At home but where is the comfort?

[edgysatsuma89]

We have not been a top club since I have watched football, and have never seen us win anything. You oldies should feel lucky.

Lucky ? Lucky ? 47 years I've been going and it's 1 European Cup, 1 League, 4 League Cups and No FA Cup ! For the club from the second city of the country that gave football to the world that's a poor return.
I don't know how long you have been going, obviously less than 17 years if you have never seen us win anything. But who is to say that when you have been watching 47 years you may have seen us win more than I have in my first 47 !

Haha well I bloody hope so! But at least you have definitely seen us win things. As they say I would rather have the points on the board, there are no points on mine.

I have seen us at Wembley twice mind (although the one a semi). and if it wasn't for fatty mcfatfuck I may have seen us win something.

[supertom]

A season where you're comfortable by March and all but safe should be the absolute bare minimum. Finishing under 50 points for a club like ourselves should not be acceptable in my opinion. Sadly until the state of the game changes we're a long way from competing, even in the top 6 again. We had that, we imploded on and off the pitch somewhat and teams have overtaken us.

I don't think survival should be our season point checklist. It's a little pathetic to be honest. Our target shouldn't be 40 points asap. We should be aiming for 50 at minimum and also winning more than we lose should be a pre-requisite.

I do feel fortunate for having been witness to two 2nd place finishes and 2 league cup victories. I'd hope to see us lift a trophy again within the next decade, but honestly. We've lost the last two finals we've been in and blown a semi final that should have been a stone wall win last season. We'll be lucky to see Wembley again any time soon.

[eastie]

A season where you're comfortable by March and all but safe should be the absolute bare minimum. Finishing under 50 points for a club like ourselves should not be acceptable in my opinion. Sadly until the state of the game changes we're a long way from competing, even in the top 6 again. We had that, we imploded on and off the pitch somewhat and teams have overtaken us.

I don't think survival should be our season point checklist. It's a little pathetic to be honest. Our target shouldn't be 40 points asap. We should be aiming for 50 at minimum and also winning more than we lose should be a pre-requisite.

I do feel fortunate for having been witness to two 2nd place finishes and 2 league cup victories. I'd hope to see us lift a trophy again within the next decade, but honestly. We've lost the last two finals we've been in and blown a semi final that should have been a stone wall win last season. We'll be lucky to see Wembley again any time soon.

Spot on.

[Clampy]

It's all about transistion at the moment. We don't want to have another nervy season like we did last year and I don't think we will. If the home form picks up then 50 points is realistic and that's the only thing that's really holding us back at the moment, along with a bit of quality and experience which needs adding to the side.

[MarkM]

It's all about transistion at the moment. We don't want to have another nervy season like we did last year and I don't think we will. If the home form picks up then 50 points is realistic and that's the only thing that's really holding us back at the moment, along with a bit of quality and experience which needs adding to the side.

'Transition' Do I not like that word, seams we have been in transition for years now

[Clampy]

It's all about transistion at the moment. We don't want to have another nervy season like we did last year and I don't think we will. If the home form picks up then 50 points is realistic and that's the only thing that's really holding us back at the moment, along with a bit of quality and experience which needs adding to the side.

'Transition' Do I not like that word, seams we have been in transition for years now

Well we are at the moment with the high turnover of players Lambert has brought in.

[eastie]

It's all about transistion at the moment. We don't want to have another nervy season like we did last year and I don't think we will. If the home form picks up then 50 points is realistic and that's the only thing that's really holding us back at the moment, along with a bit of quality and experience which needs adding to the side.

'Transition' Do I not like that word, seams we have been in transition for years now

Well we are at the moment with the high turnover of players Lambert has brought in.

I agree, the next 2 months will tell us a lot as to how far we have developed - we need points and results to get back around the top 10 .

[glasses]

I saw this quote on the BBC and it did make me wonder

"West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce on his team's poor home form: "Lots of teams are finding it tougher to secure points at home and it shows that tactically teams are going away and being strong.

"Everybody said we've got to improve our away form. We've done that but now we've got to get our home form back to where it was last season."

