Yes, players are on their prefered side
You know, in S7, my team got only 13 points in 19 first games ( only 4 wins Oo).
Without changing any thing (players, line up or tactics, but playing often with 3 lines), my team got 35 points in 19 last matches.
As I write earlier, I had 9 strange losses in this season 7, 7or8 being in the 1st half of season.
The only difference between the 2 halves of season is my team won matches in 2n half while dominating when it lost same matches in 1st half.