Why are we struggling so much away from home?

T

TangerineTom

Well-known member
Listen, I’ve backed Neil from day one and I still do, although he’s been reduced to first name basis for now.

Let’s have a look at the home and away tables:

Home
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Clearly our home record speaks for itself, we’ve scored an impressive 28 goals in 13 games and have in many ways, proven the trusty 3-5-2 formation works.
Away
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Now, our away form is the crux of the issue. From the 12 away performances so far this season, these are my observations:

1. We are dominating possession but doing absolutely nothing with it. Teams who play this mould suffocate defences by retaining possession in the last third, we absolutely do not do that and end up slowing the game down too much, with not threat, which gives teams the confidence to come back at us.

2. The 3 at the back get too exposed, how many times has the first line been broken and a simple through ball puts strikers in 1 on 1? Its a fragile formation when teams look to counter on the break.

3. When we do go down, there’s no attempt to push the pace. I look back at Fleetwood when we were 2-0, that 20 minute period in the second half was exceptional, we dominated the ball, made runs, took risks and got rewarded for it. Why can’t we do it again to teams like Port Vale??

4. Similarly to my last point, when we go down, there’s no change of strategy, no new formation to adopt, we just carry on carrying on. It feels like 1-0 is a mountain to climb, but we haven’t got any Sherpas on the bench.

My last point is to be careful what you wish for with sacking the manager. This season hasn’t been a disaster by any means. There is far more room for a new manager to fail than there is to succeed from our current position. We crumbled when Neil left, then fell off a cliff after Appleton…I can’t see an available manager that can come in and bring guaranteed success. That being said, I do understand the frustrations at our away form and I’m concerned about where we are currently heading.
 
We are currently heading for mid table that is the reality. The question is will this be enough to give Critch another season at it ???
 
We've scored 12 goals in 12 away games, and four of those came at Portsmouth. So we've actually scored 8 goals in the other 11 away games which, for a supposedly top six squad, is quite pathetic and the main issue. Our tactics away from home are more about keep ball and hoping the other team gets frustrated, rather than actively being on the front foot and taking risks.

One problem with this that I see is that we simply don't have the forwards for a possession based game. As the o/p says, we need to keep the ball further forward. Unfortunately, in order to do that, you need players who have a better first touch and better passing ability than what we have. Beesley and CJ in particular - they both have their uses and capabilities, but they are never going to work in a style that requires quick thinking, short sharp passing and close control in the final third.

We seem to be playing a style suited to the players we wish we had, rather than the one's we actually have. We need to be more adaptable and pragmatic away from home especially, until such time that we've brought in players who can play the way we want to play longer term.
 
BFC_53 said:
We've scored 12 goals in 12 away games, and four of those came at Portsmouth. So we've actually scored 8 goals in the other 11 away games which, for a supposedly top six squad, is quite pathetic and the main issue. Our tactics away from home are more about keep ball and hoping the other team gets frustrated, rather than actively being on the front foot and taking risks.

One problem with this that I see is that we simply don't have the forwards for a possession based game. As the o/p says, we need to keep the ball further forward. Unfortunately, in order to do that, you need players who have a better first touch and better passing ability than what we have. Beesley and CJ in particular - they both have their uses and capabilities, but they are never going to work in a style that requires quick thinking, short sharp passing and close control in the final third.

We seem to be playing a style suited to the players we wish we had, rather than the one's we actually have. We need to be more adaptable and pragmatic away from home especially, until such time that we've brought in players who can play the way we want to play longer term.
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Agree with all of that BFC_53. It’s not only our away results, but the performances have been equally poor. Something has to change because 2 wins in 12 on the road is shocking
 
ITS like we are away this week. Another defeat. Listening on BBC Lancs we sort of started alright but when their first goal went in it was well thats another game thrown away. And our Next away is the might tricky trees in the FA CUP. just HOPE we dont get completely battered. they were frightening against Manure UTD.
 
Problem is he sets up not to loose which isnt working instead of setting up to win as dimple as that
 
It’s obvious to me. We have no pace up front so there’s no threat in behind. This means the opposition defence just need to defend what’s in front of them. We also don’t pass and move, we pass and hold the position defensively. Morgan and Norburn need to be more dynamic. We also miss Dougall who sits but also gets forward. Dembele is our only hope and stop him means job done
 
From what I’ve seen first hand at Port Vale we look massively devoid of any confidence -CJ as an example if he’s on form a confident his touch is much better , Friday night was dreadful, not helped by teammates passing the fog ball behind him rather than on his front toe. At the likes of Barnsley away we looked great without the ball, everyone had there duties & position nailed. Fast forward to Friday and we look truly all over the place when they attacked. Any ball we play in behind simply won’t work as we’re nowhere near quick enough for that upfront. The stagnant passing is piss poor and we just dally on the ball for too long inviting pressure and when we eventually give it away or the balls intercepted we’re out of position and running towards our own goal….. we do this regularly even when attacking the opposition area we can end up passing it back to Grimmy who lumps it forward aimlessly at times.

Any opposing players will love our style as we’ve no end product whatsoever, whenever they see us pissing around they’ll get more aggressive and confident and we go into our shells.

Over Critchleys time at Blackpool you hear about how loved he is by all the players…..well you are beginning to hear frustrations from players and I do honestly wonder whether he’s lost the dressing room. Marv and Kenny are 2 massive players for us and possibly championship quality, we can’t not play them.

3 Big league games coming at up home and we really need minimum 7 points and then to hopefully try and reset away from home and kick on…..otherwise if we continue the steady slide he’s gone
 
We’re weaker without Pennington at the back. Connolly doesn’t inspire confidence at the back and is IMO not a defender. Probably a holding midfielder but about 6th choice. All this and he’s our highest earner in the squad, aside from Rhodes.

I’d like to see a back line of Marvin, Pennington and Husband/Casey. Also I’d like to see the keeper being rotated for competition. OD is a steady keeper
 
I don’t think it is necessarily the formation but playing the same way week in week out gives opposing teams a blue print to work on. We need to vary our play, Neil did this first time around but this time seems stubbornly ploughing on regardless.
 
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