Away Form

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I gained great pleasure watching the way Mancini went about his task. Sorting out the defense, getting the team organised and then adding the flair. I'm prepared to accept that he had taken us as far as he could, that MP might take us up another level. But I wouldn't have missed that interim stage.

I can't for the life of me work out how our 11//12 title wasn't won the right way, apart from nearly giving me a coronary.

The "problem" at the time came about from the fact that you could draw a line from Norwich at home to the corresponding fixture at Carrow Road and all the games in between we didn't really play well at all in. Either side of that patch we played some exhillarating football and crushed teams. That was a good half of the season where we weren't anywhere near our best yet we still won the league because we were so brilliant in the other half, but we kept churning out home wins when we poor.

 

[ZZmaestro]

Three different games, three diffent stories, bust still, the same old problem.
I think the main issue has always been the lack of ruthlessness and focus away from home.
While we are unmercyfull at home, we are lacking that will to overcome and crush the defences away.

But still, that game against Villa looks to me as a freaky result, they had almost 0.01% chances to win...

And a fact that has not been put under lime light is that our best player this season so far, Nasri, was subbed shortly before going bobbins at Cardif and on sattteray.
At Cardif we were 1-1 before subbing him for Navas and letting 2 goals in.
Against villa we were leading 2-1 before subbing him for Navas and again letting them chip 2 goals, what coincidence ?

I think he has become, such as Yaya and Vinnie have always been, a vital element in our formation.
We look so much less in control without him, it s not even funny.
With him till the 90th mark, you have yet to convince me that we wouldn`t have bagged 7points out of 9 possible away ...

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

We haven't got anybody in the team doing what Barry did so well, protecting that back four.

 

[NQCitizen]

Sadly the players are arrogant. Even after losing Vinnie came out and said "9 times out of 10 we wouldn't have lost that" and to me that just seems like even after losing to a horrendous lack of concentration and application we still believe we can play at that level and that we should just win. The fact is we had a largely static forward line and we removed our key player, and this season's stand out influence, as soon as we went ahead.

 

[NorCalBlue]

Three different games, three diffent stories, bust still, the same old problem.
I think the main issue has always been the lack of ruthlessness and focus away from home.
While we are unmercyfull at home, we are lacking that will to overcome and crush the defences away.

But still, that game against Villa looks to me as a freaky result, they had almost 0.01% chances to win...

And a fact that has not been put under lime light is that our best player this season so far, Nasri, was subbed shortly before going bobbins at Cardif and on sattteray.
At Cardif we were 1-1 before subbing him for Navas and letting 2 goals in.
Against villa we were leading 2-1 before subbing him for Navas and again letting them chip 2 goals, what coincidence ?

I think he has become, such as Yaya and Vinnie have always been, a vital element in our formation.
We look so much less in control without him, it s not even funny.
With him till the 90th mark, you have yet to convince me that we wouldn`t have bagged 7points out of 9 possible away ...

I believe Navas started at Cardiff and was replaced by Nasri when we were 1-0 up, so that was pretty much the opposite of the Villa scenario, where Nasri started and was replaced by Navas at 2-1 up.

 

[mancity1]

Sadly the players are arrogant. Even after losing Vinnie came out and said "9 times out of 10 we wouldn't have lost that" and to me that just seems like even after losing to a horrendous lack of concentration and application we still believe we can play at that level and that we should just win. The fact is we had a largely static forward line and we removed our key player, and this season's stand out influence, as soon as we went ahead.

I agree Vinny was frustrated and chose his words poorly.

If that's what he is really thinking he has a problem of mindset and as our leader and captain its not a good sign.

He has to lead by example not make excuses like there was nothing we could have done to prevent the second goal.

How about ensuring we don't give the ref the chance to give them a free kick in a dangerous position in the future Vinny?

 

[Anonymous]

Sadly the players are arrogant.

Our players aren't arrogant - at least not anymore than any other team in the league. If anything I'd look at the United squad with the likes of Rooney and Ferdinand, or the Chelsea squad with players like Terry and Cole, and say they are head and shoulders above us in the arrogant, entitled, categories.

