Away Form

[AshTheBash1983]

I know there are lots of suggestions as to why our away form is in such a sorry state, but does anybody else think that maybe loftus Road could be to blame?

What I mean do you think the guys are getting too used to playing in compact stadium, in which one of the smallest pitches in the league is housed. They then play on the road at generally more open stadiums with larger/wider pitches and maybe subconsciously it makes them feel small and weak, which in turn leads to them being dominated?.

Just a thought that has come to mind today. A rough comparison would be to compare swimming in a hotel pool to swimming in an Olympic sized one, its still swimming but you feel a little out of place and small in comparison.

[Fraggy]

That's a pretty good analogy & probably not too far from the truth.

[superhoop67]

I know there are lots of suggestions as to why our away form is in such a sorry state, but does anybody else think that maybe loftus Road could be to blame?

What I mean do you think the guys are getting too used to playing in compact stadium, in which one of the smallest pitches in the league is housed. They then play on the road at generally more open stadiums with larger/wider pitches and maybe subconsciously it makes them feel small and weak, which in turn leads to them being dominated?.

Just a thought that has come to mind today. A rough comparison would be to compare swimming in a hotel pool to swimming in an Olympic sized one, its still swimming but you feel a little out of place and small in comparison.

a game of pool or a game of snooker

[Del]

I think it's more a case that the Manager for whatever reason goes into away games with a defeatist mentality which rubs off on the team and reflected in the way we've played and performed.

Rather than looking at the game and working out a plan of how we can hurt them and win the game, he is clearly focused on trying to negate their stengths and prevent them scoring in the hope we dont lose and as such maybe nick a point.... this is the Premier League FFS, where most teams, including us, on their day have the tools to beat anyone ,but that wont happen unless you go into the game trying to win it!!

[Rangersw12]

More do with the attitude of Redknapp and the players when it comes to away games

They see it as a bonus game and they are defeated before they even set foot on the pitch

Also this isn't a new thing under Redkanpp he has been too negative away from home since day 1

[BUSHRANGER1982]

I think it has more to do with the modern approach to football by managers, players, and sadly, even more than a few fans.

The ludicrous belief that you can simply choose which games to try in, and those you can just lay down and die in.

I think the way we approached the games at Spurs and Man U, and the spankings we received as a result, set the tone for our away days.

Apart from two games where we played seemingly without any fear, Southampton and Chelsea, and where from both we have come closest to getting a result, we have, to put it mildly, been absolutely crap.

[BUSHRANGER1982]

More do with the attitude of Redknapp and the players when it comes to away games

They see it as a bonus game and they are defeated before they even set foot on the pitch

Also this isn't a new thing under Redkanpp he has been too negative away from home since day 1

Totally agree.

[Shepherds Mush]

Pitch size is irrelevant IMO. West Ham's pitch is smaller than ours and they completely played us off it !

Only thing that matters is what you do on the pitch and we set up differently away than we do at home. If we went 4-4-2 away, I am sure we would get better results.

[Robsondinho]

Our ground is small, but the pitch is the same as any other give or take a yard or two and a few blades of grass missing on ours.

[Kirill]

The team needs time to gel.

[Shepherds Mush]

We should probably be better on longer pitches...gives our long distance shots more time to come down closer to the goal !

[12321]

To continue the swimming pool analogy, if our swimmers start synchronising their ducking and diving in an Olympic sized venue, won't they be hopelessly cramped when they return to the hotel sized pool every second week?

All we've got going for us is our home form, we really don't want to muck about with that...

[brightonr]

To continue the swimming pool analogy, if our swimmers start synchronising their ducking and diving in an Olympic sized venue, won't they be hopelessly cramped when they return to the hotel sized pool every second week?

All we've got going for us is our home form, we really don't want to muck about with that...

Check out the last three home results. It would appear that we already have.

[MattyRangers]

To continue the swimming pool analogy, if our swimmers start synchronising their ducking and diving in an Olympic sized venue, won't they be hopelessly cramped when they return to the hotel sized pool every second week?

All we've got going for us is our home form, we really don't want to muck about with that...

What happens if somebody does a wee in the pool?

[Abseits]

I think that we have too many players not in what I'd call tip-top shape or fitness. I think 'Arry know this and consciously tries to eke things out by focussing on home games at the expense of away games. On the road I think he picks teams, adopts shapes/tactics and set-up designed to conserve energy. This may sound outlandish but, aside from at Chelsea, I think our energy/tempo has been woeful in every away game and I'm convinced it's deliberate. I suspect the brief against Sheffield United was similar (ie take it easy and save yourselves) and hence we got the type of limp performance we're used to seeing in away games.
Be interesting to see how we approach Burnley game as it's our first away game all season against a bottom third team isn't it? I have a feeling we'll see a bit more oomph from us (though frankly it won't be hard to improve on things).