How do we improve our away form?

[tony_parkes]

WHL has become a fortress under Harry but all good teams pick up points away from home.

If we are to have the season we want next year and finish at least 6th then we are going to have to be better on the road.

Our record in the league last season was;

Played 19, won 4, drawn 4, lost 11, for 24, against 35, points 16.

Wins at West Ham, Man City, Hull and Aston Villa.

Draws at Chelsea, Arsenal, Sunderland and Everton.

We actually picked up 6 points from the teams who finished above us and lost at all 3 relegated clubs. 6 further points were won at City and West Ham who only finished just below us. Not what you would have expected, we were better away against the better teams and dross when playing dross.

Why? What would improve us?

Should we play a different formation away from home? What players would you sign to make us better away?

We conceded 35, that would suggest a better defence is needed but in the latter part of the season we have tightened up a great deal and for me the concern is being able to defend from the front and retain the ball better in order to take the pressure off and dominate posession.

I think a tall striker who can hold the ball up and bring others into the game will relieve pressure and enable us to spend more time in the opponents half. They would also help out when defending set plays.

A central midfield player who can defend with Palacios and pass the ball well, enabling us to retain the ball.

Carrick and Berbatov are gone but we could do with similar players to them, I think we would have a very good side then that would be capable of picking up plenty of points on our travels.

We need to emulate Villa and Everton who picked up 32 and 33 points respectively away from home. Things have improved under Harry but there's a long way to go.

 

[Houdini]

Score one more than the other team would be a start.......

 

[Dr Know]

Score one more than the other team would be a start.......

I was going to say that :rofl:

Sorry tony_parkes could not help it, I'm still bubbling from the Man U loss to Barsa

 

[danielneeds]

It is alot about confidence and mental attitude, also about weathering the opposition who will go forward infront of their own fans.

Apart from that mental fortitude, I would say a muscular and intelligent centre forward to lead the line, and tightening up on set pieces would also help.

 

[tony_parkes]

I hadn't thought of that, simple really.

 

[NEVILLEB]

World Class Attacking CM + Tall World Class CF

Job done

 

[danielneeds]

I hadn't thought of that, simple really.

Yep, come on Harry sort it and the title is ours! :grin:

 

[kaz Hirai]

World Class Attacking CM + Tall World Class CF

Job done

dont think we plan to play that way anymore, with an attacking CM i mean. ironicaly we seem to be going the ramos route, having two super hard megatrons in CM and having our creativity and threat come from the wide players including full backs.

after seeing barca though, woah i'd love if we played like them, taught united how to play football

 

[nick04]

couple of ideas: playing with 2 DM, avoiding stupid sending offs (west brom, stoke, blackburn), avoiding last minutes goals (wigan, blackburn, bolton, newcastle) even if it's true we did score a few too (lol)

 

[stemark44]

I would get a new RB,LB, play 3 in midfield with two quick wide strikers and a tall quick,target man.

 

[mil1lion]

Continue playing Bent in away games would be a start. Soak up a bit of pressure, because we have the defence to do so, and hit teams on the counter attack. The only way we'll start winning away games the way we are now, is if we can get a world class number 9 who can hold the ball up, and score goals. At the moment we're playing good possession football in away games, but too much of it is in front of the opposition defence. If we're going to play that way, we need to get more players forward, especially the fullbacks. And i dont think Ekotto and Corluka are good enough in an attacking sense to play this way.

 

[NEVILLEB]

dont think we plan to play that way anymore, with an attacking CM i mean. ironicaly we seem to be going the ramos route, having two super hard megatrons in CM and having our creativity and threat come from the wide players including full backs.

after seeing barca though, woah i'd love if we played like them, taught united how to play football

We need an attacking CM who is also mega hard

Steven Gerrard, hmmm :shrug:

 

[kcmei]

i reckon we shud look at spare players in barca as i think they will be looking to offload some and get ribery etc

 

[gibbs131]

1: Don't play Defoe. His away goals tally for Spurs is laughable.

2: Never start with both Lennon and Modric in the midfield. Away from home Modric and Lennon can be ghosts. And they can do nothing defending in general esp against defending free kicks and corners.

IMO it is all won in the middle of the park away from home so we should have a rock on the left:

against top 4
Barry Palacious JJ Charlie


against the rest
Barry palacious Hud JJ



That midfield will pretty much quash most teams and keep possession really well. Then, when the opposition team are starting to look leggy:

Take off the lesser performing striker and Charlie then BOOM!!!! Modric and Lennon double substitution to run/pass circles around them

 

[Bus-Conductor]

We must be tactically more astute. We had a similar problem under Jol where tactics didn't vary and we were predictable. It makes the opposing managers job easy when they don't have to adjust to varied tactics. At home you can get away with it a bit more, but away you must be more unpredictable.

 

[Alec_spur]

1: Don't play Defoe. His away goals tally for Spurs is laughable.

2: Never start with both Lennon and Modric in the midfield. Away from home Modric and Lennon can be ghosts. And they can do nothing defending in general esp against defending free kicks and corners.

IMO it is all won in the middle of the park away from home so we should have a rock on the left:

against top 4
Barry Palacious JJ Charlie


against the rest
Barry palacious Hud JJ



That midfield will pretty much quash most teams and keep possession really well. Then, when the opposition team are starting to look leggy:

Take off the lesser performing striker and Charlie then BOOM!!!! Modric and Lennon double substitution to run/pass circles around them

I'd say signing Barry first would go alrite..

 

[stemark44]

Continue playing Bent in away games would be a start. Soak up a bit of pressure, because we have the defence to do so, and hit teams on the counter attack. The only way we'll start winning away games the way we are now, is if we can get a world class number 9 who can hold the ball up, and score goals. At the moment we're playing good possession football in away games, but too much of it is in front of the opposition defence. If we're going to play that way, we need to get more players forward, especially the fullbacks. And i dont think Ekotto and Corluka are good enough in an attacking sense to play this way.

We had that with Berbatov but we still were rubbish away from home.
We need to get around 30 points a season playing away and for us to do that it will take drastic changes to formations and personnel.

 

[mil1lion]

We had that with Berbatov but we still were rubbish away from home.
We need to get around 30 points a season playing away and for us to do that it will take drastic changes to formations and personnel.

Yeah but i reckon that we'd be a lot better off with Berbatov in this side. That and another player in the Carrick mould would make a world of difference away from home.