Attacking Atyeo second half

[East Londoner]

Could be I’m seeing something that isn’t there but i wonder if there was a psychological advantage reversing the end we normally attack second half yesterday. Having our fans behind us seemed to help us not retreating like we’ve done so many times at home lately 

Obviously there is the existing argument of having home fans behind both goals but as a stop gap is it worth us trying to attack the Atyeo end second half more often?

[Davefevs]

25 minutes ago, East Londoner said:

Could be I’m seeing something that isn’t there but i wonder if there was a psychological advantage reversing the end we normally attack second half yesterday. Having our fans behind us seemed to help us not retreating like we’ve done so many times at home lately 

Obviously there is the existing argument of having home fans behind both goals but as a stop gap is it worth us trying to attack the Atyeo end second half more often?

 Any recall who it was who messaged me in the week…but they said exactly this
 

Don’t read too much into this, but I thought we played a higher line yesterday…hence we caught Blackburn offside a few times.  Our average passing positions (so not average positions) were:

[A Horse With No Name]

Ever thought that maybe, Blackburn won the toss and chose to play that way? I think the team winning the toss either chooses ends or kicks off. City will always attack the Atyeo first half given the chance.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, The Horse With No Name said:

Ever thought that maybe, Blackburn won the toss and chose to play that way? I think the team winning the toss either chooses ends or kicks off. City will always attack the Atyeo first half given the chance.

Yes, that’s correct.  Was just wondering whether psychologically it helped this weekend?

[GrahamC]

I believe @NcnsBcfc might have a view on this…

[2015]

 

Ever thought that maybe, Blackburn won the toss and chose to play that way? I think the team winning the toss either chooses ends or kicks off. City will always attack the Atyeo first half given the chance.

I'm pretty sure Blackburn kicked off the first half, so does that mean they won the toss or did City win it and just swap sides?

Edited November 22, 2021 by 2015

[RedM]

 

I'm pretty sure Blackburn kicked off the first half, so does that mean they won the toss or did City win it and just swap sides?

They did. We commented at the time that we must have chosen to kick that way. I thought it was to prevent Blackburn kicking towards their fans in the second half, especially as we have lost games right at the end too many times. We tried to make home advantage pay in the first half by kicking towards the South Stand and limit theirs in the second half.

[myol'man]

 

Ever thought that maybe, Blackburn won the toss and chose to play that way? I think the team winning the toss either chooses ends or kicks off. City will always attack the Atyeo first half given the chance.

Away team would always attack towards their fans in the 2nd half given the choice 

[Lanterne Rouge]

We were wondering if it was deliberate on our part. Try and change something and see if it worked?

[NcnsBcfc]

23 hours ago, GrahamC said:

I believe @NcnsBcfc might have a view on this…

Thanks @GrahamCand @Davefevs

I mentioned it in my posts last week before the game.

When you have been struggling to defend it the last 10 minutes of a game, then you have to change some dynamic.

For me, it was an easy change, and Graham could probably tell a story about the look on my face when we swapped it around. 

Not giving the away team the advantage of playing towards their fans, i think did play a part. At 1-1 with 20 mins to go, who knows, it may have turned into another Blackpool/Luton/Forest show. In fact, we actually improved after their goal; and arguably had the stronger last 10-15 mins, that I can remember in a long time.

Whether it was our or Blackburn's decision to change the attacking ends, I believe it paid dividends.

Let's see what Stoke brings tomorrow night.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, NcnsBcfc said:

Thanks @GrahamCand @Davefevs

I mentioned it in my posts last week before the game.

When you have been struggling to defend it the last 10 minutes of a game, then you have to change some dynamic.

For me, it was an easy change, and Graham could probably tell a story about the look on my face when we swapped it around. 

Not giving the away team the advantage of playing towards their fans, i think did play a part. At 1-1 with 20 mins to go, who knows, it may have turned into another Blackpool/Luton/Forest show. In fact, we actually improved after their goal; and arguably had the stronger last 10-15 mins, that I can remember in a long time.

Whether it was our or Blackburn's decision to change the attacking ends, I believe it paid dividends.

Let's see what Stoke brings tomorrow night.

As mentioned above, Blackburn kicked off, so I can only assume City decided to turn around.

[archie andrews]

Anything to do with the position of the sun i wonder? 

[Red Skin]

OP may well be right, but still prefer they attack South Stand in the second half.  

[ExiledAjax]

I suspect it doesn't matter a jot which end we attack in which half. 

Covid has led to a raft of new studies around home advantage and whether the higher win % that home teams enjoy can be attributed to fans. Most of these studies found that home advantage persisted even in the absence of fans, and so conclude that, in general, fans make little difference. 

I can't find a specific study on attacking different ends. But it seems likely that any advantage we might perceive is down to other factors.

It's romantic to think that fans make this big difference, and in certain matches or circumstances they might do. But to think we need to make big changes like putting home fans behind both goals or drastically altering our kick off plans...is a flawed conclusion.

[Unan]

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

I suspect it doesn't matter a jot which end we attack in which half. 

Covid has led to a raft of new studies around home advantage and whether the higher win % that home teams enjoy can be attributed to fans. Most of these studies found that home advantage persisted even in the absence of fans, and so conclude that, in general, fans make little difference. 

I can't find a specific study on attacking different ends. But it seems likely that any advantage we might perceive is down to other factors.

It's romantic to think that fans make this big difference, and in certain matches or circumstances they might do. But to think we need to make big changes like putting home fans behind both goals or drastically altering our kick off plans...is a flawed conclusion.

I thought it was the opposite and there were far more away wins without any fans in grounds(?)

[robin_unreliant]

I have no stats on it and my perception may actually be totally wrong, however I always feel we score more goals at the South Stand end. So I worry if we aren't ahead and attacking the Atyeo in the second half. At least we didn't lose, even if we didn't score in the second half, I guess. 

[ExiledAjax]

38 minutes ago, Marcus Aurelius said:

I thought it was the opposite and there were far more away wins without any fans in grounds(?)

I think that might have been true initially when the pandemic first hit. In that disrupted finale to the 2019/20 season this may have been observed. However, that was a tiny sample size and since then larger studies have been conducted that show that for most leagues, both professional and amateur, home advantage persisted, albeit at a slightly lower level.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.658452/full

 

[NcnsBcfc]

So i promised @GrahamC that i might have to put something out again about this; apologies

When we came out we set up as normal to attack the atyeo first half, and then we changed, just like the Blackburn game.

I can only think that's the plan now moving forward. For a team defending a lead with 35% possession, i think it must help to have your fans behind you. Pushing you through those final 9 (cough 8.5 mins) of extra time.

[Davefevs]

Just now, NcnsBcfc said:

So i promised @GrahamC that i might have to put something out again about this; apologies

When we came out we set up as normal to attack the atyeo first half, and then we changed, just like the Blackburn game.

I can only think that's the plan now moving forward. For a team defending a lead with 35% possession, i think it must help to have your fans behind you. Pushing you through those final 9 (cough 8.5 mins) of extra time.

You called it 

[NcnsBcfc]

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

You called it 

It was an easy change to make, i just don't know why we've taken nearly a year to do it. Old habits die hard i suppose.

[Davefevs]

7 minutes ago, NcnsBcfc said:

It was an easy change to make, i just don't know why we've taken nearly a year to do it. Old habits die hard i suppose.

We had to give the “get the bus from Failand” idea time to work / fail first.

[NcnsBcfc]

9 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

We had to give the “get the bus from Failand” idea time to work / fail first.

Now i understand NP's phrase "They're not on the bus".