The pitch and prep

[WexfordTownSpur]

I am not trying to find excuses for the lads as they were bad. However it was obvious that the pitch played a big part last night. They just could not move or turn as quick or control the bounce of the ball. And passing was well off as they just could not judge the pace of the ball. I think they were all better in the second half as they gt used to it. Hudd was okay because he moves at one pace all the time. Slow and controled.

 

[jonnyrotten]

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.

I think you are being really harsh on Harry here. Perhaps the team selection/tactics could be questioned by some (not me personally), but as others have pointed out, he didn't have much time to do any different!

 

[jonnyp]

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.

They have to allow plastic pitches because in countries like Switzerland or Norway it's impossible to play football on a grass pitch during the winter months. They can't exclude teams from the CL because of climate conditions in the respective countries and it wouldn't be fair to force them to play their home leg in another stadium which does have grass.

 

[phil]

... but why?

Explanation from Wiki:

Often called "water-based", the pile is unfilled. The fields require wetting, hence the name "water-based", often via prolonged showering with field-side water cannon prior to their use and occasionally during half-time intervals depending on the prevailing atmospherics. They are favoured by most sports since they offer more protection for players by minimising the abrasive effect created by the sand. These fields form the majority of the elite level field hockey fields in use today.

 

[phil]

They have to allow plastic pitches because in countries like Switzerland or Norway it's impossible to play football on a grass pitch during the winter months. They can't exclude teams from the CL because of climate conditions in the respective countries and it wouldn't be fair to force them to play their home leg in another stadium which does have grass.

Not impossible as most pitches in both countries (and in Russia with far worse climatic conditions) are turf.

I was speaking to a couple of YB supporters before the match and they said that the success of their team is largely down to the fact that the other Swiss teams cannot play on the artificial surface. YB have a great home record but struggle away from home on turf.

The Stade de Suisse, Wankdorf is the national stadium used for multiple sports including hockey and ice hockey. Suspect the multi-sports requirement determined the choice of surface.

 

[keonb]

Their 3rd goal was outrageous, no way in a million years could you hit the ball like that on a normal grass pitch and it just slide through to their striker... Any slower and Bassong intercepts

 

[Rackybear]

yeah, this all suggests we will rape them at WHL - maybe they know that too.

However, this was certainly a kick up the ass for spurs, and we should NOT underestimate them. I honestly done believe we did in the first leg, but the pitch really did make a difference, it was clearly visible to see.

 

[cwy21]

Biggest impact of the artificial turf is the speed of it. There had to be 15 or 20 simple passes that were just hit too hard from Spurs players that would have been fine on grass.

It takes more then a couple practice sessions to get used to it.

 

[domw001]

The way I see it is this.

Yes we do have a plastic pitch to train on (it's under a big fuck-off all-weather bubble at The Lodge). However, day-to-day the team trains on the grass pitches (we’ve all seen the official website for their daily update).

We train on grass at the training ground, we play on grass in stadiums.

If you have seen Scott Sutter's interview after the game he says they train on plastic and play on plastic, I assume he means they don’t need their own training ground and use the stadium for all their work. So they know the pitch and how to play it.

If we played most of our Prem matches on training pitch #1 we’d win 98% of them.

Additionally if you do most of your work on a particular surface your body adjusts to playing on it. There’s potentially less injuries because they can be avoided by the way you move about. Psychologically you can play without worrying which part of your body’s going to blow up next.

Yes they play on grass at other stadiums but I bet they find it easier to adjust going from plastic to grass than the other way.

We had less than 2 weeks to prepare for this game. If we hadn’t had Man City in between maybe Harry could have had the boys playing on a similar pitch somewhere else full time but he needs to bring balance to the bigger picture and, while it was an important match, training should be business-as-usual for the forthcoming season.

Just my thoughts.



COYS!