the 29th December, they'd taken just four points from their previous eight matches, a run which has seen them fall from sixth place in the table down to 17th.

And one player whose form this season seems to have mirrored that of his team has been defender James Bree, who signed on a half-season loan for the club from Southampton during the summer. Bree has played in 17 of Charlton's league games so far this season, but while his form throughout the opening stages was good, a subsequent tail-off has led to calls on social media for him to be sent back to St Mary's as soon as his current loan period with the club expires.

James Bree backed for the second half of 2025-26 at Charlton Athletic

Football League World have spoken to our Charlton Athletic fan pundit Chris Woodward about this state of affairs, and Chris agrees that Bree's form throughout the early stages of the season was outstanding: "James Bree looked like he was one of the best right wing-backs in the league for the first ten games, but he'd definitely not matched those levels in the last seven."

Chris feels that much of the criticism of Bree's defensive performances for Charlton Athletic this season has been overstated: "Defensively, I don't think he's done much wrong in that time. He's not made any defensive mistakes that have led to goals, and the goals which have come down his side, which have been very few, have come from luck on the opposition's end or from a keeper error, all of which Bree couldn't do very much about."

With regard to Bree, Chris sees mitigating circumstances: "When you put it into perspective, he's faced Sorba Thomas, Mason Clarke and Demarai Gray, arguably some of the best left-wingers in this league, down his side in his last seven games. And then also looking at how vulnerable we were against Southampton when they ripped us apart when he wasn't available, I think he's been treated very harshly in that regard."

​​​​​​But none of this is to say that Chris hasn't identified issues with Bree's game, though these have tended to come at the other end of the pitch: "The issue has been his fall-off in output at the other end of the pitch. His crossing and set-pieces were arguably the best we've seen at the club in years in his first ten games, but recently, especially against Norwich, where he put in eight deliveries and all eight hit the first man, he's looked Sunday league level."

And Chris is aware that there have been issues going on with his fitness which may be impacting on his ability to deliver balls as would be expected: "The management team has said previously that he has had a groin injury which stopped him from being able to cross the ball but played through it, and it was reconfirmed after this weekend, that while it has improved, it has still not been fully resolved.

"This would explain his drop-off in performances," he told us, "but playing him injured he's likely to receive more criticism, especially when you have a young, exciting replacement in Apter on the bench that fans want to see get more game time. And when Bree's attacking output at wing-back is dependent on set-pieces and crossing, he's really struggling to offer much going forward at present."

But this doesn't necessarily mean that Chris is in favour of returning the player to his parent club at the earliest available opportunity: "That being said, I still want to sign Bree permanently in January because he knows the manager, he's already settled, has lots of experience, and has proven previously he has what it takes to perform at this level, all of which will be vital since we're looking at a relegation battle."

And while Chris is critical of some of his fellow Addicks fans over their reactive response to Bree's tail-off in form, he also feels that there is blame to directed elsewhere over this having happened: "I think some fans have let recency bias creep into their standpoints on Bree, and while he hasn't been good enough recently, a lot of that should be put on the management team for not giving him enough time to rest and reset."

It's not uncommon for one player to be targeted more than others by fans when a team has a downturn in form, and this seems to have been the case with regard to James Bree.

Bree arrived at The Valley in the summer on a half-season loan from Southampton, where he was reunited with Nathan Jones, with whom he had previously worked at St Mary's. He made his Charlton debut from the bench against Millwall in the first game back after the September international break, and was in the first eleven the following week.

But the figures speak for themselves. His average player rating for his first ten games for Charlton was 7.59, but this has dropped to 6.6 for his last seven, and that's a significant tail-off even though players are likely to get lower personal ratings if their team isn't playing particularly well as a unit.

At 28-years-old, Bree certainly has the experience. He's made over 300 senior appearances as a player, and of these over 200 have come in the Championship. And this raises potentially uncomfortable questions for Nathan Jones about why Bree has continued to play through an injury, especially if there is a player already on the bench who can fill in for him.

With the 2nd January and the end of his half-season loan now firmly in view, it's a decision that will have to be made very soon. He's currently the only player that Charlton have in on loan, and this means that there is no urgency to offload him to bring in other loanees during the upcoming transfer window.

It will be down to the management of the club to decide whether to try and extend James Bree's loan until the end of this season, but if they're going to extend his contract, it's probably fair to say that Charlton Athletic should assess whether the after-effects of that injury are going to continue to impede him on the pitch first.