Being "Nervous and Anxious" playing at Old Trafford

Big Andy

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Has any team ever had a mental block of playing at home as badly as we do, to the point where the manager brings it up in press conferences.

Playing at home should be an advantage, and yet for us it's an achilles heel at the moment.
 
Big Andy said:
Has any team ever had a mental block of playing at home as badly as we do, to the point where the manager brings it up in press conferences.

Playing at home should be an advantage, and yet for us it's an achilles heel at the moment.
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Think the away support is noisier. At home they are noisy when the players come out, but if it isn't going entirely how they want it goes a bit quiet. That is something that needs addressing and that comes both from the players performance wise and the fans vocal support wise. The players might feel that there are some of the home support waiting to get on their backs, that they dislike certain players, just get the impression the away support try to get behind every single player. I might be a bit harsh here.
 
From going to games, there seem too many who actually don't like fans singing as though they are at a theatre performance. That is why we need a big wall of noise.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Think the away support is noisier. At home they are noisy when the players come out, but if it isn't going entirely how they want it goes a bit quiet. That is something that needs addressing and that comes both from the players performance wise and the fans vocal support wise. The players might feel that there are some of the home support waiting to get on their backs, that they dislike certain players, just get the impression the away support try to get behind every single player. I might be a bit harsh here.
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The home support are now aggressively being made to sit down, which in turn will always have an impact on the atmosphere.
 
RaddyRed said:
The home support are now aggressively being made to sit down, which in turn will always have an impact on the atmosphere.
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I do think seating has affected the noise. Need a stand of safe standing, not just a section.It is getting a good atmosphere without getting gimmicky.
 
The players are just poor. Lack physicality, athleticism, technical ability, motivation and hard work. If people want to dress that up as 'nervous and anxious' fine but the end result is the same!
 
RaddyRed said:
The home support are now aggressively being made to sit down, which in turn will always have an impact on the atmosphere.
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Now? That's nothing new.I recall being very annoyed after being ordered to sit down at a game V Juvé in the 90s.
Not far from where I was 3000 Juvé fans were bouncing up and down.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
From going to games, there seem too many who actually don't like fans singing as though they are at a theatre performance. That is why we need a big wall of noise.
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I don't think the crowd helps either, as you can sense the frustration as soon as someone misplaced a pass. You can almost her a collective 70,000 people grumbling at once. Go a goal down and it just gets toxic nowadays.
 
MonkeysMagic said:
The players are just poor. Lack physicality, athleticism, technical ability, motivation and hard work. If people want to dress that up as 'nervous and anxious' fine but the end result is the same!
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Are they really that bad though?
Every one of them is an international.
 
I think they feel the frustration from the stands. I was there when we played Southampton recently and they suffered badly when the ball kept going back to the defence and keeper. Hojlund and Yoro especially shrunk and I would say felt the criticism. It’s hard to get behind the team at the moment because they give us little to be positive about.
 
Gladiators fight in the colosseum.

If they can't hack it, they aren't United players.
 
The Brown Bull said:
Now? That's nothing new.I recall being very annoyed after being ordered to sit down at a game V Juvé in the 90s.
Not far from where I was 3000 Juvé fans were bouncing up and down.
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It is new compared to where it's been for a few years.
 
Big Andy said:
Has any team ever had a mental block of playing at home as badly as we do, to the point where the manager brings it up in press conferences.

Playing at home should be an advantage, and yet for us it's an achilles heel at the moment.
Click to expand...
This happens to loads of teams, I don't think it's unique to us. It's also happened to us in the recent past, under OGS, when we had the record breaking away run but could barely win at home.

Personally, I don't think it's only nerves, I think it's also expectation. If you play Brighton away, the United fans will be singing for 90-mins, regardless of the scoreline, and mentally, the players will be thinking "a point isn't bad here" (whether they should be or not).

At OT, the expectation is that they win, and win well. The stadium is usually pretty quiet for middling home games and so every misplaced pass or poor effort on goal is met with a loud grown. There's also that anticipation as every United fan stands as we attack the opponents goal, and the disappointment when the move invariably breaks down.

