Pitch size is no excuse Pochettino
There have been plenty of articles about pitch size with Pochettino making reference to it in a press conference recently and suggesting that may be part of the problem.
On the face of it a justifiable statement but quite frankly it's ridiculous. Every coach taking the job at White Hart Lane knows the size of the pitch and as you play half you games there it has to form a part of the assessment process.
The coach has to devise a style of play that suits the players and the pitch size. To do anything else is a flaw in their coaching ability. It is one of the basics of coaching that you assess your surrounding and adapt your coaching accordingly, that should be done when determining a style of play.
Tottenham have a small itch, one of the smallest in the Premier League and it has long been a problem simply because we play the wrong style of football to suit it. For a small pitch you have two options.
You have to make the pitch as wide as possible to stretch the defence so fast wide men come into their own. Alternatively you sit back and let teams attack you and hit them with fast counter attacks. The third method would be to play the long ball to a big target man and play off the knock downs like Bolton used to or finally to play a ball in behind between the centre-half and the full-back, which again requires stretching the defence with wide fast men.
Mousa Dembele Oct 2013
A year on we haven't found a way and it's hardly surprising. If you have a small pitch why make it smaller by playing with inverted wingers? They only work consistently on larger pitches or against weak opposition. With someone like Townsend or Lamela cutting in most of the time the defence can stay tight together and then there are no gaps for us to exploit so we can't play intricate through balls.
When that happens is our players haven't got a clue what to do. Three home defeats already speak volumes, we look devoid of ideas simply because there is no room, it's all eye of a needle stuff.
We have knackered our stand-in right-back by not playing Chiriches out there against weak Europa League opposition so we don't have an overlap on one side. That makes us even easier to defend against, we only have a threat from the left side, where Rose overlaps.
I have not checked the size of the pitch in the new stadium but I hope it is bigger than this, we need it to be the size of Arsenal to suit out style. It is no surprise to me that we can create more chances away from home, at home all we ever seem to do is have long range shots from outside the box and hope to get lucky.
Away from home with play with an interchanging front four or we were supposed to but that seems to have gone out the window at home, we simply play with inverted wingers in too confined a space, hardly surprising that someone like Soldado gets few chances.
Harry Redknapp had it right, he played with fast wide men and fast counter-attacking football, it suited the conditions he was working with, AVB devised a style that didn't suit the playing conditions at all, you have to entertain your home fans, you can't just build a team for away football. I don't think Pochettino has quite grasped how to approach the playing size yet. His comment suggests he is frustrated by it and hasn't paid it enough attention when devising his game strategy.
Building a new stadium creates a dilemma, do you adopt a style of play now that suits a larger pitch, which means you'll struggle at home and probably not qualify for the Champions League or do you adopt a style that suits the size of pitch now, have a chance of getting into the Champions League and change it when and if we get a bigger pitch?
Either way using the pitch as an excuse is way out of line, as a coach you are supposed to devise a style of play that suits it, that's basic coaching.
What we fans need to know is are we devising a long term style of football to suit the new stadium or are we just making a basic mistake?
“Our style means we need a bigger place to play because we play a positional game and it’s true that White Hart Lane is a little bit tight."
On the face of it a justifiable statement but quite frankly it's ridiculous. Every coach taking the job at White Hart Lane knows the size of the pitch and as you play half you games there it has to form a part of the assessment process.
The coach has to devise a style of play that suits the players and the pitch size. To do anything else is a flaw in their coaching ability. It is one of the basics of coaching that you assess your surrounding and adapt your coaching accordingly, that should be done when determining a style of play.
Tottenham have a small itch, one of the smallest in the Premier League and it has long been a problem simply because we play the wrong style of football to suit it. For a small pitch you have two options.
You have to make the pitch as wide as possible to stretch the defence so fast wide men come into their own. Alternatively you sit back and let teams attack you and hit them with fast counter attacks. The third method would be to play the long ball to a big target man and play off the knock downs like Bolton used to or finally to play a ball in behind between the centre-half and the full-back, which again requires stretching the defence with wide fast men.
