Home/Away stats

[WILF]

Ok, our away form is poor, some stats since Rafa arrived.

Home

.............W....D....L....F......A....PTS
Chelsea...39...10...0...102...23...127
Liverpool..36....9...4.....86...26...117
Man.Utd...34...12...3....94...27...114
Arsenal....33...13...3...130...40...112

Away
...............W....D....L....F.....A....PTS
Chelsea....33....8....8...79....31...107
Man.Utd...30...10....9...85....48...100
Arsenal.....23....8...18...66...46.....77
Liverpool...18....9...22...55....56....63

So at home we are not far off Chelsea and although we score fewer goals we win most of our games.

But away we are terrible, losing more than we are winning.
Rafa has had 2 1/2 seasons to sort this out and we are not there yet, people who say we had a difficult opening set of fixtures this season with all the tough away games are right but look at the bigger picture, we don't really know how to win (often) away.
We neither attack nor defend well enough to be contenders for the title.

Why

Rafa
He does not pick the right team, or tactics for these games?
He does not motivate the players well enough?, think of some of the aways this season

The Players
They don't follow instructions,don't have enough tactical discipline?
They lack fight? confidence? are lazy arsed pansies who can't be bothered?

Supporters
Home supporers are much more inspirational than away?

Refs
Too many "Home" refs and linesmen (like the ****** at Bolton )

For me it comes down to Rafa, he is the boss and must learn how to set us up tactically and mentally for tough away games.Mind you, it would help him if our strikers could score straight forward chances when they get them, Bolton and Blackburn come readily to mind

We must improve our away form dramatically if we are to stand any chance of winning no 19

[REDSCOUSER]

That last line sums up really

[Morph]

The problem is you're taking into account all the games since Rafa arrived.

The first season, Rafa could really do nothing about, he brought in his personell and had to figure out what needed to be done to improve us, so i'm going to discount that season.

The second season showed dramatic improvement, I'm not sure what our positions were in the home and away tables but I imagine they we're very good.

And now this season I'm pretty sure we are top of the home table and something like 7th in the away table which we can easily improve to 5th withing 1 game I recall. And given that all the 'hard' away games are out of the way, we should be improving in that respect and should find ourrselves higher.

I agree that the away form needs to improve, but I think it's more of a case of hitting the ground the running at the start of the season, and improving our performance against the top sides away from home, rather than our away performances as a whole.