Our away record

[May Contain Nuts]

Yeah, what Albert said. Having a better defender last season in Shackell did help, along with 22 appearances from Barker the importance of which shouldn't be underestimated.

So, add Baptiste and HOPEFULLY...

[Albert]

I don't understand why you can't play the same away from home as you can at home.

 

The grass is still green, the ball's still round and the nets are the same size.

 

I think Clough has got an attitude of 'try not to lose' rather then 'go and try and win', and I think players are relatively happy to go to away teams and take a draw.

That's a very simplistic thing to say. For the last 3 Championship seasons, average points averaged across all teams:

Average points gained at home: 36.5

Average points gained away: 26.4

It is not strange or isolated that teams play worse away from home, it is something normal and damn clear. Teams play better in front of their own fans, and put bluntly, it's not hard to see our issue this year. We had good home form because we have been better going forward, and we can make up for any defensive woes there, but away, when we've been pushed, we've been soft and conceded too many and too often. With the number of goals we've shipped away from home, it's pretty damn clear the issue isn't "being too defensive" or "trying not to lose". The numbers are pretty clear that our good home form was down to being able to score more than the opposition consistently rather than being able to keep clean sheets and get results, what we seem to lack is that ability to try and "not lose". I get the impression that these comments about "trying not to lose" comes from last season and our late in the game woes, something that is no longer such a problem, it's easy for throw away lines to live on though.

[Mostyn6]

Albert, so there's a ten point difference?

 

Where would be be if we'd got only 10 points LESS away from home than we achieved at home.

 

(Sorry, cannot access certain sites to get details at moment)

[RamNut]

There is only one player at the club capable of achieving that level of passing, and that's Will Hughes. People on here whine when he's picking the ball up off the back four, wanting to see him in more advanced positions, but that position (which people often describe as 'defensive midfield') seems absolutely perfect for him. It's similar to the role that David Luiz sometimes plays for Chelsea - sort-of a deep-lying playmaker.

....thats his worst position.....

(Quick! Hard hat ! Batten down the hatches)

[cannable]

....thats his worst position.....

(Quick! Hard hat ! Batten down the hatches)

I agree with you actually.

[Derbydave96]

In my opinion, Hughes is best suited to an attacking midfield role, or if we are going to play 442 put him wide right, so he can have a go at people.

If you want someone to sit and play the passes, we have a ready made peg for that hole in James bailey

[randombc]

In my opinion, Hughes is best suited to an attacking midfield role, or if we are going to play 442 put him wide right, so he can have a go at people.

If you want someone to sit and play the passes, we have a ready made peg for that hole in James bailey

 

Hughes doesn't have the pace to play on the right wing, he's a central midfielder or just behind the striker.

[eddie]

In my opinion, Hughes is best suited to an attacking midfield role, or if we are going to play 442 put him wide right, so he can have a go at people.

If you want someone to sit and play the passes, we have a ready made peg for that hole in James bailey

 

Try getting Robbie Savage to come out of retirement.

[notts_ram]

That's a very simplistic thing to say. For the last 3 Championship seasons, average points averaged across all teams:

Average points gained at home: 36.5

Average points gained away: 26.4

It is not strange or isolated that teams play worse away from home, it is something normal and damn clear. Teams play better in front of their own fans, and put bluntly, it's not hard to see our issue this year. We had good home form because we have been better going forward, and we can make up for any defensive woes there, but away, when we've been pushed, we've been soft and conceded too many and too often. With the number of goals we've shipped away from home, it's pretty damn clear the issue isn't "being too defensive" or "trying not to lose". The numbers are pretty clear that our good home form was down to being able to score more than the opposition consistently rather than being able to keep clean sheets and get results, what we seem to lack is that ability to try and "not lose". I get the impression that these comments about "trying not to lose" comes from last season and our late in the game woes, something that is no longer such a problem, it's easy for throw away lines to live on though.

I agree actually, the old adage the opposition can't score when you have the ball comes to mind, you're right I think we dominate teams at home so they don't get a chance at seeing how porous our defence actually is

[Albert]

Albert, so there's a ten point difference?

 

Where would be be if we'd got only 10 points LESS away from home than we achieved at home.

 

(Sorry, cannot access certain sites to get details at moment)

I posted before that if we had the same away record as last season and this seasons home record we'd have had 70 points and finished 6th.

To answer your particular question, we got 43 points at home, so if we got 10 less away it would be 33 points and we'd have been on 76 points, and 4th.

That said, I wouldn't see it as a direct ten point difference relationship, probably more of a ratio. By the numbers before, teams get 28% less points away. So if we'd had that it would have been 12 points, which would have seen us on 78 points and 3rd.

Long story short, we had the home form we needed, we just need to lift away next season.