Interested to know what other people think is the cause of our pretty poor away form over the last few years. Thinking back we were never that bad until toward the end of the Cookie period when we started to go on a bad run and only won once in his last season. Obviously we were doomed under Sanchez but things never really got better under Roy - apart from the end of his first season with us obviously. I know Roy was always cautious away from home but we just never got the results even when we played quite well. Now we have MH and his more attacking style but still only one bloody away win. It kind of hacks me off when you see teams like (no disrespect intended) Blackpool, West Brom and Stoke notching up 6 or 7 away wins over a season and we can only manage one. If we could have cured this I am sure that we would have qualified for Europe a couple more times. So - what do you think the root cause is - confidence, ability, bad luck, travel sickness?
It's a great and relevant question Fulhaman. I don't know the answer, but as you say we have been through a number of managers and styles with similar results. I don't go to many away games these days, but at home we generally seem to have a positive attitude, right to the end of a match (obvious exceptions being the Man City & West Ham games). However there must be a psychological aspect to our away results, and I do mean results rather than form. In the same way Fulham players will know subconsciously that they rarely win away, the opposition will realise the same thing. I'm sure a lot will come up with intelligent analysis about the way we play and approach away games tactically, but I think there's a deeper reason, as above. We don't take a lot of away fans and many say that has an effect, but I'm not sure what can be done about that. For me, I just can't afford to travel in terms of money, time and health, but I'm knocking on - it's probably more something a young fan can take on with less family commitments and more energy - however football in the Prem is so expensive now, and the cost of travel is rising dramatically.
Interesting post fulhaman. This seems to be a perennial problem with us. As Rocky said there is something deep rooted that goes beyond footballing matters. I said in a previous thread that we now travel by train to away games that are far away. I was lucky enough to the players at Euston when they were playing Bolton away. I think this is a new feature so I think the club recognizes that there is a bigger issue with our away form. For me it is down to pace and a lack of it. If you watch most teams that are effective away from home they are good on the counter attack. In order to be good on the break you must have pace in abundance. As good as we are at ball retention and spreading the play across the park, we are not set up to play quick attacking counter football. 1 striker who is to hold the ball up and 2 wingers who are not the quickest. Players like Kakuta are what we need to be looking at in order to improve away from home. Rocky is totally right about the travelling fans though. Whilst I think the players concentrate on the game I am sure they are aware of the lack of support. As for Rocky, I simply cannot afford to travel away or have the time. This a shame but as the kids get older may be I will be able to travel. I do think that Hughes is aware of the issue holding us back, our away form, and is trying to do something about it. However, we need to increase the squad with some pace to achieve this.
MH has been an improvement over Roy (save for the survival run-in of course), with us at least trying to win games way. Froggy maybe right about the lack of pace: we have been able to keep control of the ball, for example 51% at Old Trafford last week), but conversion into real penetration seems to be an issue. You've got a point about not enough of us following away. For the past few seasons, I've been doing an average of 3 away games a year and, at times, it has sometimes felt than we had not many more than we had in the when pushing up from 91st in the bottom division.
I think it's the mentality. These guys have managed one away victory per season for the past 2 seasons, it's bound to be getting to them. Put it this way, if you had managed to pick up one girl in a years full of saturday nights out, would you feel confident?
You all have a point about away support. Even though my kids have grown up I still can't afford to travel to Manchester, Newcastle, Villa, etc every other week. It's not just the cost of getting into the ground but the petrol, parking, food, drink and so on. When my son and I go to the Cottage (which we can only do infrequently because he is a copper and works strange shifts) it costs us the best part of ã130 between us including the tickets. Quite how some fans manage to follow teams home and away on seemingly average salaries is beyond me. My own opinion is that it a mentality thing. I agree with Bandit. If you think you are probably not going to do very well - even if this is only a vague concept at the back of your mind - it is bound to affect you in some way.
I think tactics are what comes down to it a lot of the time, not just with us but with all teams at all standards of sport. There is this underlying assumption that teams are required to be more cautious away from home and more attacking at home, that causes teams to set up in such a way that makes it very difficult to win away from home. This was particularly noticable with roy in charge where we were a completely different team home and away. If we compare this to Blackpool, who contrary to this assumption of home and away go all guns blazing wherever they play, we can see that their difference in form home and away is no where near as much as other teams. This is similarly the case with arsenal who I believe (but could be wrong) have the best away record in the league, but are so offensively minded, therefore meaning the inherent difference in how good a team you are home and away is a bit of myth. Away support may play a part, as teams which sell out away attendances tend to make more noise than home fans, so a good following could be of value. Like the others who have posted I have only been to 2 away games so far this season (villa and west brom as they are local to me) as the cost of train fares, match tickets and even food/drink is just too much to do every week. My student loan doesn't stretch far enough!
