Home advantage?

By Alan Stokes
January 29 2003

It is readily accepted by the majority of football followers that there is an advantage to be gained from playing a fixture on home turf. However, a football match is simply played on a playing surface. Why should the location of said surface have such a drastic effect on a teams performance?

Why is it that the majority of people associated with football are of the opinion that there is a big advantage to be gained from playing at home?

Every day of the week we hear managers saying “it is imperative that we win our home matches as our away form is crap”. Tonight, I heard Graham Taylor spout “If we lose this forthcoming away tie it will put greater pressure on our next home match” along with other illogical statements such as “I would rather play talented youngsters than buy untried foreigners”. This obviously doesn’t include the young Hitzlsperger or Joey Gudjohnsen then but I digress. Regarding the advantage to be gained from playing at home theory, it is one that I have never been able to come to terms with yet it is one that the majority of people readily accept. Why?

As I often say, football is a simple game. Generally, it is a game played between two teams consisting of 11 players each side, it is played on a (mostly) grass type surface with goal posts at either end and normally there are stands on each side of the playing surface for the paying spectators. What difference should it make to a team if the grass (or sandy) pitch is located in the Black Country or on the South Coast? What is the difference between Beacon Park and Burntwood baths? Surely, a football pitch is a football pitch full stop.

You will generally find that “good” teams i.e. those that challenge for honours in their respective leagues have no respect for this home and away theory. The teams will win the majority of both their home and away ties and are subsequently successful. If you then make a comparison with a “poor” football side such as Middlesborough or Villa it is plainly obvious where the difference lies. These teams pick up the majority of their points on their home turf and are diabolical on the oppositions patch. From my point of view this is entirely psychological and is down to the management and coaching staff of each football club. There can be no other logical explanation for a team to play well at home and so atrocious away from home on such a regular basis.

If the teams management and coaching staff continually alter a teams formation to play in a different manner depending on whether they are at home or away, it can only have a negative psychological effect on the players. The players are obviously being asked to play in a certain way in order to prevent the opposition from scoring as opposed to going out to try to beat the opposition. This then tells the players that the home side is obviously better than they are so the fight is already lost with the team believing that holding out for a point is a success.

I am not sure whether there is this negativity at Walsall or not. I can’t actually work out whether Colin Lee changes the shape of the team to counteract the opposition, to try to win games, to try to get the best from players available for selection or that he has just lost the plot and doesn’t know what to do in order to overcome our current predicament. For sure, we shouldn’t be in the position we are in with the standard of players we have so what on earth has gone wrong or what is going wrong - apart from not being able to take throw ins and passing to a player in the same coloured shirt.

A brief look at some stats show that an exceptional side such as Pompey have won or drew 92% of both their home and away matches. A good team such as the Blades have won or drew 91 % of their home matches and 70% of their away ones. As a general rule of thumb the further down the league one goes the poorer the away form is of the respective teams.

It doesn’t need a good mathematician to say how far up the league table a certain Black Country team is having won only 29% of fixtures played.

Where do we go from here? Will we survive this year?

Answers on a postcard please.