New chants and recent form

[Grey Fox]

Having just read the following Merc article about Ben Marshall, in which he is quoted as saying this about his chant:

"It seems to be catching on and it is always nice to hear the fans sing your name,"

"It is nice because sometimes it can be hard to win fans over, but when you hear your own song it gives you a boost and the fans think a lot of you. I have not had a song before because I have been on loan mostly, so it is nice to hear.”

Full story here:

http://www.thisislei...tail/story.html

This got me thinking. Can we fans via our chants really have such a positive affect on the team or individual players, just by singing more?

It can certainly be said the Ben Marshall has hardly put a foot wrong since his song was started in the Hull home game. But is that just a fluke or are we helping him maintain his form by singing his song?

I have tried to pinpoint when the ‘we love you’ chant became a main feature at games as well. I think is was first started at the Southampton away game, but the first game I remember it making a really difference at a home game was against Cardiff on 11th Feb. Since then we are unbeaten at home with 5 wins and a draw. Just for kicks here is the full table since that day:

I was talking to my brother about this. We both think that singing these chants has a sort of two pronged affect.

1. It lets the team know we are behind them, either together when we sing ‘we love you’, or as individuals when we sing chants like the new Ben Marshall or Morgan ones.

2. Because we are singing chants it stops the atmosphere from degenerating into a nervy silent affair, where all of the players can hear every individual mistake picked up on by some of the abuse hurling fans. Those fans are effectively drowned out by the positive chants and therefore the negative feedback loop that used to be particularly common at our home games towards the start of the season never develops.

Does anyone else think that these new chants are at least partly responsible for our recent form? Or am I just reading far too much into this?

If they are, then we need to keep going with them, it could just make the difference to us making the playoffs or not. (we’ll never really know of course)

[hbkkids]

are you saying singing will get us more points?

[ThurnbyLodgeFox]

Agree with everything you've said, just hope it continues. We are, effectively, the 12th man and could be the difference between 6th and 7th

[Grey Fox]

In a nutshell, yes it could (I think)

[hbkkids]

In a nutshell, yes it could (I think)

i sing everygame and it dont work when im there

[m00nie]

reading too much into it..

[Grey Fox]

i sing everygame and it dont work when im there

I'm not naive enough to think it will mean we will win every game, or never lose. But I do think it can help the team if they know the fans are always behind them. I might be wrong, but I don't think we had come from behind to win this season until these chants started either. I will need to check that though.

I'm not wrong. We had not come from behind once this season before the 'we love you' chant. Now we have 3 times (Birmingham, Hull, Ipswich). Maybe because the team know we are still behind them rather than against them as soon as we go behind? Just a thought.

[Lobsterboyuk]

I would say "We love you" kicked off at the KP when we were under the kosh against Boro, when they scored their second we became the 12rh man and nicked that point.

Who doesn't benefit from a bit of blind faith and thousands chanting for you?

[Basingstoke Fox]

I completely agree, it's a shame we didn't have this sort of unity for some of our other games, e.g. the Barnsley at home game. However, there have been other occasions where we have been caught up in the vicious circle of not starting off with an atmosphere, playing s**t on the field, which leads us to continue being quiet off the pitch because the players do nothing to get us going. This then could partly lead to the players playing crap etc. etc.

Typical example of that was Reading away. Though part of the reason for having no atmosphere there to start with is their c**t stewards.

[bmt]

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Absolutely correct. Good support is definitely worth a few points a season. There is no way we'd have got the 2 goals back against Hull so quickly if we hadn't drowned their fans out when they scored. Gave the team a real visible edge. If it didn't why would the players try and make the fans louder (Beckford and Konch in that game).

Anyone who thinks the players play as well in a tense silent atmosphere is a fool.

[Captain...]

A good positive atmosphere will affect the players, how much is open to debate, but the fact that we seem to have a squad with a very fragile confidence then it will always help more than getting on their backs.

I think the most telling moment was the Boro match when they took the lead and you couldn't hear them celebrating all you could hear was the we love you chant, and the players seemed to respond, they didn't let their heads drop and got us back into the game.

Our form at home is pretty good at the moment, but our form away isn't and that is not because the fans don't sing their hearts out.

[bmt]

However, there have been other occasions where we have been caught up in the vicious circle of not starting off with an atmosphere, playing s**t on the field, which leads us to continue being quiet off the pitch because the players do nothing to get us going. This then could partly lead to the players playing crap etc. etc.

Was talking about this issue the other day in a stupidly long post I wrote. Basically the fans won't sing til the team play properly and the team won't play til the fans sing. I think, as fans who want to see the club do well, it's our responsibility to get out of this situation (when it occurs-quite frequently in the first half of the season) by being really bloody loud.

