Away Form

[taleofbluehalves]

Last year a big problem was not scoring away. This has improved but we should get ahead and close things out. At 2-1 shut the game down. Barry would have been perfect to do that every week.

 

[Any1aBlue]

An offside goal, a great free kick and an individual error from Kompany/Nastasic cost us three goals in a game we completely dominated. How are any of those things Pellegrinis fault? We played well today, it was just an unfortunate result.

well said.

 

[bluemoon32]

An offside goal, a great free kick and an individual error from Kompany/Nastasic cost us three goals in a game we completely dominated. How are any of those things Pellegrinis fault? We played well today, it was just an unfortunate result.

well said.

And yet when all is said & done, we still lost to a shit Villa side who were missing their best players. Points are the only thing that truly matters, playing well and losing is the same as playing shit and losing, you still end up with zero points.

 

[bernabias home shirt]

An offside goal, a great free kick and an individual error from Kompany/Nastasic cost us three goals in a game we completely dominated. How are any of those things Pellegrinis fault? We played well today, it was just an unfortunate result.

well said.

And yet when all is said & done, we still lost to a shit Villa side who were missing their best players. Points are the only thing that truly matters, playing well and losing is the same as playing shit and losing, you still end up with zero points.

True

 

[Burtonblue]

I would suggest that at 2-1 the match is anything but won and substituting your best players at this stage is a tad premature.
Hope this lesson gets learned pretty damn quick.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

well said.

And yet when all is said & done, we still lost to a shit Villa side who were missing their best players. Points are the only thing that truly matters, playing well and losing is the same as playing shit and losing, you still end up with zero points.

True

No it's fucking not. I'd much rather pay to watch good footy. We lost get over it.
Should have won but life's not fair boo hoo.

I'm sure we are going in the right direction, and these defensive frailties will be sorted.

 

[OB1]

Whilst that may be the case Billy, the more telling aspect of the game is that once Villa levelled for 2-2, it was utterly predictable that they would be the side to go on to win it. We have been fundamentally flawed away from home for a long time. Under Mancini a lack of width and pace in midfield saw us struggle repeatedly against any side prepared to press us, and under Pellers it's (as far as I'm concerned) 4-4-2 and continuing to push forward once we've got our noses in front. Arsenal are showing the way on the road. 11 away wins on the trot, they score, and then they sit back and launch stinging counters. The rags have done the same for years.
Irrespective of whether we were unlucky yesterday, and we unquestionably were (an offside goal and a dubious free kick), no away side playing like we have done, leading 3 times in games against substandard opposition yet contriving to wind up with nothing, is gonna get near winning the title. I would take a top 4 finish this season like a shot

Playing like we have for the first three games away from home top four would be a bonus.

You wonder whether we have the mettle to play out 90 minutes without pressing the self explode button.

The frustration is that I think we are a better side than any of our rivals, but what Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool in particular have done, is slowly perfected the rag art of knocking over every side below 6th place on their travels. They have systems and pacy, inventive attacking players to facilitate that art, whereas you could bet that we will continue to fritter points away on the road with gay abandon, and win money on a regular basis. If we don't sort it out, we won't finish top 4, it's that simple. The fact that the rags might miss out as well, would be of scant consolation

You won't be surprised that I think you worry too much. I also don't think shape or tactics had anything to do with the view that Villa would be more likely to go on to win: that we did not go on to win from 2-2 was, IMO, a mental thing.

We do have a problem away from home and I accept that more generally a change of tactics might be the way to overcome it; although we are some way from proving that Pelle's approach won't bear fruit if executed properly. I'll reiterate that I think the biggest issue is in the players' heads and each defeat on the road will make that worse.

I would still prefer us to be adopting a 4-3-3 as our basic shape and flexing that away from home to more of a 4-5-1 but that does not appear to be something Pelle will do. However, if he is the top manager that we hope, he may have to be (more) flexible in his approach but it's probably not time to throw the baby out with the bath water.

For what it's worth, I had Wenger ahead of Pelle on my wish list of Mancini replacements and took some stick for it...

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Playing like we have for the first three games away from home top four would be a bonus.

You wonder whether we have the mettle to play out 90 minutes without pressing the self explode button.

The frustration is that I think we are a better side than any of our rivals, but what Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool in particular have done, is slowly perfected the rag art of knocking over every side below 6th place on their travels. They have systems and pacy, inventive attacking players to facilitate that art, whereas you could bet that we will continue to fritter points away on the road with gay abandon, and win money on a regular basis. If we don't sort it out, we won't finish top 4, it's that simple. The fact that the rags might miss out as well, would be of scant consolation

You won't be surprised that I think you worry too much. I also don't think shape or tactics had anything to do with the view that Villa would be more likely to go on to win: that we did not go on to win from 2-2 was, IMO, a mental thing.

We do have a problem away from home and I accept that more generally a change of tactics might be the way to overcome it; although we are some way from proving that Pelle's approach won't bear fruit if executed properly. I'll reiterate that I think the biggest issue is in the players' heads and each defeat on the road will make that worse.

I would still prefer us to be adopting a 4-3-3 as our basic shape and flexing that away from home to more of a 4-5-1 but that does not appear to be something Pelle will do. However, if he is the top manager that we hope, he may have to be (more) flexible in his approach but it's probably not time to throw the baby out with the bath water.

For what it's worth, I had Wenger ahead of Pelle on my wish list of Mancini replacements and took some stick for it...

Well tough, we got MP, would never in a millions years got Wenger. Don't think Pellegrini was at fault for yesterdays result.
The players and lino were.

 

[waspish]

Away from home I would like us to play 4-2-3-1 the 2 in front of the back 4 not bombing forward because the 4 players in front of them will have enough to win at most away games

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

People need to calm down, we're in a period of transition and it's not like we're getting hammered away. We won our hardest away game 3-0.

It's clear that the owners have told Pellegrini to focus on the CL at all costs, which I think is risky as it's a cup competition, but we just have to put up with it. I still think we can win the league easily. Imagine we had a mini-league with us, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs & Rags - we would piss it.

But therein lies the rub! We might well beat those teams in a mini league. However, our problem is that we seem incapable of beating any side that's "up for it" from 7th place down, whereas our rivals, because of the counter attacking games they favour and the pace they have at their disposal, go there and win 7 or 8 times out of 10. I will be surprised if we rack up more than 6 away wins in the league all season the way we play, and beating the rags and Chelsea etc won't be nearly enough to compensate. The battle for a Chimps League spot this season is going to be a real bunfight and 6 into 4 doesn't go. Sooner or later our away form is going to play us out of contention altogether, however much people on here may misguidedly claim that Liverpool, Spurs et al, are shit