"I find it hard to understand" - Pundits air worries over concerning Wrexham AFC factor | OneFootball

The Red Dragons have been nowhere near as good on the road as they have been at home.

EFL pundits Ali Maxwell and George Elek have admitted to being confused by Wrexham's "Jekyll and Hyde" home and away form this season after their 1-0 loss to Stockport County.

The two newly promoted clubs are battling for the top spots for the second season in a row; it's just that this time it's in a higher division. County managed to make up some ground on their Welsh rivals by beating them at Edgeley Park on Saturday thanks to another tremendous effort from Louie Barry.

The result means that Wrexham have lost three of their seven away matches this season. They've only conceded as many times as they've played away from the Racecourse since stepping up to League One, but have only found the back of the net six times.

Ali Maxwell and George Elek's concern over Wrexham's away form

There is now some understandable concern about the way that the Red Dragons are playing away from home. Maxwell and Elek - the co-hosts of the Not The Top 20 Podcast - have some concerns about why they are setting up in a more negative fashion on the road, despite having a very talented squad that is capable of playing much better.

"I mean, Wrexham only had one shot in the first half (against Stockport)," said Maxwell. "They had a little flurry in the last 20 minutes, a little bit of pressure, but kind of petered out and lost this game with a bit of a whimper. And I mean, I wonder if you're surprised about that.

"I think I know the answer because we've been talking about Wrexham's weird Jekyll and Hyde, home versus away personalities for a while now. They are almost as different as two teams in the pyramid in terms of their home performances, results, approach and that away from home.

"And I find it hard to understand why Phil Parkinson and all his players feel the need to be so, like, deferential away from home when they have such a strong squad."

Elek then added: "I'd love to know how deliberate it is because there's no question, I reckon, if we had Phil Parkinson on the sofa next to us right now, and asked him, he would claim that it wasn't deliberate and it was just a product of playing away from home. But you can't get away with how different both the results are but also the manner of the performances.

"And the biggest concern for me is, if you look at their away form so far this season, they've won two of their away games. Those came against Peterborough, who are currently in 12th, and Rotherham, who are currently in 17th.

"Both good results to be fair and especially Peterborough. Not many teams restrict Peterborough to limited chances and a clean sheet away from home.

"But they've lost when they've played against, they've only played two sides currently in the top ten. Birmingham, they lost 3-1, Stockport, they lost 1-0.

"And if we look back at last season (in League Two), Wrexham's away record was okay, but they generally beat teams towards the bottom end of the table...

"So why the attacking output is so blunted is, I mean, it's very interesting," continued Elek.

"And it is a kind of tallies with the Phil Parkinson that we knew before Wrexham, who was a manager who was, to his great benefit, someone who drilled defences to be very resolute, who didn't take too many risks.

"And the big surprise is that he's managed to create this team at home who are so free scoring and get the best out of attacking players, which was never really his strong point before taking the Wrexham job.

"But yeah, I mean, they have to find, I mean, I personally don't understand why they don't look to approach games in the same way.

"I just think back to that game in September last year when they went to Stockport and they lost 5-0. Like was that in the moment in Phil Parkinson's mind where he was like, never again. We're going to just make sure we do not concede five goals like that on the road and therefore we're going to pick up points.

"They've got the 7th highest non-penalty xG (expected goals) at home in League One and the 2nd lowest away from home," Maxwell pointed out. "It's very hard to understand how a team could be so different on that front."

Wrexham must sort of away form issues if they want to be serious promotion contenders

To show how hard it is to win promotion from League One with a poor away record, the lowest a promotion winning team has been in the away standings over the previous three seasons in this league is seventh, and that was Oxford United in the last term, and they got promoted through the play-offs.

Wrexham are currently ninth in the away standings for this season. That simply has to improve if they want to have a real chance of being a Championship club for the 2025/26 campaign.