The Hammers are looking to avoid a fourth straight home Premier League defeat when they host Aston Villa on Saturday"

Perhaps it isn't just us who are struggling for Home form in recent times. Maybe it is just that the way teams set up to play nowadays is better suited to playing away. Football in general does tend to have it's fashionable phases of certain tactics and formations and maybe everyone is just going through this, and because most of us only care about what Villa are doing, we don't see this.

I can't be arsed looking at whether statistics back this theory up or anything like that. After all, that's the beauty of an internet forum. There will be someone out there aching to prove me wrong i'm sure!

[eamonn]

Spurs have been better away this and last season too.

[supertom]

It's partly down to the 1 up front fad. Most clubs prefer to play the 4-2-3-1 now, or a 4-5-1/4-3-3 (with two wingers more than forwards). It's well suited for counter attacking football which lends itself well to playing away.

There's few grounds you'd call intimidating to play at nowadays either, be it new grounds lacking character older ones had (Emirates isn't as working class friendly as Highbury because the working class get priced out, nor does it have the compactness of the pitch and atmosphere for example) and a rise in plastic fans, particularly at clubs which have become fashionable after a modicum of success lately, like Spurs. From mid-tablers to competing in the top 5 year on year.
More so it's true of Chelsea and Man City. Rich owners bringing almost immediate success. Suddenly there's all these City and Chelsea fans appearing out the woodwork who've decided they'd be good clubs to follow. A trait started 20 years ago by a great surge in glory hunting Utd fans.

A clubs die-hards and more passionate fans will always show up in the away stands in their away games. This gives great vocality among the away fans which isn't necessarily always there with a lot of home sides fans in the top flight these days.

[supertom]

Look at last seasons table too. From 7th down there wasn't a decent home record to be seen. Even Spurs and Arsenal dropped points in 8 games a piece last season.

That said we need to get our home form up to average as opposed to utterly piss poor. I'm not expecting us to be a fortress again (if we ever were) but winning comfortably more than you lose at home should be a given.

[aj2k77]

Just read that Everton have won 22 drew 7 and lost 2 of their last 31 premier league home games. Pretty obvious that it's nothing to do with fans because theirs are shite even though they have a lot to crow about.

So we can strike that option and it becomes even more clearer that it's all about players and formations and only 1 person is to blame for that.

[supertom]

Just read that Everton have won 22 drew 7 and lost 2 of their last 31 premier league home games. Pretty obvious that it's nothing to do with fans because theirs are shite even though they have a lot to crow about.

So we can strike that option and it becomes even more clearer that it's all about players and formations and only 1 person is to blame for that.

Everton were top 6 last season though. So it goes without saying, build a good home form and as long as you're reasonable away you'll do well.
Fans can play some part because some grounds, at least used to be, quite intimidating to play in. You can't entirely scratch that, but it's maybe 5% of it.

There's also something to be said about building a winning mentality. String a few wins together and you can conceivably build a run. By the same token, as we are finding, it's very difficult to shake off that stigma that you can't win consistently at home. If beating City in the manner we did can't be a turning point, then I really don't know what is.

But fully agree. The biggest issue is the manager on this. He's set us out all wrong in most home games. I can take average home form, like we had under O Neill. But the home form under Lambert has been wretched. Again, I appreciate that the previous two seasons before him, we had developed a defeatist mentality on our own patch. But if he's to be our long term Villa manager, he's got to turn things around sharpish. We've been well beaten 5 times at home this season (in all competitions). Besides beating Man City and the mighty Rotherham it's been complete drek.

[aj2k77]

If you take a look at Arsenal, their fans experienced 1 bad day at the office and came out of the ground wanting to sack Wenger, kill all his descendants and erase him from the clubs records, just because they'd lost the opening game.

Spurs fans. Took a right hammering from AVB, because even with a record this season of 12 wins 2 draws and 1 defeat their support against Hull was appalling.

And then there's us. Dreadfull home record going back 3 years now but if there's a murmur in the crowd when another misplaced pass goes astray we are a hard crowd to please bordering on fickle.

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