Home vs Away

You'll see from both that we lose considerably more games away from home. The issue we have at home, IMO is that teams are happy to park to bus and keep games as tight as possible, how many times have teams scored first and managed to scrape a draw against us, or snatched a last minute equaliser because we couldn't see the game off etc. For some reason, the home team always has this prerogative to play attacking football, sometimes that results in us getting an arse kicking (Everton/Stoke) other times it makes it easier for us to rip them apart (West Brom/United).
 
Thought this was obvious why?

Clubs don't want to appear like they are ultra defensive/boring, just holding back when they have thousands of home supporters paying good money to be entertained.
So they'll move forward more which leaves space for us at the back.

Whereas when they play away, they aren't assed how they appear and are willing to put up shop.

Last night the Stoke fans were celebrating like they had just won the FA Cup, all because they managed to get a draw at our stadium.

Speaks volumes doesn't it when opposition fans celebrate a draw against us like its a win.
 
Teams park the bus against Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool and they are ahead of us in the home table.

I don't think its right to blame the opponents ONLY.
 
We just don't score enough goals, currently averaging just less than 1.4 in the league over our last 10 games. Last time we scored 2+ in a home league game was early September vs Bournemouth.

Couple that with our questionable defence and its not a recipe for success
 
Uncle Wally One Ball said:
Because teams come to our place and play anti-football, and know that they will be lauded for it. Shite negative numbing prehistoric rubbish becomes 'disciplined' and 'structured'.
Click to expand...

Very true. BBC comment at half time last night was something like 'Man City have been awful, Stoke on the other hand have been terrific'.

Really?
 
Uncle Wally One Ball said:
Because teams come to our place and play anti-football, and know that they will be lauded for it. Shite negative numbing prehistoric rubbish becomes 'disciplined' and 'structured'.
Click to expand...

Yer right, Uncle! Usual Stoke away drivel last night. Hoof ball with a lot of faith in our defensive frailties and the referee's largesse. That was the Stoke plan! Even our own players are seemingly giving credit to Stoke. They came with a point and went home with what they came with. I suppose they count that as a good night's work. Play these away and they are more ambitious and that lets us in. I also think we adopt a far more urgent approach away than at home. Seventy mins last night of 'patient' passing, with fifteen minutes of top gear and then a frantic approach in added time.
 
Not sure if this is a factor, but I think Guardiola is more inclined to rotate the team at home, whereas more often than not we'll play our strongest available XI on the road.
 
Last night was to much of the patient build up, instead of going out to try to score as early as possible. It was nearly 30mins before we had a shot on target and that was from Alex's free kick. That was just not good enough if we what to finish in the top 4. Having 1 shot on target the whole game is not playing like a team that wants to win the league. At this rate we will struggle to finish in the top 4.

Pep needs to play his strongest team from the start and try to score as early as possible, the longer we go without scoring at home the more the away team will defend by putting players behind the ball. When the game starts we need to be on the front foot right from the start, otherwise it will be hard to try and dictate how the game should be played.
 
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