Us At Home V Us Away..why Such A Big Difference?

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by Malteser2, Nov 5, 2020.

  1. Malteser2

    Malteser2 Reservist

    I know I bang on about it a lot, but this home v away thing is really intriguing me.

    Since we started playing in empty stadia, we’ve earned 20 points at the Vic and a mere 5 on the road (out of a possible 27).

    (We also drew and lost our two league cup matches away, but won both our home friendlies including one against a PL side).

    I’d have thought being the away side would have been slightly easier in these strange times, but not so for us.

    One decent away performance after Project Re-start last season and we’d probably have stayed up.

    A couple more decent ones this season so far and we’d probably be top, maybe even unbeaten still.

    Any theories as to why we are performing so poorly in general on the road, despite the lack of hostile home crowds?
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  2. Guy

    Guy Squad Player

    It is mystifying- with no crowds shouldn't make any difference playing home and away

    Seems that coaches just set up teams as they have always done with the mentality to win your home games and draw your aways

    Very bizzare mentality
     
    folkestone orn likes this.
  3. BusheyOrn

    BusheyOrn Reservist

    I have seen some comments from players and journalists at the games that the home team has kept the grass long to stop our passing game against a more direct approach from the home team. Also on at least one occasion the width of the pitch was much narrower than at the Vic so therefore the play was congested and made it more difficult to stretch the play and get down the wings easily.
     
    I Blame Pozzo likes this.
  4. Malteser2

    Malteser2 Reservist

    Yes, it should certainly make less difference now playing home or away. During my years supporting us, we’ve had some fairly miserable long runs of rarely getting anything on the road, but really in these strange times it shouldn’t be like that. You only have to look at the PL this season to see an increase in wins by the away sides.
     
  5. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    No other pitch in the land has our slope.
     
    folkestone orn and Happy bunny like this.
  6. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    Our manager is shyt.
     
  7. Malteser2

    Malteser2 Reservist

    The poor run also includes Pearson in charge of course, and Mullins too for one away fixture.
     
  8. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Watford just delight in doing things differently from everyone else.
     
  9. Jack5

    Jack5 Academy Graduate

    It's because we are complete **** when teams press us. Away they are doing that and for some odd reason at home they aren't pressing as much (historical home advantage I guess).

    If teams pressed us in every game we would have far fewer points as we have no idea how to play against it.
     
    Chiswell likes this.
  10. Manatleisure

    Manatleisure Squad Player

    Its a similar mystery to Preston's home form compared to their away form. Difficult to know why.
     
  11. BigRossLittleRoss

    BigRossLittleRoss First Team

    too small a sample size
     
  12. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    It is pretty bizarre and shows how much (a large part of) sport is all in the mind. Apart from slightly different grass and slightly different dimensions it’s exactly the same, home or away. It shouldn’t make any difference yet it clearly does, it must be ingrained in players and managers psyches to approach a game completely differently just because the pitch is located somewhere else.
     
  13. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    I think if you look back at league tables from many, many years ago you find that the effect of home advantage was even greater. I think this was because the actual travelling was much more arduous, no overnight stays etc.
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  14. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    Our fancy pre madonna's like the Hertfordshire sun and the close family togetherness. Go away from that and it's more or less foreign to them. Step off the coach into this alien landscape. No wonder we lost at Barnsley, probably a few hundred coal mining cloggers on the way to the ground pulling weird faces.
     
  15. zztop

    zztop Eurovision Winner 2015

    It's the renowned fearsome "Vicarage Road roar" that terrorises the very heart and soul out of the opposition.

    It doesn't matter that they turn up and find the ground empty, the damage has already been done.
     
  16. cyaninternetdog

    cyaninternetdog Forum Hippie

    We arent used to playing in tinpot stadia any more.
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  17. miked2006

    miked2006 Premiership Prediction League Proprietor

    Pitches, preparation time, mentality.
     
  18. LondonOrn

    LondonOrn Squad Player

    At other times though, albeit much less often, there have been seasons when our home form has been much worse than our away form, even in an absolute sense - 2007/08 was a prime example: https://www.footballsite.co.uk/Statistics/FullTables/2007-08ChampionshipFull.htm

    It seems to stem from the mentality of the players and the deficiencies of the set-up, as suggested in this post:

    Don't forget we had a good home record and a bad away one under Pearson long before lockdown.

    In fact, although the players seem generally more committed with a better team spirit, this season follows a strangely similar pattern to the one after the restart - a team that can hardly get a point away, and while picking up plenty of points at home is largely unconvincing and can often only really get going after we're a goal down and/or a sluggish first half (out of the 9 games we haven't lost, we've had to come from behind five times to win/draw - Leicester (h), Norwich (h), Newcastle (h), and this season Stoke (h) and Coventry (h)). Perhaps this is this underlying psychological problem that Ivic is trying to sort out?
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
  19. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    Knowing the the home playing surface helps, as that can vary an awful lot from stadium to stadium.
     
  20. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    This was also true for a couple of seasons in the early 90s. The club was being very poorly run and the atmosphere at home games was often one of protest, so the players seemed intimidated and unsupported. Away they relaxed more and got some decent results. I remember at that time the away fans were well behind the team, even though we knew they were not very good and we had some good away days as a result.
     
  21. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    "Us at home vs US away".
    Interesting concept and I'm not sure how they will arrange this in practice.
    Must win game.
    Us at home 1 (Sarr) Us away 1 (Sarr)
     
  22. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    Deeney (og) 90+5 Deeney missed penalty 90+6,
    Deeney (og) 90+7 Deeney missed penalty 90+8
     

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