I had in mind someone accusing me of blaming the fans further up the thread, so no, I didn't use it first. But thanks for confirming my point about maturity of the debate.
There was no blame in my post. I stated he will be wanting to know why our home form is dire. It might be down to the manager, the players, the fans, the pies or eddie fricking richards but ultimately he will want to know why, on his watch, we are poor at home. I dont have the answer otherwise I would be blaming someone.
Weight of expectation, and a lack of patience sometimes when it needs the fans to stay with them, but when it's been going on years, it's easy to see why the natural reaction is 'here we go again'. Especially against the lesser sides.
This season it's been made worse by the lack of home form and the added absolutely horrible performances in a fair few cases.
Top and bottom of this with the fans is that we’ve had premiership seasons and at least one Champ season in recent yearswhen we were just waiting til the oppos scored because we knew we were weak - fans get apprehensive and go quiet . It takes goals and attacks to set the tone . It’s quiet at the top clubs a lot because of the style of play and the way we play is similar . A few crunching tackles and sustained attacks solves it all. Plus goals helps
Absolutely, but you are going to get a few those in a season whoever you support. My point is, when it's become the norm over years then it becomes symbiotic and it becomes ever more a difficult to cycle to break. If there was an easy solution, it wouldn't still be an issue.
We've had more the a few piss poor home performances this season...that's the problem. People can ( sometimes ) stomach a loss or draw if the performance is there. Unfortunately this season we haven't for the most part had either. Maybe acun raised the expectation level when he took over and said he wanted attractive attacking football...fans came to expect that was what they'd see. Yes we've seen it, but again nowhere near enough
I would disagree that overall team performance levels have been piss poor most of the time. More often than not we've matched or bettered sides in general play. It's the extra 10% in the final third that comes from confidence, familiarity and stability that's where we've mostly come up short. But one mans definition of control obviously differs to another man's definition of lacklustre I guess. Either way, I don't believe Rosenior sets us up to play a lot more cautiously at home than away, especially considering who his chairman is. So whether you like the style or not, it's pretty irrelevant when discussing why the same tactics and style bring consistently better performances away from home, or why that's been the case going back beyond the current style, tactics, manager and owner Just seems like you're taking yet another craven opportunity to take yet another pop at Rosenior.
I had a feeling you'd disagree tbf and FFS drop this pop at LR bollox. Have you been reading what I've been saying after the last couple of games. When it comes to entertaining and results the home games this season on the most part have been piss poor
Yet you still offer nothing to explain why by and large we set up the same but play with more freedom away. Just emphasise the piss poor.
Is it us playing different or the opposition allowing us to play with more freedom away from home? Id go for the latter. Rosenior has us playing the same every game, home or away, whatever the opposition. We tend to play better away from home purely down to the fact that the home team plays a more open attacking game to try and win, which our style of football benefits from. I think most would agree the problem we have at home is Liam has failed to come up with a solution against the majority of teams that come and play more defensive. His lack of a plan b has been one of our biggest failings this season, amongst others, but thats the main reason we'll miss out on what was a very attainable top 6 finish this season.
Just because we set up the same doesn't mean we execute the same, it's obvious to anyone who hasn't got Rosie tinted glasses on its different. But let's for arguments sake say we don't and it's exactly the same home and away....then that's even more piss poor as LR should recognise it hasn't been working pretty much his whole time in charge at home and make changes...or he's not good enough to come up with a solution, or he's to stubborn to recognise something needs to change ( although I think he's finally admitted it and made changes ). So which is it? I know a lot of things and home truths have been said behind closed doors since the stoke game at various different levels within the club ( you don't have to believe me but I believe what I've been hearing ) and I'm hoping it's had the desired effect, to me it has or at least looks like it has on the pitch, I saw quite obvious Tweaks and changes in the previous 3 games which I think have been great, LR admitted himself in an interview that he'd been analysing everything to the n'th degree and having daily meetings etc and that maybe he just needs to let the lads play, which is what a fair few of the squad had brought to the attention of tan ( again you don't have to believe me, but I wasn't the only one hearing it ). Imo LR has learnt from the last few weeks and the unrest, decided to make small but key changes and it's so far worked which is absolutely fantastic for us all and long may it continue. Should he have recognised it sooner.... possibly but hindsight is a wonderful thing! And theirs no point now looking backwards....the improvement needs to continue and set us up nicely for next season. Do I think LR is the man for taking us up, I'm still not sure, but if what I think has happened has actually happened, I am more then happy to give him the summer window to recruit some experience and implement everything next season. QPR sat will give us a real insight in to whats changed and if the leanings have been made..... TWT
Is there an echo? I do believe there have been frank conversations as I was hearing that after Swansea, and at a point towards the end of last season also. But I also believe that it's the players that go on the pitch ultimately, and they've generally been prepped the same home and away, so why the disparity in form? There would probably be lot fewer questions being asked this season if the home and away form was flipped, that's the irony for me. I also believe the pressure /weight of expectation does affect the players. Both in the stadium and on social media So that's surely a factor also. And that maybe is something that we the fans can actually help break the cycle of, no?
If the pressure is to much for the players and or gaffer then they're in the wrong job and if it's because their young etc then it's yet another indication that we needed some experience in the squad to help manage that. But In my opinion it's not that at all and I just think it's a convenient excuse for you to put in front of them as some kind of let off. They seem to do well enough away from home with the pressure those performances now come with to help prop up our dore home form.... The cold hard facts are, we just aren't good enough at home, our coaching team haven't found a solution ( and up until recently didn't think a solution needed to be found as they thought we just needed to carry on and it would come ) and the players also couldn't take it upon themselves to find solutions on the pitch ( although that's where most the frustration came from as they didn't feel they could deviate from very clear instructions, along with being over coached. Football players just like to play and not feel restricted ) it's been a collective underperformance bar games against teams who play our way. We've been to easy to play against at home, to slow, to pedestrian, to safe and to rigid. I've seen a fair few opposition scout reports/texts between people etc that say various different things but all pretty much saying LR would rather make sure they don't lose at home as opposed to make sure they go out and win..... And I don't care who you are, that's not a recipe for success and promotion, that mindset has to change if we want to succeed next season
They play the same, home and away. Pressure gets to them at home And yes, I agree that it's probably time to supplement youth with experience. Technicality with a bit more physicality . But it's incumbent on the owner and DOF to recognise that also, and adjust the model accordingly.
More booing that's what's needed. Playing away in a hostile environment the home fans will boo and jeer them as the team is announced on the pa, as they walk onto the pitch and every other opportunity they get.
Like red cards for dissent and diving. Do it for enough games in succession it'd probably have an effect. But it'd be chaos in the meantime.
Yep. The passing, possession and defensive stats don’t tell the whole story but it does give some insight into how we play and our shortcomings. 24th for tackles attempted and 24th for tackle win % is poor. If you don’t make many tackles per game, which is normal for high-possession teams, then you should be winning more than half your attempted tackles. We attempt the least and have the lowest win % in the entire division. We also, like you said, have some of the highest possession and passes completed in our own third but rank very low in the division for progressive passes and passes in the opposition’s third. This isn’t a criticism of possession or positional football. This is a criticism of Rosenior’s particular brand of it.
