Away Form

[Miami Seagull]

Having witnessed some absolutely dire away performances last year (Watford and Burnley being the pick of the bunch) GP has to really try to come up with a formation and style that will get us more wins on the road this time around if we are going to challenge at the top. IMHO this is the one remaining area that concerns me going into the season. The idea that he mentioned many times last season that we play the same style home and away certainly did not work.

Hoping for a great performance at Hull!

 

[Rugrat]

There were some pretty dire home games too

 

[leigull]

Andrew Crofts will make a huge difference to this I think.

We're still going to be a little short on goals at the moment I think, but that's not helped by all the injuries either.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

The good news is that we now have Crofts and hopefully a more robust defence. If this clicks and we retain more possession then we should be better equipped to shut out teams away from home.

There were too many away games where we played ok, even took the lead then sat back and allowed the home side to come onto us and allowed the 3 points to slip. Ipswich, Forest, Donny etc. Plus a couple of games where we were in control but didn't take the chances created and nearly blew it late on eg at Hull and Barnsley. Worryingly it was the lowly teams like Forest, Barnsley and Donny whose midfields outmuscled and bullied us off the ball far too easily which in turn brought pressure onto our defence.

I agree that if we want to be promotion contenders then we need to turn a few more of these draws and losses into wins and draws.

In a couple of the above were were outgunned in midfield despite Vicente who played well but when he looked for support or broke forward he was isolated. I agree that Crofts will make a difference here but with some of the teams in the Championship who load up their midfields there will be times when even Vicente, Crofts and Bridders will need support or be unavailable through suspension or injury. Ideally we could do with another Crofts type player in the squad or for one of our existing CMs to step up a gear.

 

[Set of Tracksuits]

I wasn't at Burnley but it seemed to me that at Watford we did try a plan B, which seemed to be hoofing it aimlessly towards Paynter.

I think we can play our own style home and away, we just have to be a bit better at doing it.