We have a very young XI and a bunch of new players settling in, plus confidence must be at an all time low.
 
What you don’t want as a player (or, indeed, an employee of a company) is a boss who constantly & publicly highlights your weaknesses. He is killing their confidence with all this crap he comes out with at press conferences. I’m really surprised that nobody at the club has not sat him down and told him he has to project a much more positive outlook.
 
Lentwood said:
This happens to loads of teams, I don't think it's unique to us. It's also happened to us in the recent past, under OGS, when we had the record breaking away run but could barely win at home.

Personally, I don't think it's only nerves, I think it's also expectation. If you play Brighton away, the United fans will be singing for 90-mins, regardless of the scoreline, and mentally, the players will be thinking "a point isn't bad here" (whether they should be or not).

At OT, the expectation is that they win, and win well. The stadium is usually pretty quiet for middling home games and so every misplaced pass or poor effort on goal is met with a loud grown. There's also that anticipation as every United fan stands as we attack the opponents goal, and the disappointment when the move invariably breaks down.

We have a very young XI and a bunch of new players settling in, plus confidence must be at an all time low.
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Hadn't considered this but it makes a lot of sense. Maybe Amorim's next challenge is galvanizing the OT fans with a siege mentality?
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Think the away support is noisier. At home they are noisy when the players come out, but if it isn't going entirely how they want it goes a bit quiet. That is something that needs addressing and that comes both from the players performance wise and the fans vocal support wise. The players might feel that there are some of the home support waiting to get on their backs, that they dislike certain players, just get the impression the away support try to get behind every single player. I might be a bit harsh here.
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This is literally the same set of circumstances for basically every club in the league. Away fans being louder than home and putting less pressure on the team is the probably the most normal thing in football.
 
We need to have huge speakers that will play out the crowd support noise from past years. Do it Jim.
 
Big Andy said:
Has any team ever had a mental block of playing at home as badly as we do, to the point where the manager brings it up in press conferences.

Playing at home should be an advantage, and yet for us it's an achilles heel at the moment.
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Arsenal did in their first couple of seasons under Arteta. Regularly shat the bed at home, despite being much less bad on the road.

EDIT: Don’t take the shat the bed analogy personally. Wasn’t intended as an attack.
 
The crowd groans, boos and hisses when anything goes slightly wrong. The treatment Zirkzee got a few weeks ago is a good example but there are many more.

Our away support is great and I'm not attacking every United fan, before someone jumps down my throat.
 
IrishRedDevil said:
Gladiators fight in the colosseum.

If they can't hack it, they aren't United players.
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Quite a few of them never had the chance to do it a second time. Statistically, the vast majority of them never lasted more than 10 contests.

They did suffer, though. And people paid to watch them suffer. And it helped the audience temporarily forget the fact that they were being oppressed by a powerful but incompetent dictator and his rich friends.
 
Bebe said:
The crowd groans, boos and hisses when anything goes slightly wrong. The treatment Zirkzee got a few weeks ago is a good example but there are many more.

Our away support is great and I'm not attacking every United fan, before someone jumps down my throat.
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It's really not that dramatic.

We are a bit shit at home, cos we are a bit shit.

That's lead to a slightly tense OT since late December.

Even the Zirkzee thing was quickly rectified by his name being chanted at every game home and away since.
 
Ludens the Red said:
This is literally the same set of circumstances for basically every club in the league. Away fans being louder than home and putting less pressure on the team is the probably the most normal thing in football.
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This forum has decided OT is a tourist filled library when we are doing well but a venomous pit of negativity the players fold in when we're shite :lol:
 
Maybe because the crowd is also anxious? As I find my self in the same state praying for us to not concede silly goals straight after the whistle. If you are not performing well for a decade now all of sudden you find yourself being harshly judge by 75 000 peoples, not really impressed by the lack of quality. It’s overwhelming. Wasn’t meant to be like that.
 
