My Optimism Is Waning Fast!

[Biglebowski]

What annoys me is the predictability of the team formation away from home.

We set up with 2 maybe 3 defensive midfielders, I presume to play on the counter, yet neither defend successfully or attack successfully, and oddly seem to become overrun in midfield, when you would expect us to be more solid.

Saying that yesterday there was no midfield, and I could not really tell what his formation was, throwing in his substitutions to boot

 

[mammutly]

After another mediocre away performance, away defeat and players getting injured, my belief that we can get a (good) result in Hamburg on Thursday night is vanishing fast.

I sincerely hope we can either grind out a 0-0 result or keep the score down so the second leg isn't a formality for Hamburg.

Hughes must go to Hamburg and put 11 men behind the ball. For once we should sacrific any notion of attacking football and go there with the sole purpose of not conceading a goal. We can then take Hamburg on at our place with the scores level, a fully fit and injury free team and a packed stadium willing the team on.

I think this is a good plan, in theory. But in practice it would worry me because I don't think we are capable of changing a game plan mid match if it isn't working. I don't think grinding out a result with a solid defensive performance is beyond us, but too many times this season we have ridden our luck at the back rather than looking at all secure. My concern would be that if we conceeded one goal, the panic button would get pressed and we could end up on the wrong end of a hiding.
So, I'd say we should go there and play our best game, start with Elano and Robinho and try to win it.

 

[Marvin]

After another mediocre away performance, away defeat and players getting injured, my belief that we can get a (good) result in Hamburg on Thursday night is vanishing fast.

I sincerely hope we can either grind out a 0-0 result or keep the score down so the second leg isn't a formality for Hamburg.

Hughes must go to Hamburg and put 11 men behind the ball. For once we should sacrific any notion of attacking football and go there with the sole purpose of not conceading a goal. We can then take Hamburg on at our place with the scores level, a fully fit and injury free team and a packed stadium willing the team on.

I'm not sure that's the best way to go about things. For the vast majority of our away games this season we've sent out a team looking for a draw. Look where that's got us so far!

What with 3 forwards?

My criticism of Hughes is that he sets the team up to attack away from home, when we should be defending. But we can't drop Robinho

In 12 months time we'll be good enough to play 3 up front away from home - but not now

 

[Unknown_Genius]

I feel like I did before the Copenhagen away leg, after that dismal away defeat to Pompey, apprehensive and pessimistic, but we went and got a half decent away result. Any kind of draw (score one preferable) would be good, even a narrow away loss (1-0, or 2-1) wouldn't be a disaster. I just hope we come away from Hamburg with a realistic chance of going through. With a maximum home crowd roaring us on, and a semi-final at stake, we'll definatly be in with a chance of progressing.

 

[mike channon´s windmill]

After watching that filth before I just know it´ll end in tears for us - resigning myself to it!

 

[Nixon_The_Bike_Thief]

how can you stay so optimistic when confronted with such a danming statistic as - away wins 1

Depends if your a pessimist or an optomist really ! Where you decide to undermine confidence with a Premier League Stat applied to a European competition Id much rather look at the Stats from that actual competition ! As in

UEFA Cup away fixtures this season
Played 6
Won 4
Drawn 1
Lost 2
(If you want to be ultra positive you can also throw Streymour at Home at Oakwell in technically as another away win)

 

[bluemoon32]

It's going to be tough to get a positive result in Germany, Hamburg are a big step up from anything else we've faced in the Uefa Cup this season.
You never know though, we might surprise everyone.

 

[Greiver]

Have hope man! But if we don't score I'm going to be devastated! I'll be praying everynight until ...