One year ago, it all changed. Sport, that constant, durable source of excitement and entertainment, was put aside for something more important.
In this first of five features examining the impact of football being played behind closed doors, we focus on Manchester United and the team’s journey over the course of the pandemic.
Using data to explain how the absence of fans has changed the way the game is played, we speak to key figures from different areas of the club to understand how players have responded to the challenge, and how some players have been able to adapt more successfully than others.
Nobody knew it at the time, but Monday March 9 was to prove a landmark day for football on a global scale. It was the beginning of sports’ year without fans.
The following 12 months would see football played out in an environment never witnessed before at the highest level, no fans in stands, players, coaching staff and supporters watching from home have had to get used to a whole new experience.
Combining with a short pre-season in 2020, a congested calendar of fixtures, amid rigorous routines of coronavirus testing and restrictions, the ‘new normal’ has led to a change in the style of football we have seen on the pitch.
Where better to start than with former Manchester United defender, two-time Champions League and treble-winner Wes Brown, a man who knows all about playing in front of the biggest crowds in the game.
If you had told someone in August 2019, that by March 2020, sport from across the world would be stopped and we would have to prepare for a global pandemic, you would have been answered by a blank stare of amusement.
Despite the exciting start to the Premier League season in 2019, the coronavirus spread like wild-fire and the Football Association along with UEFA, and the Premier League had no option to stop and introduce safety measures for players, staff and fans.
The last match played by Manchester United without any crowd restrictions was on March 8 2020, when they beat noisy neighbours Manchester City 2–0 at Old Trafford in front of a 76,000 full house.
Goals from Anthony Martial and a stoppage time wonder strike from Scott McTominay would be the last action United fans witnessed at Old Trafford for over 500 days.
The clubs behind closed doors journey began in Austria, as they faced LASK in the Europa League round of 16 back in March, 2020. The 5–0 victory was a sign of things to come, as the 2020/21 season accounted the highest number of Premier League away wins.
When the Premier League season resumed after its first coronavirus-enforced shutdown in June, the action took place behind closed doors.
Empty seats everywhere. And an eerie silence, only occasionally punctuated by shouts from players and coaches, or the thud of boot on ball.
The results reflected the change. If we ever needed proof of the impact home supporters can have on their team, this was it.
For the first time in the history of top-flight football in this country, the percentage of away wins surpassed the number of home wins. An anomaly in 132 years of footballing history.
Brown reacted: “We (Manchester United) have been one of the benefactors of this statistic, we’ve just broken the record for the most (28) successive games unbeaten away from home.”
Visiting teams won 40 per cent of their games during the 2020/21 Premier League season — six per cent more than the previous season.
Former Manchester United, Watford and Sheffield United forward, Danny Webber has experienced how important the fans can be in impacting players’ performance:
“The atmosphere, 100 per cent makes a difference when you have got fans there, there’s an energy to it and a hostility when you are at away grounds.
“I think you only have to look at the Premier League last season to see it was a bit of a leveller when teams who don’t operate well under-pressure — because of the fans — go and get results at stadiums where they wouldn’t normally.
“Once fans return I think that trend will stop. That away form won’t be as strong when you’ve got the home fans behind you at places like Old Trafford where there is real avid support.”
Despite Webber’s positivity, home advantage has taken a hit since ‘behind closed doors’ football began, affecting players on match days. The fitness of players has also had an effect on the shifting style of Premier League football.
During the initial lockdown period when players were unable to train as usual, and they were then only given a short pre-season to get up and running before competing in a congested fixture schedule.
“From a player’s point of view, I don’t think the pandemic will have affected them a lot in terms of their pre-season and being fit,” continued Webber.
“If I’m honest, I think it will have been a blessing to some, especially at the bigger clubs when you go abroad, and the schedule is so heavy with the playing, travelling, different flights and staying in different hotels.
“It will have been a welcome to them just playing in the UK, not travelling as far and being able to base themselves in an environment they are going to be playing in going forward,” said Webber, who has played 306 games and scoring 87 goals, throughout his professional career.
Eventually, once the fans returned to Old Trafford they were treated to an absolute wonder-strike goal, courtesy of Edison Cavani, scoring from 40-yards-out, in front of the Stretford End — a welcome-back present to the fans, from the Uruguayan forward.
Once the 2021/22 season is underway, fans and players will be reunited once again.
“I always regard my debut as my favourite game,” Brown reflected.
“It’s the one I will always appreciate the most, the cheers and claps from the fans on that day and not really being able to hear your team-mates because it was so loud.”
Brown made his debut in 1998 after being named the Jimmy Murphy Academy player of the year for the previous two seasons.
“The crowd bring so much out of players and get them to work ever harder, fans are a massive part of this (Manchester United) club,” Brown finished.
