The Pitch

I never said it did?

It's still embarrassing that it's in that state.

 

To keep pitch in top condition the bean counters would have to invest money on it

 

There’s nothing wrong with it?

 

When our central midfielder says the pitch is ****, then it means the pitch is ****.

 

Of course there is. Bobbly, patchy, muddy. There's just no excuse for it when we are a professional football club.

Are you happy with this?

 

I posted something similar at the end of last season when someone praised the pitch. it was **** then, too. I got slated for it at the time.

 

So had we won today I don’t think the pitch would have been even mentioned. Both teams play on it.

 

That’s a bad pitch.

 

I don't think it affected the performance at all. I'm just embarrassed at the state of it and dumbfounded that people think it looks good.

 

I agree. Ours is better than that. Doesn't make ours good though and doesn't mean ours shouldn't be better than it is.

 

For the time of year. There’s nothing wrong with ours at all.

 

The time of year should not matter in the slightest. This is a professional pitch and there's no excuse for it to not be looking 100% all year round, with the exception of after a game has been played on it in bad weather. It should be back to 100% before the following game, though.

 

Agree to disagree here tbh.

 

What’s our excuse when we play away?

 

Im not making excuses? I’ve literally said multiple times I don’t think it affected our performance.

I just think it’s embarrassing that we’re a professional football club and that the best we can do for a pitch.

 

At home, you have to do everything in your power to give you every advantage. We're a lightweight team full of midgets, so our best chance is to keep the ball on the floor and play a high tempo passing game.

Yesterday's opposition are basically a rugby side.

So we produced a bouncy, bobbly pitch that absolutely played into their hands. Long ball over the top, force us to concede a throw in or corner, ball goes into box.

We're so naive.

 

Gets watered when there is no need for watering.

 

The pitch LOOKS ok to me but during the ore match warm up the players had to move where they were having a kick about because the ball was bobbling and that was over a distance of 3 or 4 yards.

I seem to remember Marley Watkins complaining of the same problem what 4 years ago?

 

Cardiff City manager Neil Harris told BBC Sport Wales:

"The pitch was awkward to play on and the conditions made it really difficult, but we were too literal in not playing risky football.

"At half time we talked about composure and being a bit braver and we saw some real moments in the second half.

"We had to deliver and we did in the second half, the two quick goals gave them a mountain to climb.

"The last ten games is all that matters now, it is all to play for."

The above quote is from the BBC post match comments. If Neil Harris remarked upon the pitch, and the pitch played to the Cardiff game plan, and Cardiff won the game, then I think that it is fair to assume that the pitch played a part in the game conditions. Our game is to play the game in triangles with short passes because we do not have any height up front. When the ball bobbles at the wrong time, it is bound to affect the quality of the short pass. It is not going to affect a game plan that is to hit long passes quite as badly. Therefore, there is no doubt that the poor pitch affected our game plan more than it did theirs. Nevertheless, that is English conditions after a long wet winter and we have to be able to play in those conditions, and do so as effectively as our opposition. Quite frankly, we cannot, as yesterday showed.

 

I wood say that if a guy based a few hundred miles away in Cardiff can identify the problem with the pitch within 45 minutes but the guy based at Oakwell, working full time at Oakwell, working WITH the groundsmen and watching a team play on that pitch weekly can't see the problem and play a tactic to suit then he is incompetent