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Slippery pitch again


lordswoodsaints

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I posted earlier in the season about players slipping and wether or not it was down to boots or watered pitch.

Today there was a lot of slipping again and it led to stoke scoring.

So is it down to the pitch or down to the boots?......either way I think it cost us the 3 points today.

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I think it's ridiculous that the players warm up and then the pitch is watered. How are they supposed to know which boots to wear if the conditions are changed after the warm up?

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Going on the colour of the grass it looked like it was too dry rather than too wet, and the way the ball sped away also pointed to this, a hard surface will also give grip issues. Probably find stud technology has not kept up with the demands the players put on them when changing direction. The sprinklers never seem to reach the edge of the pitch on a Matchday.

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Clyne always slips at least twice per match at home. Hooiveld often slips.

 

Either way, although the surface looks amazing, some of our players do seem to struggle to get to grips with it (lolzz!111!!) at times.

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I wouldn't always blame slips on the pitch. In many cases - those involving Jos in particular - they result from failing to read the game quickly enough and being forced into sudden directional changes. Clyne slipped quite a lot early-season but less as he became more comfortable at this level.

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On the plus side, a slick surface probably helps our playing style, although it wouldn't do much for Stoke. :rolleyes:

 

Indeed, but there's no point in a better playing style if players are going to fall over and concede goals because of it. It always seems to be our players that do this.

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If it's not raining they put the sprinklers on before ko and at ht every game and today it cost

us, as it did when Clyne slipped in the box earlier in the season and our opponents scored right

in front of us in the Chapel (can't recall versus).

Dear Groundsman, please stop it.

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This is one of my pet hates at home games. Our players had slipped over 8 times in the first 8minutes yesterday. It is definitely worse for us that the opposition as well. Usual culprits are clyne, Big Jos, lallana and fonte. I think cork went over a few times yesterday.

 

I don't know if it is our studs or our style of play or what, but i think it has cost us goals this season, at both ends (i.e lallana through on goal yesterday)... Needs sorting out for next season.

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Early in the second half there was so much water at the Northam end the ball was leaving a splash trail in places.

 

I didn't see the pitch for all of half time, but they spent most of half time only watering the Northam, presumably to ensure the ball wouldn't stick when flicked on by Crouch or when bouncing from a long ball.

Edited by The9
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I thought they went out of fashion a few years ago. Not seen any of our players wearing them this year.

 

Most of them wear mixed sole plates with studs and "blades" on now (for want of a better term). I've worn firm ground boots since 1998 and never had a problem with grip, and the only "blades" I ever saw as problematic for grip were Puma speed boots circa 2003 which had no lateral movement fin on the ball of the feet and all the studs facing forwards, so any attempt to change direction meant the player was putting a flat sheer plastic surface onto grass.

 

Blaming "blades" is just lazy scapegoating, there's literally no evidence supporting the lack of grip "problem" apart from one batch of badly-designed soles 10 years ago. Players are falling over because they are moving very quickly and changing direction more often and more rapidly than ever before on pitches which are almost always damp.

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Going on the colour of the grass it looked like it was too dry rather than too wet, and the way the ball sped away also pointed to this, a hard surface will also give grip issues. Probably find stud technology has not kept up with the demands the players put on them when changing direction. The sprinklers never seem to reach the edge of the pitch on a Matchday.

 

How do you work out that a dry pitch will stop a ball less well than a wet one ? A dry pitch has more friction, and wet doesn't, so that is literally against the laws of physics. If it was too dry but had water sitting on it because it couldn't drain, it wouldn't be the dryness that was causing the slipping.

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The amount of times some of our players slipped over was ridiculous - especially Lallana. Don't they wear studs? My impression was that Stoke did not slip over as often. All seems rather silly.

 

Lallana had new boots on, first time he's worn those black Pumas with fluorescent yellow on this season, might not have his preferred sole plate, but equally, he's the one of our players who changes direction quickly the most. I can't say I really noticed more than 2 or 3 slips all match, which wasn't much considering how wet the pitch was.

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These are the kind of Pumas I was referring to which were useless for changing direction as there are no lateral "fins" to push against to redirect your weight - though these are actually from 2010 ! :

puma-powercat-yellow.jpg

 

Pretty sure these are Lallana's new boots, as you can see, nothing controversial about the firm ground sole.

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRI0uoEwtDLrpNo8uAEON82yP0NU9Z2KkZCEqQwCAcHlfC8RLnW

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The amount of times some of our players slipped over was ridiculous - especially Lallana. Don't they wear studs? My impression was that Stoke did not slip over as often. All seems rather silly.

 

maybe because there players never turn and are always looking skywards

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If it's not raining they put the sprinklers on before ko and at ht every game and today it cost

us, as it did when Clyne slipped in the box earlier in the season and our opponents scored right

in front of us in the Chapel (can't recall versus).

Dear Groundsman, please stop it.

 

Van Persie for Man Utd?

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Well seeing as only a handful of players slipped, I'd blame their boots. Clyne and Lallana have been falling over, both home and away, all season so I'm not buying into it being the pitch

 

But they've both been wearing different types of boots to each other - and in Clyne's case the same boots as other players on the pitch who haven't been falling over.

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Most of them wear mixed sole plates with studs and "blades" on now (for want of a better term). I've worn firm ground boots since 1998 and never had a problem with grip, and the only "blades" I ever saw as problematic for grip were Puma speed boots circa 2003 which had no lateral movement fin on the ball of the feet and all the studs facing forwards, so any attempt to change direction meant the player was putting a flat sheer plastic surface onto grass.

 

Blaming "blades" is just lazy scapegoating, there's literally no evidence supporting the lack of grip "problem" apart from one batch of badly-designed soles 10 years ago. Players are falling over because they are moving very quickly and changing direction more often and more rapidly than ever before on pitches which are almost always damp.

 

Watch The Big Match reruns. Footballers playing on damp pitches then weren't like Bambi on ice because they had proper boots with aluminium studs. For dry pitches they would put a pair of moulded Adidas Beckenbaur's on and still they managed not to all over.

 

Mixed sole plates my arse.

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