Wayne Rooney would love to have Ian Foster trait with Plymouth Argyle | OneFootball

The Greens are yet to record a victory away from home in the 24/25 Championship season

If things stay the way they are, it is going to be a long, hard season for Wayne Rooney and Plymouth Argyle.

While the Greens continue to pick up results at Home Park, they cannot muster anything like the same sort of form on their travels, with just one point from their seven matches outside of Devon in the current campaign.

The Jekyll and Hyde performances have left Argyle unable to pick up any sort of momentum so far, with well-earned points in front of their own fans too often followed by a lacklustre performance away from home.

While there are many issues the Green Army could rattle off about the ill-fated reign of Ian Foster, his performances away from Home Park were one of the few bright sparks from the start of the year, and is proof this Argyle side can produce the goods when needed.

Ian Foster’s away record at Plymouth Argyle

Argyle fans could likely write you a list as long as your arm about the shortcomings of Ian Foster’s time at Home Park, with his relationship with the supporters strained for the majority of his 87 days in charge of the club.

With fractures throughout the club by the time he departed in April, the former England youth coach had single-handedly halted any momentum the club had following their promotion from League One, with results taking a downturn in the second-half of the campaign.

But in complete contrast to the current campaign, Argyle were a side who managed to pick up results on the road more often than at home during the 47-year-old’s time in charge, with two big wins coming over Swansea City and Middlesbrough.

While his defensive style of play won him no favours at Home Park, it seemed to do the trick on the road on the odd occasion, something that the Greens would love to be able to do in their current guise.

Draws against Huddersfield Town and Blackburn Rovers also helped their cause on their travels, while a battling 1-1 draw with Leeds United in the FA Cup set up a replay at Home Park during his early days in charge.

Things turned towards the end with defeats at Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich City, but what Argyle would give for the chance just to be competitive on the road of late, given their recent performances.

Wayne Rooney needs to turn around Plymouth Argyle’s wretched Championship away form

Ironically, for a team named the Pilgrims, travelling away hasn’t been the most enjoyable of tasks of late, with only Birmingham City and Rotherham United having worse records on the road during the previous campaign.

Foster picked up two of Argyle’s three victories on the road last season, with the management duo of Neil Dewnsip and Kevin Nancekivell producing the goods against Rotherham as they took over for the final few matches of the season.

Since Rooney’s appointment in the summer, things have somehow got even worse, with one goal in their seven matches, with Morgan Whittaker’s thunderbolt earning them their only point in a 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers.

Heavy defeats to Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff City have compounded the misery for the travelling Green Army so far this season, with Rooney seemingly not learning his lessons when taking his team on the road.

The Argyle boss’s insistence on trying to play the same style of football both home and away is catching up with him, with a much different approach needed when setting up at the home of one of their divisional rivals, as the Greens have found out the hard way.

A bluntness in front of goal is apparent, with an average xG of 0.7 from those away trips showing how futile their efforts have been going forward of late, compounded by the shot-less trip to Leeds United at the weekend.

Compare that to the 2.03 xG that the side are giving up each game, and it is plain to see where the problem lies, with the Pilgrims being carved open time and time again when on their travels, and regularly paying the price for it.

Even in his early days at Home Park, Rooney has shown he is still learning and adapting to life as a manager, which is refreshing to see, and with the home performances allowing him time to sort out the away form, Argyle fans will be expecting to see a different approach being utilised in the weeks to come.

A trip to Pride Park to face Derby County awaits this weekend, with the Rams thriving in front of their own fans since returning to the Championship, leaving supporters very much travelling in hope rather than expectation given recent performances on the road.

If Argyle can take anything from Ian Foster’s time in Devon, it should be his relative success when he was playing outside the county. If Wayne Rooney can take just a little bit of that blueprint and make the team competitive on the road, this season could be a lot more comfortable than it currently is.