[Keano!]

Stoke City have layed out their home pitch to the narrowest legal limit according
to the FA...in a bid to stop oposition teams playing around them and reduce the
amount of space to close down and have to work to.

Just watching the Everton gam enow and I never realised ho wbig others were,
theres very little width!



A tactic that teams like ourselves, Arsenal, Spurs etc, won't be very happy about!

 

[-zuco-]

I can't fault them at all for doing this. Teams have to do all they can to make their pitch benefit their own style of play. Especially newly promoted teams.

It's just like us having a very wide pitch because we usually play with two wingers.

 

[VaVa]

If you look at Stoke Cities spine of the team its made up of big strong players. The Ceter Backs and Center Mid players are huge!
They are looking at the tactic of teams having to go through them rather than around.
Clever tactic and teams like Arsenal might find it tough against it

 

[RichardsReds]

Yeah good idea for Stoke. No reason why they should not do this.

 

[RedForceRising]

Highbury 2?

 

[VaVa]

Olofinjana's goal for Stoke reminded me of a certain Cantana goal!!!!!
Can anyone guess the goal and the team he scored against that i am talking about???

 

[Jazz 16]

Yeah good idea for Stoke. No reason why they should not do this.

Exactly. If its within the rules they are entitled to.


Just watching Stoke play now 2-2 at the minute (64th) and its a good second half.
Their 2 goals came from Rory Delap's monster throw ins, which cause opposing
defence all sorts of problems. Its such a great tactic and is as good as a corner kick.
Anyone else notice this?

 

[VaVa]

He set up 2 goals in the previous games aswell, yeah its like a corner kick!

 

[Jesus Hitler]

Exactly. If its within the rules they are entitled to.


Just watching Stoke play now 2-2 at the minute (64th) and its a good second half.
Their 2 goals came from Rory Delap's monster throw ins, which cause opposing
defence all sorts of problems. Its such a great tactic and is as good as a corner kick.
Anyone else notice this?

its a perfectly good idea to be honest and if they want to do it then teams have to work there way around it

and last time i looked it was 2-0 jesus they have done well and yeah throw ins are genraly not used as goal scoring devices but to be fair if there scoring from it they may as well keep it up

bolton did it for years under big sam

 

[Keano!]

Exactly. If its within the rules they are entitled to.


Just watching Stoke play now 2-2 at the minute (64th) and its a good second half.
Their 2 goals came from Rory Delap's monster throw ins, which cause opposing
defence all sorts of problems. Its such a great tactic and is as good as a corner kick.
Anyone else notice this?

I thought Delap threw it right into the net first time! lol Incredible throw though


Amazing game too...Stoke had a perfectly good goal disallowed, Everton given a
penalty for handball, then dediced it was outside, then Moyes sent to the stands!
lol

 

[Jay007]

Exactly. If its within the rules they are entitled to.


Just watching Stoke play now 2-2 at the minute (64th) and its a good second half.
Their 2 goals came from Rory Delap's monster throw ins, which cause opposing
defence all sorts of problems. Its such a great tactic and is as good as a corner kick.
Anyone else notice this?

Its incredible.

It causes teams problems nearly every time the ball comes in, and I think they'll score a lot of goals from them. Its a very effective tactic.

As for the pitch, Sam Allardyce admitted to doing it. They aren't as good as most other Premiership, so they've got to do what they can to try to stay up (as long as its in the rules, of course )

 

[Keano!]

My theory....Delap's throw-ins look longer because they go further into the box!





























Ye?

 

[RedMurph7]

Yea its not the first tim i heard about a promoted team do this. Think it was Watford
but it didn't do much for them so who knows. Are a big strong team though and will
benefit from tight pitch.

 

[yangch0000]

as long as they stay within the limit, they have every right to do that. do everything to benefit your team isnt anything illegal.


ps.....delap's throw-ins can be better than some crosses!!

 

[dlan4327]

Can somebody tell me what's the legal limit for the width of a pitch? I'd always assumed 30m sounded about right.

Also, how wide are some of the bigger pitches?

 

[SALFORD RED]

Can somebody tell me what's the legal limit for the width of a pitch? I'd always assumed 30m sounded about right.

Also, how wide are some of the bigger pitches?

Glad you asked that question mate, I knew the rough answer but thought i would check officially to clarify it..
..The length of a pitch must be between 100 yards (90m) and 130 yards (120m) and the width not less than 50 yards (45m) and not more than 100 yards (90m).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/rules_and_equipment/4200666.stm
Which surprised me a lot as it means that in effect teams could have a square pitch 100yds(90m) x 100yds (90m) which i never knew, so i learnt something new by you asking the question. Cheers.

Pitch sizes for premier league teams last season can be found here. ( along with a few interesting facts ).
http://soccerlens.com/premier-league-pitch-sizes/3683/

Hope that helps you mate.
.

 

[abojodeh]

not sure if it is a good thing to small the pitch

but stoke are really a big surprise this season
and am more surprised with Hull
they are in the big 4 right now

 

[red lady]

good luck to them...make it as hard as possible for visiting teams will give them a bit of a chance...

 

[marty davidson]

What a force Stoke are at home its unreal how good they are at home

 

[Jazz 16]

What a force Stoke are at home its unreal how good they are at home

They have the crowd behind them for sure and they dont give much away at home.
They have done enough to survive this season, which is a huge achievement for them.
Our old boy Shawcross has been hugely impressive as well as Faye who was a great buy from Toon.
Beattie was also one of the top transfers of the Jan window. Matty Etherington has been good as well.
Stoke play horrible football but there is no law against that
Well done to them.