"It's just incredible" - Pundit on surprise Plymouth Argyle exploits | OneFootball

The Pilgrims have really struggled on the road since winning promotion to the Championship, but at home they are fantastic.

Plymouth Argyle are still searching for their first victory on the road this season, and they will be up against it on Saturday when they travel to Leeds United in the Championship, with player-turned-pundit, Sam Parkin, surprised at the contrast between their home and away form.

It's been a tough campaign for Wayne Rooney's side away from Home Park so far, picking up their only point at Loftus Road in a 1-1 draw against QPR back in August.

It's a statistic that both he and Pilgrims supporters will not be proud of, especially considering how strong they have been on their own patch, beating the league leaders, Sunderland, and high-flying Blackburn Rovers at Home Park this season.

Plymouth must find a way to break their duck on their travels, otherwise they will push themselves into strong relegation contention, more so than they already are, and it could have a detrimental impact on their future.

Parkin's verdict on Plymouth's away form

The opening months of the season have perhaps not quite gone how Rooney would have wanted it to have gone, but there is still time to start rising up the table, and a lot of that focus must be on fixing their issues away from home.

They are not the only side to have had these struggles, as Derby County have also failed to taste victory on the road, and this could be something that drags them back towards the relegation zone, but Plymouth must punish them for that by getting wins.

It's a situation that has stumped former Luton Town and Swindon Town forward, Parkin, who explained his take on Argyle's difficulties on the podcast What The EFL?! Friendly Headbutts.

He said: "I mean the contrast, and it's something that's getting spoken and written about so much at the moment. But the contrast between home and away is just incredible. They've had three wins away in 29 games in the Championship since they've been promoted.

"Lost 18 of 29 and at home, 13 wins, 8 draws, 9 defeats, of which five came under Ian Foster. So they've had four defeats under Steven Schumacher and Wayne Rooney since they came back up to the Championship. So it's quite incredible.

"I don't know what they do about it. I spoke to a journalist at Millwall the other day, and he said, this isn't a new thing, Sam. This has been going on for decades. This is a problem with the location. Players wanting to come down there, the amount of travel that goes into it. They've looked at various different things.

"I mean, he name-checked managers from 25 years ago who did get a tune out of them on the road. I certainly didn't see it at Millwall. They were terrible.

"They were terrible, and I saw Morgan Whittaker have an incredible off night. Yeah, I'm sat there thinking, I know why the manager can't take him off because he's liable to do what he did at the weekend and get them a point salvaged from a position where, you know, Wayne Rooney was about to get it again, both barrels from everyone in the national press."

Sam continued: "So incredible recovery. I think that's four times now they've scored in additional time. But going away from home to go back to that point, and this was a shuffled pack. He made five changes, I think, for this game.

"So he's having a look at different things. Lewis Gibson out, this gives them a bit of a problem defensively. He's been colossal. But I think going away from home, you can't just hope you're going to be competitive like they were at West Brom and in one or two of the other games.

"I think they need to come up with a way of being more defensively-minded and probably containment away from home. Whether that's if they played wing-backs, they've done that before under Schumacher, I'm sure. So yeah, they could easily put a third center-half in there, maybe play Morgan Whitaker centrally off a striker.

"You'd still have that threat with him and maybe a presence in front of him. But I think to continue going away in their current guise, the outcome is going to continue to be the same," he concluded.

Plymouth must start scoring away from home

Although the season is still young, the longer this winless run goes on for Plymouth, the more difficult it will get to break that duck on the road.

Defensively, they have been poor when not at Home Park, but their attacking prowess has been extremely nullified, scoring just one goal in six matches.

That goal came against QPR in their only draw, and this dry run has been a huge issue for Rooney that he has not been able to fix. However, as Parkin said, this is an issue that has followed the Pilgrims for a number of years, and there seems to be a bigger problem than just the manager.

Nonetheless, without finding the back of the net, results will not improve and Plymouth will start to lose their hold onto the rest of the pack and may potentially start to face the realisation of relegation very early on.