Etihad Atmosphere - 2021/22

After writing previously on this subject I've concluded that we shouldn't be worried about "atmosphere".
We shouldn't fall for this media induced "what a great occasion" ( special European nights ....etc)
Things change , yes I'd love a special night back in the Kippax but it ain't going to happen.
The media ramp up this crowd stuff to convince us that it really is special watching their broadcast. Generally the atmosphere in most premier grounds is sporadic , my impression any way.
Anfields a library before and after the piped in music , 70k rags ? don't get me started.
Relax the team get our support when it matters.
I’m not really bothered about what the media want to portray and not too bothered about what other clubs do (as long as we don’t copy those with a drum); although, it’s sometimes interesting to hear what other clubs have in place and see comparisons between stadiums to see different atmosphere cultures across different stadiums and sets of fans - see where and how big vocal sections are and how easy songs travel around stadiums, rather than comparing how good our atmosphere is to others… It’s the reasons why rather than the actual atmospheres.

I’m more bothered about my own experience at the game and the enjoyment of the atmosphere. I enjoy games with good atmospheres more than ones with poor ones. Football is not just about the football, fan culture and atmospheres go hand-in-hand with the game on the pitch. And it’s why I didn’t like football during lockdowns.

I think we have fantastic top level atmospheres but I hate our lesser level atmospheres, I’m always left wanting more from them. We’re either brilliant or shit. We need to raise our non-big game atmospheres across the stadium to a better level. Get everyone involved and everyone enjoying it, make people want to look forward to games for the atmosphere as well as the footy.

The main reasons we have those poor non-big game atmospheres are because of the small size and location of the singing sections, the away-end feel to our home singing sections that mean there’s a disconnect between the vocal areas and the rest of the stadium, and the apathetic attitude of the rest of the stadium in getting involved in atmosphere (which isn’t necessarily about singing!).
 
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Wembley is the barometer for me. We had brilliant atmospheres for our three trips to Wembley in 2011, our two trips in 2013 and our first trip in 2014.

We even had about ¾ of the attendance in the 2013 FA Cup final.

But starting from that Arsenal Community Shield in 2014 we’ve dipped massively down there. Now everyone just takes it for granted. We have loads of empty seats at FA Cup semis and Community Shields, we don’t really sing much, and the majority are not actively involved in the game in the stands anymore even in EFL and FA Cup finals.

If we played Brentford in the FA Cup final next May, there’s no way we’d fill ¾ of the ground like we did against Wigan. Just wouldn’t happen anymore.

It’s like someone left our fanbase on for too long and our batteries are dying. We need plugging in and charging up again.

I do have to say that I’ve been impressed with our little singing sections this season since the rail seats have gone in, but the rest of the ground are as quiet as ever. And were excellent away at Leicester, but at our worst away at Spurs.
Agree with a lot of that but not all of it. We might have had 3/4 of the ground against Wigan in 2013 but vocally we were about as good as the team that day, ie: not very good at all. I thought we were decent in the League Cup final in 2018 against Arsenal too.
Leicester away in the league this season was, for me, up there as one of our best away atmospheres in over 30 years of watching City away. We were bang at it for the full 90 minutes.
 
I could have sworn I heard a pin drop at Anfield before Liverpool scored their 1st goal?
You could smell the terror in their forlorn faces all over the ground.
Our fans started calling them out for their silence.
After the final whistle, our boys started another epic chant:

"you've seen the champions, now f..k off home".
 
I was at the game sat with Liverpool fans in corporate yesterday, and while they are very animated and vocal at key points of the game, they are also very quiet when things are not going their way. Thought the City fans were great yesterday.
 
I could have sworn I heard a pin drop at Anfield before Liverpool scored their 1st goal?
I missed the first few minutes as I’d been to see my dad but when I got home I was astonished at how quiet the crowd were so early on in the game. While the Anfield atmosphere thing is totally overhyped by the media, I still expected them to be pretty vocal at that point but apart from some half arsed booing of our players when we had the ball there was very little. No denying that Anfield can be jumping when things are going their way but so can every other ground in the country.

A lot has been made of how loud they were in the CL QF against us but why wouldn’t they be after going 3-0 up in the first half hour? I bet if it was us that had gone 3-0 up instead then we wouldn’t have heard a peep out of them.

There’s also this weird notion in some quarters that Anfield is the most hostile ground in the country for opposition players. If it was then I’m sure they wouldn’t have gone 30 years without winning a league title. Our atmosphere in the 2-1 home win in 2018/19 was more hostile than anything I’ve ever witnessed in dozens of visits to their ground down the years. The closest they got to that was the 3-2 defeat in 2013/14 where the booing of our players was more full on than yesterday but once we got it back to 2-2 they totally gave up on that.
 
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Anfield was overhyped for decades because it used to be brilliant there in the late 70s and early 80s, and brilliant again in their 2004-05 CL run.

Then after Klopp had a moan at them a few times (one for leaving early and making him feel lonely at the final whistle, another for it being very quiet), they sorted themselves out and in their two title challenge seasons (2018-19 and 2019-20) I thought Anfield was the best for atmosphere in the country. They came up with about eight or nine really good new chants and songs, and for some reason Liverpool’s (and United’s) new chants and songs catch on really quickly with their whole fanbase(s) (whereas with City most of our fans don’t have a clue of the words to our chants unless they’re the old ones).

That seems to have died down again now and Liverpool back to how they were before Klopp’s moans.
 
(2018-19 and 2019-20) I thought Anfield was the best for atmosphere in the country.
Based on what evidence - attending every game at every ground in the top flight ? You’re just perpetuating a myth based presumably on watching their games on telly. TV producers can boost or mute crowd noise through selective use of technology.

I’ve been there several times in the past decade, most times Liverpool were doing better in the game than we were but on only one occasion would I have described the place as bouncing - the CL QF. Frankly anywhere is gonna be bouncing when you’re 3 nil up against the best team in Europe after 20 mins in a knockout game. Fwiw imo our place was equally bouncing in the 1st half of the 2nd leg.

Don’t believe the hype - and if you do believe it don’t help to spread it.
 

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