Mousa Dembele Oct 2013
“It’s not easy for us. We know that some teams are going to come here and make a block, and we don’t have a big pitch so it’s even more difficult.
“A small pitch makes it harder. If we have more space, it’s easier for us, but we have to find a way. The manager will speak to us as well, because we always have a bit of difficulty with these kinds of teams after a game against Hull City).
“We’ve spoken about it, and everyone was saying ‘wow, it’s unbelievable – everybody is playing like this against us.’ But it’s not only us, because these kinds of sides do it against all the top teams.
“It’s maybe a bit easier for us when teams try to attack us. It was a similar situation last year in games like this. We hardly ever win them comfortably, but we have a lot of quality in the squad, so there must be a way to find it and I think we will.”
A year on we haven't found a way and it's hardly surprising. If you have a small pitch why make it smaller by playing with inverted wingers? They only work consistently on larger pitches or against weak opposition. With someone like Townsend or Lamela cutting in most of the time the defence can stay tight together and then there are no gaps for us to exploit so we can't play intricate through balls.
When that happens is our players haven't got a clue what to do. Three home defeats already speak volumes, we look devoid of ideas simply because there is no room, it's all eye of a needle stuff.
We have knackered our stand-in right-back by not playing Chiriches out there against weak Europa League opposition so we don't have an overlap on one side. That makes us even easier to defend against, we only have a threat from the left side, where Rose overlaps.
I have not checked the size of the pitch in the new stadium but I hope it is bigger than this, we need it to be the size of Arsenal to suit out style. It is no surprise to me that we can create more chances away from home, at home all we ever seem to do is have long range shots from outside the box and hope to get lucky.
Away from home with play with an interchanging front four or we were supposed to but that seems to have gone out the window at home, we simply play with inverted wingers in too confined a space, hardly surprising that someone like Soldado gets few chances.
Harry Redknapp had it right, he played with fast wide men and fast counter-attacking football, it suited the conditions he was working with, AVB devised a style that didn't suit the playing conditions at all, you have to entertain your home fans, you can't just build a team for away football. I don't think Pochettino has quite grasped how to approach the playing size yet. His comment suggests he is frustrated by it and hasn't paid it enough attention when devising his game strategy.
Building a new stadium creates a dilemma, do you adopt a style of play now that suits a larger pitch, which means you'll struggle at home and probably not qualify for the Champions League or do you adopt a style that suits the size of pitch now, have a chance of getting into the Champions League and change it when and if we get a bigger pitch?
Either way using the pitch as an excuse is way out of line, as a coach you are supposed to devise a style of play that suits it, that's basic coaching.
What we fans need to know is are we devising a long term style of football to suit the new stadium or are we just making a basic mistake?
| Team | Pitch dimensions |
|---|---|
| 1. Arsenal | 105m long x 68m wide |
| 2. Aston Villa | 105m x 68m |
| 3. Hull City | 105m x 68m |
| 4. Manchester City | 105m x 68m |
| 5. Manchester United | 105m x 68m |
| 6. Newcastle United | 105m x 68m |
| 7. Southampton | 105m x 68m |
| 8. Sunderland | 105m x 68m |
| 9. Swansea City | 105m x 68m |
| 10. West Bromwich Albion | 105m x 68m |
| 11. Burnley | 105m x 67m |
| 12. Chelsea | 103m x 67.5m |
| 13. Crystal Palace | 101m x W68m |
| 14. Liverpool | 101m x 68m |
| 15. West Ham United | 100.58m x 68m |
| 16. Everton | 100.48m x 68m |
| 17. Leicester City | 100m x 69m |
| 18. Tottenham Hotspur | 100m x 67m |
| 19. Stoke City | 100m x 66m |
| 20. Queens Park Rangers | 100m x 65.85m |
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