First of all, I would like to commend all of the supporters who attend many, if not all of the away games. With the cost of seasons tickets (plus all the usual stuff of travel, programme etc), I certainly cannot stretch to many away games.....only a couple a year usually. Still astounds me that for a relatively small club we always have a good number of away travellers. Which leads me to my point (or lack of....sorry!!) with regards to our current situation. Should Harry take the blame for our shortcomings? Or is it the players? We have witnessed night and day performances in our home and away performances. Couple of points: why doesn't Harry gamble and select the same team/formation for away games? We are woeful at the moment, surely he has nothing to lose? He NEVER picks the same team for two games running.....and with an away game it once again changes the consistency. Being a sportsman myself, it never seemed to make a big difference if we were playing home or away. Granted, not on front of 20-50k supporters, but is it cemented in our players heads that they are unable to perform away from home. It's a nonverbal message. With the Arsenal game just hours away, no doubt Harry will rotate the squad, saving the players for the more 'winnable' Palace game. But I have a problem with this. We gave Chelsea a good game, held Man City and scared the pants off Liverpool. We are a good team. A team capable of beating anyone in this league if we play to our potential. However, I can't help but think that HR sends a message to supporters and the players that by playing 4-5-1 he doesn't have faith. Charlie has been a revolution this season. But only at home. Why? Because he is never a lone striker. He does not create things for himself. He is not blessed with bags of pace and tonnes of tricks. It's not him. He is a poacher. A fox in the box. He needs OBZ or some other player who is prepared to sacrifice their own scoring tally to get him involved. Playing as a lone striker he simply gets lost. Einstein said that the definition of Madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I'm all for squad rotation. But put a team out that does not just consist of defensive players and a token, solitary striker. It is Christmas afterall......give those dedicated supporters something to cheer about. Better to lose 4-2 than 2-0.......
I think the main problem we have had this season is that the team was originally set-up for 3-5-2, which would have been the sort of flexible system that would work home and away. Sadly, it was pants thanks to Rio's form and the failure of the wing-backs to read the script. By reverting to four at the back we're stymied by 4-4-2 being suicidal away from home and risky but just about workable in the home matches. We need a dominant defender who is mobile to work the 3-5-2 properly, but changing mid-season will be too risky so I think we're stuck with this home/away conundrum for the rest of this season. We may be more successful away to lower teams but have to face stronger teams at home and, as West Brom showed, we are very vulnerable to pacy counter-attacks...
Agree on all parts Sooper. good point re: 3-5-2 failure. But that should have been recognised with who we had in our squad in the first place. Secondly, I just feel that we owe the away fans more. Our away form is shocking. It can't get any worse by changing it, can it?
Without meaning to offend you LT..Your 4th pargraph shows a level of understanding of match day pressures that is below what ours go through. i agree with your point in general, but playing in front of 30K or 300 is completely diffrent..Even though in theory it shouldnt be. Im not sure who is to blame TBH...Must be ALL involved from playes to management IMO
Queens - I toyed with leaving that paragraph out because I thought that it could be easily misunderstood. Clearly, my amateur level of playing sport cannot compare to premier league football.....but there is some relativity. If you or I were to be dropped in front of typical premier league crowd we would probably have a mare because we are not used to it (check out the 'inverted U theory'). However, a pro footballer who plays week in week out gets used to that. I doubt very much whether Joey Barton/Richard Dunne/Rob Green gets particularly nervous before games. Similarly, an experienced skydiver will struggle to get the same high or level of adrenaline as time goes on. To conclude, I'm just stating that I doubt a premier league footballer suffered from a bad case of the nerves......hence, the 'away' effect shouldn't be such a big deal. In fact, home games are more pressurised as you have many more supporters you have to satisfy (and are more vocal)....and when things go tits up, they will let you know about it. Vividly remember Joey Barton getting major stick from the crowd before he was subbed in the infamous 3-2 win over Liverpool.
Yeah LT. yuou are completely correct..And although i have played sport in from of 2000+ crowd..I cannot imagine what it would be like at old Trafford etc. yep, our players are pro's and thats what they should be used too, but i wonder if thats why some pro's are worth more than others..? I dont remember Scholes, Keane, Beckham or Giggs ever chocking...guess thats why they were worth so much.. We have to make the best with the rest so a few chocking every now and again is no real surprise. They away affect must surely affect the lesser players..and thats what we have...!
You're dead right Queens. Sport is littered with those 'clutch' players who could not only cope with pressure situation, they revelled in it. Michael Jordan possibly one of the best ever at that. Look at our team who were winning 2-1 against Man City on last day of the season. 2 minutes to go and we bottled it big time. Against Liverpool this season. Perhaps a good reason as to why HR likes to sign older players.....knowing that they can handle it. Possibly a big reason why Rio was signed. Several cup finals, champions league, world cup et........ can't possibly fail (!)
For your Cup final, yes. Shame your gloryhunters only travel to Wembley.... the 47k 'real fans' were down to 116 at Everton
The use of the term glory hunter by a scum fan, now that's funny. I'll bet the witless turd doesn't even see the hypocrisy of the statement.
Scum-wum. Like it. Half-price tickets and free coach travel for your Burnley fixture on general sale.... maybe the club can wipe your Rrrrrs for you too.
