He also says, "I think it's fair to say if we're to stay up we're gonna need to win our home games." Our recent away form suggests that may not be the case. I suppose it depends which way you choose to look at things.
Palace have these 3 games out of their last 4 at home ........ Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool. I'd much rather have our home games.
From now we play: Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Norwich and Man United away from home.. out of those I'd only say Norwich is one we could realistically target for 3 points. At home we have Crystal Palace, West Ham, Everton, Cardiff, Swansea and WBA at home, we should be winning all of those apart from Everton. My worry is we should have beaten Norwich, we should have beaten Villa and we should have beaten Hull (granted we had a man sent off with 4 mins played) Right now we only have only played a few home games against teams around us, but, for me at least, our game next week will show me whether or not we can win the games we need to at home, or if we'll struggle to break down teams who are happy to take a point. I really hope we can beat Crystal Palace and go on to win the rest of our home games
It's strange because our home form in the cups have been fine (even if most are against lower league opposition) we just really struggle to play in the same manner at home as we do away from home. Maybe it has something to do with impatient fans at the SOL, who knows, all that matters is we need to start winning our home games because our remaining away games are very hard
been saying this for a long while now we do play better away from home and to be honest the supporters who travel do get behind the team more than when playing at home in my opinion ,the players seem more relaxed and therefore play with a more abandon attitude which helps it seems.
I think some people are building up this 'we can't beat the teams around us at home' idea too much. Poyet has the nous to adopt the tactics we need to win these games imo. I'm not one for adopting these 'carved in stone' ideas. Our home games, at this stage, are as good as I could've hoped for. We not only have the chance for points, we have the opportunity to damage 5 relegation rivals. When we were bouncing along the bottom, with one point, I'd have given anything to be where we are now. I also don't believe the players are 'relaxed' away from home, every game is a pressure match and we just need to be professional. We have better players than most and our recent form is pretty good. We've put ourself in a great position.
Smug your optimism is spot on, we are in a fight no mistake but a positive approach will help the players, to if you like, over achieve, and this is exactly what is needed. We must all get behind whoever Gus picks from now until the end of the season and give it a right go.
what someone believes and what somebody sees with their own eyes is very different,body language is a sign its coupled with mental attitude a proven fact that when you are under less pressure your body becomes a more effective unit,england have now got a chap in who deals with such matters who also does his thing at liverpool , I can only comment on what i have seen in the difference in our players and imo it seems to be the case, away games ,less pressure
The fact remains that over a season most wins for any team, top or bottom, usually come at home, pressure or no pressure. All teams have to cope with it.
Those relegation rivals will be racked with pressure when they come to the SOL. It's a dogfight and anything is possible ....... our players were under pressure when we played Newcastle, Man City, etc. These 'nailed on' theories get on my tits tbh, 'never beat Everton, never win in London, Shola bound to score' etc etc etc. It's simple, get behind the team, encourage people around you to do the same and trust in Poyet.
I've been quick to criticize the home support for piling the pressure on players and not being patient enough but recently I think our struggles against our peers have had more to do with the opposition not giving us the time we like on the ball, pressing us higher up the pitch to stifle our build up play. That's how both villa and hull scored and why Wes was sent off, well... that and he's an idiot.
