As many posters and readers of this Bulletin Board will know, I like to seek answers to football problems through analysis. However, I have a problem. I only attend home games. Since 27 August, when we beat Rotherham, we have not won a home game, but in contrast, we have won 4 away games. Looking at our league record for the season, we have now won more away games than at home (4v3), accumulated more away points than home (13v12) and have a better goal difference away than at home (+4v-1). Quite frankly, and from a home supporter perspective these statistics are colouring my view of the season as a whole. So I have a number of questions 1. What are we doing differently away from home? 2. What are our opponents doing differently away from home? 3. How do we start winning our home games?
1. Not being hit on the break as much as teams don't sit back 2. See one 3. Learn how to track back once a move breaks down It's obviously a bit more complicated than this but I cba
For what it's worth I think the team is a natural counter-attacking one so it suits us better away from home where we're not expected to be attacking for 70% of the game like at home.
We are a better counter attacking team that when we have to break the opposition down. Away from home their is more onus on the opposition to bring the game to us to play to their strengths rather than chip away at our weaknesses which in turns plays into our hands as a counter attacking team. Their is less pressure away from home and the players seem to respond positively to fans who, Hemsy excepted, are there to support the team through thin and thinner rather than whinge and criticise.
It's not just this season either. If you take the whole calendar year it must be one of our best ever for away results. Sent from my SM-G850F using Tapatalk
I believe we have a "I go to every away game and I'm not afraid to mention it" poster who is best qualified to give a level headed unbiased and honest response.
Watch the full matches (home or away) on Barnsley Player HD for just £4.99 a month. Then you'll see the differences.
lol... forever the salesman Andy....love your style mate.....bye the way are you on commission ......or is it just a natural high....lol
We're built to counter attack teams. Teams can happily come to Oakwell & play it safe knowing a point or nicking a goal on the counter & scraping a win is a good result. They can't do that at home against us. Imagine the Wolves fans for example if they let us have all the ball & sat back waiting to counter, their fans wouldn't have it so they took the game to us & got battered
I agree with all those above who've suggested we are better in counter-attacking mode. The problem is, how do you approach a home game if that is correct? I suspect it's a lot to do with psychology. I can just feel the groans of discontent if we were to start home games with little ambition. One up front is not a popular option - especially with our current personnel. The best I can come up with is this. All out for an early goal is always worth a shot - before the opposition have sized you up. We did that against Forest. Once you are in front, it must be patience-patience-patience. You are in a winning position, so you don't then have to bust a gut to get another goal. At some point, the opposition have to come at you, leaving the counter-attack and further goals a possibility. I don't think we did this against Forest - or at least if we did then the defensive concentration wasn't up to it. At 2-3 we had been manouvered into having to chase the game, so I think we were naive in that match. If you don't get the goal early, then perhaps the patience has to kick in anyway after 15-20 minutes? I suspect Hecky and the coaching team have already given all this a lot of thought - they're certainly into the sports science/sports psychology. But of course it's harder to execute than to theorise about.
Me and my mate who is a regular poster on here said before the Forest game that if we score early we'll win easily as they'll have to come at us and their defence is rubbish. We were partially right......
Have to admit that after our first two went in I fancied us to get five. Unfortunately our defence went AWOL after that. It was certainly a winnable game if we'd had our concentration levels up.
The Forest game is a good example. We lost that game despite being in front twice. But it was the manner that we lost that game that annoyed me. We lost the game due to 5 obvious individual errors. In fact, there were probably 4 more errors that did not result in goals, so the score line could have been worse. And yet, one week later, we go to Birmingham and keep a clean sheet and win by 3 goals. Clearly we did not make the same errors at Birmingham. As I say, I am a home fan and consequently I have no idea what is going on away from home. I can tell you what I think is going wrong at home games. I think that we rely too heavily on our wide mid-field players, and when that is not working, we do not seem to have a plan B. Hourihane has been playing too deep and his influence on games has lessened as a result but that situation should be helped by playing Morsy beside him. But that is all theory, because as I say, I have not witnessed it personally. I know that Whitey is doing his job when he recommends player, but I cannot get an impression of what is going wrong from TV footage because naturally, the camera always follows the ball and you miss what has gone on away from the ball. Take the first Forest goal from the last home game. Sitting in the stands, it was clear that Hourihane was flat footed and the player he was meant to be marking got away from him to put in the telling cross. However, the TV footage picked up play from when the player received the ball and Hourihane was already out of position. Frankly, saying that we are a counter attacking team that does better away from home because the home team over commits does not really answer my opening question, because in my opinion the converse is not true at Oakwell. From what I have observed, we do not over commit at home. It is simply that our strategy of attacking down the wings and keeping our shape in the centre is not working, or at least, it has not worked since August. And to state that we are catching teams on the break away from home ignores the fact that at Birmingham we scored from 3 set pieces. I do not mean this as an insult, but it is simply lazy thinking to make that assumption without supporting your point with evidence. This is a genuine enquiry by the way. It is not an attempt to score points, even though my last point might seem that way.
Guilty as charged, M'Lud! The only defence I can offer is that all my serious thinking is reserved for four-legged athletes! (With what's left over focused upon the Supreme Court appeal!)
