Home Advantage

[Day]

There is no football without fans, we already knew this as do clubs. 

With the Bundesliga back up and running without fans, just 3 of the 16 games have seen a home win.

Has home advantage been removed with no fans?

Some have always dismissed the effect fans can have on the players, but the Bundesliga experiment is showing teams at home are struggling to overcome teams above them in the table.

Does that not highlight how important our support is, getting behind the team?

You buy your ticket you can sit in silence, rant and rave or get behind them, you’re choice, nobody can tell you how to behave in your seat, but when when Pride Park reopens just remember what football was like without fans. 

Maybe, just maybe we can help get those wins? ??‍♂️

(As I write this, the away team has just gone 3-0 up in the first half in the Bundesliga)

[Rev]

There was a decent article on the Athletic in a similar vein.

Managers will now pick players who they wouldn't have otherwise, due to them being adversely affected by the pressure of performing in front of a crowd.

[Carnero]

This could be the making of Jozefzoon!

[Day]

13 minutes ago, Carnero said:

This could be the making of Jozefzoon!

Mel might change his mind about waiting for football to return when fans are allowed in ?

[Rev]

2 minutes ago, David said:

Mel might change his mind about waiting for football to return when fans are allowed in ?

We'll be made to wear face masks a decade after the vaccine comes in.

[Day]

20 minutes ago, reverendo de duivel said:

There was a decent article on the Athletic in a similar vein.

Managers will now pick players who they wouldn't have otherwise, due to them being adversely affected by the pressure of performing in front of a crowd.

Not read it but will go and hunt it out as no fans has a bigger impact on the game than we probably realised. 

Will also be interesting to see how the referees perform without 30k fans on his back calling for decisions and all the names under the sun.

[Rev]

https://theathletic.com/1818159/2020/05/23/will-empty-grounds-be-the-perfect-stage-for-players-who-only-do-it-in-training?source=user-shared-article

[Carnero]

2 minutes ago, David said:

Not read it but will go and hunt it out as no fans has a bigger impact on the game than we probably realised. 

Will also be interesting to see how the referees perform without 30k fans on his back calling for decisions and all the names under the sun.

From the Bundesliga games I've seen the players seem to be showing the refs more respect without us animals baying for blood.

[Day]

1 minute ago, reverendo de duivel said:

We'll be made to wear face masks a decade after the vaccine comes in.

Not sure what will happen, I was pretty flippant when this started to surface so cautious about making any predictions.

I was surprised though hearing Mel talk about waiting for fans, all the talk in the media suggests this is a long long way away, can we afford to wait and see how it all plays out?

Revenue through TV and RamsTV subscriptions must surely be better for the health of the club than no revenue.

We would be releasing 3 new shirts in a couple of months as well, without knowing the terms of the deal with Umbro it’s hard to say what revenue would be lost from a worst case scenario of no football for a full 12 months?

[GB SPORTS]

19 minutes ago, Carnero said:

From the Bundesliga games I've seen the players seem to be showing the refs more respect without us animals baying for blood.

That could be more to do with the effect that social distancing has on the mind rather than the crowd effect.

Noticed that that Glasner did a bit of safe confrontation to the Ref at the final whistle though.

[Rev]

36 minutes ago, David said:

Not sure what will happen, I was pretty flippant when this started to surface so cautious about making any predictions.

I was surprised though hearing Mel talk about waiting for fans, all the talk in the media suggests this is a long long way away, can we afford to wait and see how it all plays out?

Revenue through TV and RamsTV subscriptions must surely be better for the health of the club than no revenue.

We would be releasing 3 new shirts in a couple of months as well, without knowing the terms of the deal with Umbro it’s hard to say what revenue would be lost from a worst case scenario of no football for a full 12 months?

I was referring to us wearing masks to stifle the moans, not health reasons.

[DarkFruitsRam7]

I'm sure there's statistical evidence which shows that, in normal circumstances, home advantage is a real thing.

I doubt it's 100% down to the crowd though. If there were to be a larger sample size, I'd still expect the advantage to exist, but probably to a much less significant degree than usual.

[RoyMac5]

3 minutes ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

I'm sure there's statistical evidence which shows that, in normal circumstances, home advantage is a real thing.

I'm confused then, I thought our fans only got on our players backs? ?

[Dean (hick) Saunders]

Can’t seem to remember that playing on the Markeaton Park (home) vs Racecourse (away) made a massive difference.

(In comparison to what time the centre forward left the Abid the night before)

[Millenniumram]

It’ll be interesting to see, once the Bundesliga season is over, a direct comparison between the percentage of home wins before and after play stopped because of the virus. I think 16 matches is a bit too small a sample size to draw any real conclusions as I’d have expected a lot of the games to be away wins anyway with the way the fixtures have fallen - but I’ve no doubt that we will see some sort of effect in the long run from the lack of home fans. 

For me, there’s two elements to home advantage - there’s the advantage gained from having the home fans behind you, and the advantage gained from playing on a pitch you’re used to, know the speed of etc etc. Obviously playing behind closed doors completely eliminates the first part, but provided we don’t move to neutral venues, the second advantage will still remain. I think we will now see which of those two advantages is the most significant - if we see a real shift in terms of numbers of home wins, then we know the fans really do make a big difference. If not, then maybe the fans don’t matter as much as we think, and it’s really all just down to the playing surface. 

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Personally I expect to see a slight drop in the number of home wins in the long run, but I suspect the playing surface advantage will mean home advantage still exists, and there will remain more home than away wins once the season is over.

[DarkFruitsRam7]

2 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

For me, there’s two elements to home advantage - there’s the advantage gained from having the home fans behind you, and the advantage gained from playing on a pitch you’re used to, know the speed of etc etc. Obviously playing behind closed doors completely eliminates the first part, but provided we don’t move to neutral venues, the second advantage will still remain. I think we will now see which of those two advantages is the most significant - if we see a real shift in terms of numbers of home wins, then we know the fans really do make a big difference. If not, then maybe the fans don’t matter as much as we think, and it’s really all just down to the playing surface. 

I'd also throw in the comfort at being in your typical surroundings (e.g. dressing rooms, normal routine rather than having to get up early or stay in a hotel, etc) and cautious away teams. Off the top of my head.

[Millenniumram]

1 minute ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

I'd also throw in the comfort at being in your typical surroundings (e.g. dressing rooms, normal routine rather than having to get up early or stay in a hotel, etc) and cautious away teams. Off the top of my head.

Good point, you can probably go even further than that. There’s definitely more to it than just the fans.

[sage]

1 hour ago, Millenniumram said:

Good point, you can probably go even further than that. There’s definitely more to it than just the fans.

There is also brain conditioning. If you have been brought up that away games are more difficult, its very easy for the mere concept of being away changing your attitude and confidence.

 

[uttoxram75]

You've only got to see players reaction when they've scored in front of the South Stand to see what it means to them.....

[Millenniumram]

53 minutes ago, sage said:

There is also brain conditioning. If you have been brought up that away games are more difficult, its very easy for the mere concept of being away changing your attitude and confidence.

 

Think that’s our biggest problem to be honest. Our away form is so bad because we go into games with a different attitude to home games - we seem to fear away games, rather than believing in ourselves and relishing the prospect like we do at home games. I suspect we’re not the only team like that either. It’ll be interesting to see whether that mental block toward away matches wears off if there’s evidence now suggesting winning away games has become easier behind closed doors.