The pitch and prep

peter123 · Aug 18, 2010

Harry not blaming the pitch? Im not surprised. Its clear we were not prepared for it.

"We trained yesterday and I saw too many people worrying about boots, worrying about the surface and I had a nasty feeling going into today's game".

Surely he should have been finding this out a couple of weeks ago on a similar pitch and not the day before k/o????

Yesterday we were found out because our players were trying todo things on that pitch that you cannot do (like turn at pace). Our boys were slipping so often it was clear to see we were not prepared for the pitch.

Pastic pitches are a joke given all the regs of the CL on pitch sizes, stands etc, how can they justify playing on plastic?

Anyway we saved our skins but we are seriously lucky to be in this position today. Harry is a great manager, but I hope he learns from this because thats the only thing he is slightly lacking compared to the top top managers - i.e. that meticulous nature that covers every eventuality.

Flatters · Aug 18, 2010

I refuse to say we were lucky, when we were clearly very unlucky to have had to play on that stupid pitch.

whitelightwhiteheat · Aug 18, 2010

The players train on this sort of pitch (occasionally at the very least!) so surely they know what sort of boots they need to play on this sort of surface?

midoNdefoe · Aug 18, 2010

peter123 said:
Harry not blaming the pitch? Im not surprised. Its clear we were not prepared for it.

"We trained yesterday and I saw too many people worrying about boots, worrying about the surface and I had a nasty feeling going into today's game".

Surely he should have been finding this out a couple of weeks ago on a similar pitch and not the day before k/o????

Yesterday we were found out because our players were trying todo things on that pitch that you cannot do (like turn at pace). Our boys were slipping so often it was clear to see we were not prepared for the pitch.

Pastic pitches are a joke given all the regs of the CL on pitch sizes, stands etc, how can they justify playing on plastic?

Anyway we saved our skins but we are seriously lucky to be in this position today. Harry is a great manager, but I hope he learns from this because thats the only thing he is slightly lacking compared to the top top managers - i.e. that meticulous nature that covers every eventuality.

How exactly? before man city game? we pretty much flew out there and started training, what would a 'top top manager' have done in your opinion different to what we have done???

Bit of an unnecessary criticism of 'Arry there i'd say...:-?

punky · Aug 18, 2010

It should be noted that Dawson was interviewed and he said the pitch wasn't a problem.

Although it could be him thinking "I'm a captain, I can't be seen to be hiding behind excuses"

Shanks · Aug 18, 2010

Of course the pitch plays a massive part.

Not possible at all to train before hand, shortly after the draw, international friendlies were called, whilst no doubt we have an indoor training pitch which is probably artificial, it's probably a different surface.

Then you can't be sure how much watering is actually put on the surface on game night, it played a massive part in our performance, excuse or no excuse, I believe it's fact.

Flatters · Aug 18, 2010

punky said:
It should be noted that Dawson was interviewed and he said the pitch wasn't a problem.

Although it could be him thinking "I'm a captain, I can't be seen to be hiding behind excuses"

I think it almost certainly was him just thinking that.

Kendall · Aug 18, 2010

We have an astro pitch at the training ground apparently....

Shanks · Aug 18, 2010

Most premier league and championship clubs do Kendall, usually indoors slightly smaller though.

Only problem with that, is its likely to be a different surface, and not as watered.
Whilst the pitch alst night probalby played as quick as a grass pitch, it's the not knowing how it bounces from that surface that was more the problem, even their players admitted to that as much as well.

If Young Boys qualify, I'd imagine most teams would struggle on that pitch, and would set up completely different to how we did.

Although, from what Harry said, he was forced into changing team because of the injuries the lads were picking up by playing on it.

But pitch preperation is a tactic used by all clubs, let the opposition train on pitch when its drier than what it will be like when the match starts...

Phate · Aug 18, 2010

Training and playing a full blown cup tie are two different things, the second goal would not imo have got through on grass. One of our players would've gone to ground and either fouled him or took the ball. You could also say that was in Bassongs mind for the other goal, if it was grass, would he have slid to cut it out. It's definately a mental thing with being unsure of what you can and cant do

whitelightwhiteheat · Aug 18, 2010

I didn't get why they watered an artificial pitch (other than for purely tactical reasons)

Surely this is bizarrely unsporting? And is as much a disadvantage to them as us, anyway. Unless of course they're used to that (which they are).

Oh well, it's done now. We now need to treat the second leg as a one-off cup final that we MUST win.

punky · Aug 18, 2010

The players did seem a lot slower on the pitch than usual, but don't know if that's because of the pitch or tiredness.

Bale can usually shred any RB in the league but struggled against YB.

Kendall · Aug 18, 2010

whitelightwhiteheat said:
I didn't get why they watered an artificial pitch (other than for purely tactical reasons)

Surely this is bizarrely unsporting? And is as much a disadvantage to them as us, anyway. Unless of course they're used to that (which they are).

Oh well, it's done now. We now need to treat the second leg as a one-off cup final that we MUST win.

Its no different to the way we water ours to make the surface more slick and zippy.

Welshiespursboyo · Aug 18, 2010

Oh well. Whilst I firmly believe the pitch played a big part in the result, I do feel that at white hart lane, in front of 30,000 lane-ites, on GRASS, we will smash f**k out of those young boys.

Kendall · Aug 18, 2010

punky said:
The players did seem a lot slower on the pitch than usual, but don't know if that's because of the pitch or tiredness.

Bale can usually shred any RB in the league but struggled against YB.

Scott Sutter, what a legend.

Sign him, sign him up! sign him, sign him, sign him up!

punky · Aug 18, 2010

And when he says in his official interview he's a Spurs fan, at least we can believe him :razz:

phil · Aug 18, 2010

whitelightwhiteheat said:
I didn't get why they watered an artificial pitch (other than for purely tactical reasons)

Surely this is bizarrely unsporting? And is as much a disadvantage to them as us, anyway. Unless of course they're used to that (which they are).

Oh well, it's done now. We now need to treat the second leg as a one-off cup final that we MUST win.

Nothing sinister about watering. In hockey, a sport that widely uses artificial surfaces, the pitches are always watered before the start.

rsmith · Aug 18, 2010

phil said:
Nothing sinister about watering. In hockey, a sport that widely uses artificial surfaces, the pitches are always watered before the start.

... but why?

peter123 · Aug 18, 2010

midoNdefoe said:
How exactly? before man city game? we pretty much flew out there and started training, what would a 'top top manager' have done in your opinion different to what we have done???

Bit of an unnecessary criticism of 'Arry there i'd say...:-?

Ok a top top manager would looked at the possible draw probably back in May before we even knew the shortlist, and realised that a handful of clubs have an artificial pitch - might even have looked at teams playing in snow or whatever i don't know-basically anything out of the ordinary.

Anything like that he would have got someone looking at the vids of previous european/CL ties.

Then he be working out how we can practise, realise the fixture list is packed and worked something out.

I don't know his exact schedule but there is 1 or two days to test this thing out not todo it the day before the game. Thats what you do when your preparing for a 10 million pound tie.

MR_BEN · Aug 18, 2010

people say we could have trained on an articifical pitch.. but i;ve played on many artificial pitches, and no two are the same.. and i hate them.

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