Gillingham FC Forum

It's a debate I have seen crop up on Facebook and Twitter and I thought it would be an interesting debate to have on here......

Should Gillingham Line Up With A Attacking Formation for away games ??? Is our defensive approach to away games a sign of where we are in League One compared to the likes of Coventry City, Sheffield United and MK Dons in this division or maybe the answer lies somewhere between the two and Gillingham need to get the balance of attack and defence right rather then being overly cautious or too adventurous ???

Although our points return is one point from fifteen, it would of been more then that had The Referee blew his whistle for full time after the 96th minute on Saturday, our second half performance against Coventry City meant that Gillingham were unlucky to leave The Ricoh Arena with nothing to show from our excellence performance in The Second Half and Gillingham could well have three draws and two losses from the five away matches we have played in the league this season.

Gillingham have won away at Yeovil Town in The League Cup and away at Stevenage in The Football League Trophy so it isn't like we haven't won away from home in all competitions this season, but that first away win in the league still eludes us - Should Luke Norris start alongside Cody McDonald from the off after his stunning strike against Sheffield United ??? - feel free to post your thoughts and opinions below this thread.

I don`t think we should play the same way for every away game as some Teams have a lot more quality than us i.e Sheffield Utd,Peterborough,Swindon etc.If you play too attacking against these sides then you`re likely to concede a few.For the games like Notts County,Scunthorpe etc I think we can go there and be more attacking,but for the tougher away games setting up defensively is wise as we don`t want to get over run.I wouldn`t like to see us go to the more winnable Teams and park the bus as that would lack ambition and reduces our chances of winning any League away game.We have pace and attacking quality that can hurt Teams,so I think we will get a win quite soon as we will surely mix it up a bit.

I think there is actually no answer to this! If we had far more adaptable players then perhaps we could alter a lot more tactics-wise but in reality, it is about staying strong and solid and trying to break enough to score ourselves. We have lost heavily to start with conceding 9 goals in the first 3 away matches but have only conceded 3 goals from the last 4 so we are adapting and have improved significantly.......we just now need to get even more solid to start taking points.

The reason I don't think there is an answer is because if we start out with an attacking formation, we will concede even more goals than we have so far. We might get a couple of goals but will likely do what we did at MK Dons every away game! If we start out too defensive, we will always be on the back foot, possibly not concede much but do what we did at Coventry every away game!

There needs to be a balance between the two and players will be more adaptable to this and I think we have done this in recent matches. Our results so far have been a combination of mistakes, quality of opposition and a new young team bedding in. We will lose a heavy away game at some point and we have an awful amount of improving still to do but we have seen signs of that without being more defensive or more attacking.

Let's just suppose we gave it a try for the next five away games and lost them all. That would give us a 'loss' against the results with our present tactics of just one point. Makes you think doesn't it ?

Win 3/4 of your home matches, beat the bottom ten teams away from home and snatch a point from a few of the top ten and your there in the running for a chance of the play offs, don't think to many teams do that by playing defensive football.