Vidyoyo said:
Hadn't considered this but it makes a lot of sense. Maybe Amorim's next challenge is galvanizing the OT fans with a siege mentality?
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I certainly think the fans can play a huge part. The "12th man" thing isn't just a cliche or some line pushed by marketing folks to make fans feel 'part of the experience', I have seen the crowd at OT physically drag the team to higher levels or frighten the opposition into submission.

Case in point, I was at the Roma 7-1, the week after our fans had been assaulted by the Italian police, and the atmosphere was electric, the most hostile I had ever heard. The crowd literally whistled and jeered every single Roma touch and roared and screamed with every United tackle and every time United crossed the halfway line.

When de Rossi stepped up to take the penalty, the whistles were so loud my ears where ringing afterwards - no surprise he blasted it over the bar
 
Utd heap said:
It's really not that dramatic.

We are a bit shit at home, cos we are a bit shit.

That's lead to a slightly tense OT since late December.

Even the Zirkzee thing was quickly rectified by his name being chanted at every game home and away since.
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The crowd has been groaning at backwards passes and booing at halftime after a poor half for years. I think it long predates this past December.
 
OverratedOpinion said:
They need to start getting ever so slightly pissed before matches
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We've still got Palace (they're in great form and coming at OT in 10 days), City, Arsenal and Villa at home and given our current state you'd expect us to lose all of those games. We also host Ipswich, West Ham, Wolves and could get a result in those. But I'm glad we got rid of most of the home games against top 10/12 sides because we're definitely not comfortable at home at all.

Guess in away games we aren't as expected to dominate games as much as home and then when a team like Newcastle or Brighton comes to Old Trafford, they'll outplay us especially as we're trying to implement new system with many players whose profile is not right for it.

When you look at the away games under Amorim it looked better even when we didn't win. Ipswich was bad but Arsenal was decent (at least for a half), Spurs game showed promise in terms of controlling the game in some periods (but also conceding easy goals) and Wolves was okayish first half followed by Bruno's red card in second half.

No doubt we'll continue struggling at Old Trafford this season. What would perhaps help is Amorim asking fans to help the players by making good atmosphere and being louder. Seems like at most of the grounds in PL away fans are better than home fans, despite being in minority.
 
This is why hiring a world class sports psychologist is essential to anything that is so psychology dependent, and football, both individually and collectively is a massive mental game. Amorim himself has, and still does, consult a psychologist, because he knows that his performance isn't just dependent upon his talents and his understanding, but also his control of his mental game. Same for players.

I personally know how effective it is, and how it can impact you positively. I did six months mental coaching with Jared Tendler (trained the world pool champion and ex-poker world champions) and my peformance was drastically different before and after. So much insight.
 
Lentwood said:
I have seen the crowd at OT physically drag the team to higher levels or frighten the opposition into submission.
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Think thats the point isn't it. Our players are afraid and are playing within themselves. Maybe Amorim was trying to remove the fear by saying "the worst Manchester United team" ergo lower everyones expectation.

Its been in our DNA to be a reactionary team even since SAF time. What happened to going out and wanting to play and not loose. The best players in recent memory insulated themselves from all the noise in the stands and just went out and played.
 
What came first the chicken or the egg? If the team loose game after game at home the crowd will be quiet, tense and get on their backs if they are perceived to not be trying hard enough or make bad errors.
Supporters are paying a lot of money and have just been asked to pay even more money and so constant losses will take their toll on even the most ardent supporter.

“Aggressively asked to sit down” there was press last week on the authorities threatening too reduce capacity due t persistant standing which they the authorities deemed unsafe. The club wont want that loss of revenue as finances are a mess so will have instructed stewards to enforce sitting down.
 
They have not being pulling trees at away grounds neither.

For the money spent, I marvel at the number of our players who lack technical ability,athletism , football IQ,and physicality.
 
the players do have some mental issue of dealing with the pressure of being expected to win at OT though - with the pressure offcin big away games we have seen better performances recently

I don't think there is much that the home crowd can do to help - some of this lot just have a weak mentality
 
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