Again like the mish mash of cliches about desire, work rate, commitment, etc it has little baring on what actually happens during a game but has become a very convenient stick to beat the players with.

 

[NQCitizen]

Sadly the players are arrogant.

Our players aren't arrogant - at least not anymore than any other team in the league. If anything I'd look at the United squad with the likes of Rooney and Ferdinand, or the Chelsea squad with players like Terry and Cole, and say they are head and shoulders above us in the arrogant, entitled, categories.

Again like the mish mash of cliches about desire, work rate, commitment, etc it has little baring on what actually happens during a game but has become a very convenient stick to beat the players with.

Ok if not arrogant then complacent. As much as it hurts to admit this the players you've named from other teams are prime examples who are players that are incredibly arrogant but use that confidence to actually affect games more often than not. Even our very best players often look like they're waiting for someone else to do it, the one consistent exception being Aguero.

It wouldn't be a "convenient stick" if we hadn't performed poorly against every single mid-table team in the league so far Cardiff, Hull, Stoke and Villa. It's probably more convenient to ignore any problems of attitude within the squad.

 

[Anonymous]

Sadly the players are arrogant.

Our players aren't arrogant - at least not anymore than any other team in the league. If anything I'd look at the United squad with the likes of Rooney and Ferdinand, or the Chelsea squad with players like Terry and Cole, and say they are head and shoulders above us in the arrogant, entitled, categories.

Again like the mish mash of cliches about desire, work rate, commitment, etc it has little baring on what actually happens during a game but has become a very convenient stick to beat the players with.

Ok if not arrogant then complacent. As much as it hurts to admit this the players you've named from other teams are prime examples who are players that are incredibly arrogant but use that confidence to actually affect games more often than not. Even our very best players often look like they're waiting for someone else to do it, the one consistent exception being Aguero.

It wouldn't be a "convenient stick" if we hadn't performed poorly against every single mid-table team in the league so far Cardiff, Hull, Stoke and Villa. It's probably more convenient to ignore any problems of attitude within the squad.

Nope, not complacent either. Anyone who thinks a squad integrating with a new manager would show complacency this early is kidding themselves. Our two freak results were down to mistakes by Zaba and Kompany in areas where they can no longer make those mistakes because of our style of play (more attacking less cover). They'll learn and they'll cut the mistakes out. To constantly turn any mistake into a problem of mentality is lazy logic IMO.

 

[NQCitizen]

Our players aren't arrogant - at least not anymore than any other team in the league. If anything I'd look at the United squad with the likes of Rooney and Ferdinand, or the Chelsea squad with players like Terry and Cole, and say they are head and shoulders above us in the arrogant, entitled, categories.

Again like the mish mash of cliches about desire, work rate, commitment, etc it has little baring on what actually happens during a game but has become a very convenient stick to beat the players with.

Ok if not arrogant then complacent. As much as it hurts to admit this the players you've named from other teams are prime examples who are players that are incredibly arrogant but use that confidence to actually affect games more often than not. Even our very best players often look like they're waiting for someone else to do it, the one consistent exception being Aguero.

It wouldn't be a "convenient stick" if we hadn't performed poorly against every single mid-table team in the league so far Cardiff, Hull, Stoke and Villa. It's probably more convenient to ignore any problems of attitude within the squad.

Nope, not complacent either. Anyone who thinks a squad integrating with a new manager would show complacency this early is kidding themselves. Our two freak results were down to mistakes by Zaba and Kompany in areas where they can no longer make those mistakes because of our style of play (more attacking less cover). They'll learn and they'll cut the mistakes out. To constantly turn any mistake into a problem of mentality is lazy logic IMO.

I think you'd have to say conceding 8 goals in 3 away games must probably go beyond being 8 isolated mistakes.

You say it's lazy logic to say that but I think it's fair to say blindly guaranteeing they'll learn to cut all the mistakes is overly ambitious. Vinnie hasn't stopped diving in to tackles all these years, Zab is a positionally indisciplined as ever, Hart still doesn't adequately cover his left. These are just ingrained problems in our players.