Home vs Away

[CornwallBlade]

Simple question. Why the huge difference in tactics? During lockdown, with no fans in the grounds, teams still adopted a different tactical approach to away fixtures and talked about “hard to come here and get a result.” It’s a football pitch so why do coaches not just come out and play attacking football whereever they are playing? Does the crowd make that much difference? Playing aggressively and getting teams on the back foot is the best way of quietening the home crowd- something everyone wants to do.

 

[Stevo]

Simple question. Why the huge difference in tactics? During lockdown, with no fans in the grounds, teams still adopted a different tactical approach to away fixtures and talked about “hard to come here and get a result.” It’s a football pitch so why do coaches not just come out and play attacking football whereever they are playing? Does the crowd make that much difference? Playing aggressively and getting teams on the back foot is the best way of quietening the home crowd- something everyone wants to do.

I think the tactic is, keep the ball, quieten down the home fans, get them frustrated then nick a winner.....same again Saturday

 

[tomtheblade]

The best teams- Liverpool, Man City etc, can do exactly what you describe, because their game is developed to a high enough level that they feel confident imposing it on pretty much any team in any situation at any ground.

Below this level, I think coaches are more adaptive, and recognise that home managers will usually want to play on the front foot in their own ground, so in response they can either go toe to toe or play more on the break or variations thereof.

Since for most teams a point away from home is not frowned upon they're more likely to adopt the latter approach. Not always, and good coaches adapt their tactics to win each game, but generally there's a pattern.

What's interesting in our case is that you can make the argument that we have some of the most talented, experienced players in our division so should be looking to impose ourselves a la city/liverpool, albeit at a lower level. I can see this, and imo we could be more imposing, however Hecky does seem to be finding the right balance between attacking intent & defensive solidity, making it likely we'll get something out of every away game, as we've seen so far.

 

[CornwallBlade]

Totally agree with your summary of our current style. I just find odd that the same 11 v 11 will square up but play differently simply because they are either at home or away. We look so good at home I’d love to see us take to teams away from home. I guess a comparison would be how England have turned test cricket on its head, but hey, I’m just a spectator - they all obviously know what they are doing.

 

[FatPaul]

Also, not all pitches are the same size.

 

[SB_90]

ill Bump this as what is the difference with this team. because if you just take the results this calendar year we do tend to be almost unbeatable at home but cant win to save our life away from home

Home	Away
	QPR 1-1
	Millwall 2-0
Stoke 3-1
Hull 1-0
	Wrexham 3-3
	Rotherham 0-0
Wrexham 3-1
Swansea 3-0
Middlesbrough 1-3
	Millwall 2-3
Watford 1-0
Spurs 1-0
	Blackburn 0-1

is it tactical, is it the home advantage, is it that their weak mentally that they need our crowd to up there game. because i just dont know how the same set of players can be so different