[m00nie]

Absolutely correct. Good support is definitely worth a few points a season. There is no way we'd have got the 2 goals back against Hull so quickly if we hadn't drowned their fans out when they scored. Gave the team a real visible edge. If it didn't why would the players try and make the fans louder (Beckford and Konch in that game).

Anyone who thinks the players play as well in a tense silent atmosphere is a fool.

a player can only play to the best of there ability,and so your saying unless theres noise there not playing to there best.. naaa

[MrSpaM]

Singings better than booing thats for sure

[stourbridgefox]

Correlation does not equal causation...

except in this case I think it does.

If I was in charge of what songs people sing, I would like the 'Ben Marshall' song to be sung for the whole team. It could start by inserting the goalkeepers name and keep going until all 11 outfield players had been sung to. Then all players would feel appreciated by the fans and the first 10-15 minutes of every game would be dominated by the Leicester fans singing to the team.

At Filbert Street, when I was a youngster in the Kop, we used to sing a song individually to most players, which really seemed to lift them before kick-off.

[Milton Keynes Fox]

Completely agree with this, getting behind the team gets better results.

[Libertine Dream]

As much as singing helps, positivity in the stands helpd massively. It helps to give players free reigns to strut their stuff unlike earlier in the year when every mistake was a groan. I remember Fernandes saying the tense atmosphere at times meant the players went into their shell slightly.

[bmt]

a player can only play to the best of there ability,and so your saying unless theres noise there not playing to there best.. naaa

That's ridiculous. I said they're more likely to play to the 'best of their ability' (which I'm not sure any player truly achieves) if the atmosphere is good, not that the absence of an atmosphere means they will definitely play crap. They're more likely to want to do well for a crowd who backs them than one who moans and groans, without a shadow of a doubt.

What I was saying is a good atmosphere is one factor which can help the team play better, either because of unity or because individual players feel more motivated.

[Dan]

Positive atmosphere helps, no-one can be naive enough to think that it'll make all the difference but it certainly helps, and certainly feels less nervy for the players.

Then again, Reading fans are absolute kack (IMO) and they seem to hammer everyone even away.

[bmt]

Positive atmosphere helps, no-one can be naive enough to think that it'll make all the difference but it certainly helps, and certainly feels less nervy for the players.

Then again, Reading fans are absolute kack (IMO) and they seem to hammer everyone even away.

I think some squads are affected more than others aswell. Ours seem to suffer from low confidence quite frequently so it seems logical ours would be one of the easiest to help improve by being noisy.

[Vlad the Fox]

There is also the effect a noisy home crowd has on the away team.

[m00nie]

so is it only specific songs that would improve things??

singing were the left side hardly seems motivating..

and why dont it spur the opposition on? they can hear the chanting also..

[Grey Fox]

A good positive atmosphere will affect the players, how much is open to debate, but the fact that we seem to have a squad with a very fragile confidence then it will always help more than getting on their backs.

I think the most telling moment was the Boro match when they took the lead and you couldn't hear them celebrating all you could hear was the we love you chant, and the players seemed to respond, they didn't let their heads drop and got us back into the game.

Our form at home is pretty good at the moment, but our form away isn't and that is not because the fans don't sing their hearts out.

I agree, but I think it can make more of a difference in home games. That's when the home fans tend to go really quiet and get on the players backs more. Look at West Ham right now, they are having the same problem.

[davieG]

I think Marshall's confidence stems from scoring that goal against Chelsea.

[bmt]

so is it only specific songs that would improve things??

singing were the left side hardly seems motivating..

and why dont it spur the opposition on? they can hear the chanting also..

I don't really understand why you're trying to argue ridiculous points. No, a good atmosphere in general (can be all types of songs) is a catalyst for the team to play better. If it's 'we're the left side, we're the left side...', no it's probably not the most motivating of songs but as one of a variety of songs sang one after the other it shows that the fans are really up for the game. Some chants do motivate individual players (Ben Marshall has been saying in the paper today how much his song has motivated him to play better, and how it's helped him bed in which also has a positive effect on his play), obviously, so in a way yes specific songs would have a better effect.

And the opposition would feel more overwhelmed than motivated in some situations. They can hear the chants or where it's coming from and so if their fans aren't singing but ours are they may be demotivated and therefore may not play as well. Notice I said may, stop making out that I'm making sweeping statements when I'm not. In some situations they may play better to spite the opposite fans (like I'm sure Nugent does when he gets jeered at Ipswich).