That article in La Marca with Arteta put it into context.
He said ours is the only ground where you concede a goal and the next time you look up at the scoreboard you are 3-0 down and you think how did that happen?
The crowd plays such a part, it frightens teams for sure. Remember united looking over to the Kop in full flow. What was going through their minds? But that feral roar when everyone is shouting variations on gerrintotthesebastards causes a different effect.
Discombobulation.
The sound throws players off balance, it’s like a horror movie when the main player is trying to move through the forest towards the monster, but he also knows there is something behind him. He can hear it roaring crashing through the undergrowth, he turns round to face it but only to get hit between the shoulder blades by the actual monster.
Add in the noise from The big stand TMGOT adds to that now with waves of sound on the flanks as well as behind.
Our players sense that weakness, going back to the 60s and my old feller told how the Inter team were made to look like a bunch of pub players, they were terrified. Shanks used to say how Herrera was facing the dugout wall at the end he couldn’t bear to watch.
The look on those Barca faces going out for the second half tell it all. Suarez was clearly thinking “l know what happens in this movie, I used to be the beast, I am now the victim!”
