Home advantage

[rurikbird]

It's gone and it's not coming back until the fans come back. Round One: 8 games, 6 (!) wins for the away sides. Round Two: 10 games, 5 wins for the away sides. At this point there is no such thing as "away at Chelsea" or "away at Liverpool" – it's just Liverpool vs Chelsea or Arsenal vs Liverpool in for all intensive purposes a neutral ground.

What implication do you think this will have on our season and the league in general?

 

[Holle]

The only team with their usual home support is City.

So typical, jammy cunts.

 

[Shadey]

It will be tough we have to rase our game and klopp and the boys know this, the citeh home game will be important m.

 

[Mamma Mia]

It's gone and it's not coming back until the fans come back. Round One: 8 games, 6 (!) wins for the away sides. Round Two: 10 games, 5 wins for the away sides. At this point there is no such thing as "away at Chelsea" or "away at Liverpool" – it's just Liverpool vs Chelsea or Arsenal vs Liverpool in for all intensive purposes a neutral ground.

What implication do you think this will have on our season and the league in general?

I'm not pulling you up on this in a grammar nazi kind of way, especially since I'm sure you speak more languages me, and generally write in better English than I do, but I figure you'd appreciate knowing.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/for-...rase “to all intents,to cover all their bases!

 

[rurikbird]

I'm not pulling you up on this in a grammar nazi kind of way, especially since I'm sure you speak more languages me, and generally write in better English than I do, but I figure you'd appreciate knowing.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/for-all-intents-and-purposes/#:~:text=The phrase “to all intents,to cover all their bases!

Thanks, it's a stupid Americanism I picked without knowing. Don't mind being corrected.

 

[MaBigTip]

two of the best posters showing how its done.

 

[Squiggles]

On a more general level there's going to be increased amount of individual defensive and GK errors across the board. I haven't got the data to see it, but there's already some anecdotal signs of it.

There's no fans screaming man on at you to aid awareness. There's no noise to keep the concentration levels up. I think teams in general will cover less distances than they would otherwise. They'll be less hot blooded tackles and less altercations in general. I suspect players will follow tactical instructions more closely and away sides will be bolder in their approach.

The whole thing favours more technical, i.e, City, than pressing machines like ourselves - although Thiago will level the playing field. I really do think he's going to be crucial. Players who can just calmly control a game, whilst staying switched on, are going to be worth their weight in gold. For me that's Fabinho and Thiago right now. VVD seems to be struggling without the fans, with 2 costly errors leading to goals.

 

[dmishra]

Exactly my thoughts. One of the reasons I thought Keita did well on the restart was the lack of any crowd pressure. More a training ground feel.

Alisson and van Dijk both seem to be big characters who thrive in a big atmosphere. Have become callous in this set up.

 

[Atlas]

It'll affect us and the big European nights under the lights etc
they won't have their bus smashed to bits on the way in and wont be as intimidated

 

[Brizzle]

It does mean it is useful to get the 'away' trips out of the way early on the off chance we do get home crowds back in March - May time.

 

[rurikbird]

It's universally assumed that this season will be a lot "closer" than the last – top teams will lose more points against the rest of the league. But I think as long as crowds are not there, it will actually help the big teams – they won't have to overcome the "away disadvantage" in tough away games. Removing the home/away paradigm from consideration can actually help top teams achieve consistent results, which will make the gap between top 6/7 and the rest greater than it would otherwise have been.

 

[Athens]

They'll need to start piping in some crowd noise then. Have fans call in on the phone lines so there's no delay. I was going to suggest invite your mates round and put the phone on speaker in the middle but you're not allowed to do that.

 

[Stevesquash]

It's universally assumed that this season will be a lot "closer" than the last – top teams will lose more points against the rest of the league. But I think as long as crowds are not there, it will actually help the big teams – they won't have to overcome the "away disadvantage" in tough away games. Removing the home/away paradigm from consideration can actually help top teams achieve consistent results, which will make the gap between top 6/7 and the rest greater than it would otherwise have been.

Completely agree, where there is a weaker side, its home advantage is now much less, and therefore they have less chance of "catching up" performance to match the stronger team.

It also is going to make defending our magnificent home record slightly harder. That said we've hardly lost away either in matches that mattered in the last 2+ years.

I think there may be a bit of intimidation of players from away fans which is now lost, but actually the greater intimidation is of the officials. With VAR working a little better the effect of the crowd would be slightly dampened still, so I think we'll see slightly less home advantage even when the fans return.

 

[RedStar]

I think the biggest worry from our perspective is that unfancied sides will feel absolutely no pressure to attack without a crowd. That was clear clear from the derby game after the restart. Everton were playing for 0-0 from kick off and without a home crowd to shame them into stepping up there will be more teams follow that model.

I also think you will see more impartial referfeeing like we saw against Chelsea. I doubt the ref would have gine back and overturned his original decision with full stadium screaming at him.

 

[iseered]

It feels a bit like watching golf

 

[Frogfish]

It's universally assumed that this season will be a lot "closer" than the last – top teams will lose more points against the rest of the league. But I think as long as crowds are not there, it will actually help the big teams – they won't have to overcome the "away disadvantage" in tough away games. Removing the home/away paradigm from consideration can actually help top teams achieve consistent results, which will make the gap between top 6/7 and the rest greater than it would otherwise have been.

Yet it's the same - especially for us and the trepidation coming to Anfield creates in some players - for the home teams. Away teams will not feel as intimidated and can play with more freedom / adherence to their gameplan. The number of away wins in the PL already emphasises this point. I personally feel it's a huge negative for us not having our crowd behind us.