The pitch IS narrower...

[EmersonsRed]

Thought this deserved a thread of its own following on from bits and bobs in the match day chat, bit boring for some, but I find it very interesting... We've had the largest available for some time I believe and I'm glad we've narrowed it, allows us to play a far more attacking game off the ball and press for 90 minutes. Think we may be a bit better defensively at home this season.

 

P.S Confirmed by Joe Bryan interview at https://www.bcfc.co.uk/bctv/

[Spoons]

Good observation skills but not sure it really makes a whole lot of difference though? 

[Phileas Fogg]

You can see the old lines here.

[EmersonsRed]

2 hours ago, Spoons said:

Good observation skills but not sure it really makes a whole lot of difference though? 

I promise at this level of football, it does. Everything matters. No matter how small.

The good old saying during the FA Cup when a large team goes to non-league opposition and commentators say "they won't like playing on this tight, narrow pitch" it's not a myth... In fact in the interview via the link Joe even says a few of his cross-field balls went out.

 

It affects your shape on and off the ball.  Pressing (as eluded to in OP).

Good recent example is Spurs' fantastic home form. 100 by 67 meters, struggle hugely at Wembley 105 by 65m...

[Dollymarie]

Genuine question, because I honestly don't know. 

Are we allowed to do that? As in are there rules that say the pitch must be between this and this measurement for example? How narrow are we allowed to make it before someone official would take a look at things.  

[RumRed]

3 minutes ago, Dollymarie said:

Genuine question, because I honestly don't know. 

Are we allowed to do that? As in are there rules that say the pitch must be between this and this measurement for example? How narrow are we allowed to make it before someone official would take a look at things.  

There's quite a lot of variation allowed even up to international pitches, Wiki suggests at that level width of the pitch can be between 64m and 75m.  

Sure someone can correct this if Wiki is wrong.

[City Ben]

EFL website, rule 13.1 says length must be between 100 and 110m. Width between 64 and 75m. 

[iamalagerdrinker]

1 hour ago, Dollymarie said:

Genuine question, because I honestly don't know. 

Are we allowed to do that? As in are there rules that say the pitch must be between this and this measurement for example? How narrow are we allowed to make it before someone official would take a look at things.  

Probably isn't the best fountain of knowledge but on Football Manger you can either keep it standard, narrower like we've done it or slightly wider! So I'd imagine if it's kept within the rules and  regulations we can do it 

[P'head Red]

31 minutes ago, City Ben said:

EFL website, rule 13.1 says length must be between 100 and 110m. Width between 64 and 75m. 

I'm surprised that they allow such a big variation, it must really affect cross field balls. 

[CotswoldRed]

I wonder what the rule is on slope? Cheltenham is about 1 in 4 

[RedM]

I know at one time we had a bigger pitch than Wembley's which surprised me. I think the pitch size has to be kept in the correct ratio, i.e. If you are going to narrow it to the smallest width you can't then use the longest length measurement.

[Maesknoll Red]

I'm not sure if it's been maximum size for a few years now, but I recall that we did have one of the biggest pitches in the league at one time.  I would have thought having a pitch significantly larger, should be a home adavantage, but maybe not, if the decision has been made to narrow it.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/rules_and_equipment/4200666.stm

[asfred]

Pulis used to have the pitch narrower at Stoke, to help with Delaps long throws.

[Guest]

I remember bumping into Scott Murray at Norwich away and he said how good the Burton result was - because he didn't think many teams would get a result there due in part to the size of the pitch. So seems maybe some logic in it..

[Ashtonwurzel]

First thing I did coaching in the States was have the pitch widened to the maximum, big advantage to us.

[phantom]

As the picture above shows a second corner area, I wonder if it was changed just for the fixture last night? 

[RoystonFoote'snephew]

Football pitches are measured in yards (18 yard box, 6 yard box etc), not metres, and City's pitch has been 115 x 75 yds for as long as I can remember. This has traditionally put it amongst the largest pitches in the league, but certainly not the largest. Until they changed their pitch dimensions, Swindles, for example, was a yard wider. 

I have long believed that City play better on large pitches and can struggle for performance (if not always results e.g. Fulham) on small ones. However, The reduction to 73 yards wide hardly makes City's pitch a small one and therefore should not affect us.  If it helps us defend more easily then all the better. 

[cidered abroad]

If the pitch has been narrowed, from the evidence of the extra quadrant at the SS end, it will be two yards narrower as the specified radius of a corner quadrant is one yard.

I've always believed our pitch is 75 metres x 110metres.

Thinking about it. Is the quadrant one yard radius or one yard diameter? I can't believe it's one yard from corner flag to outer edge of quadrant.

[Cowshed]

6 hours ago, EmersonsRed said:

I promise at this level of football, it does. Everything matters. No matter how small.

The good old saying during the FA Cup when a large team goes to non-league opposition and commentators say "they won't like playing on this tight, narrow pitch" it's not a myth... In fact in the interview via the link Joe even says a few of his cross-field balls went out.

 

It affects your shape on and off the ball.  Pressing (as eluded to in OP).

Good recent example is Spurs' fantastic home form. 100 by 67 meters, struggle hugely at Wembley 105 by 65m...

One of the Western league pitches (Westbury) used to be wide and long.  Split and the touchline was another second away to normal, quite an odd feeling to start a game with.

[Judda]

Surely makes sense as wingers is one position we are lacking in... makes the game more compact...?

[exAtyeoMax]

8 hours ago, Phileas Fogg said:

You can see the old lines here.

why would they have painted it twice? I thought the pitch had been re-seeded over the summer, or has there already been a match played?

[Carey 6]

Slightly off topic, but about the ground. took this picture last night.

Look at the T in Bristol. They've replaced white seats with red ones. Also under the C they've put two too many black seats in. The rest of the stadium looks class, least they could do is make the atyeo look the best it possibly can. 

 

[AppyDAZE]

5 minutes ago, Judda said:

Surely makes sense as wingers is one position we are lacking in... makes the game more compact...?

Yeah great. if you can't fix the problem on the pitch, change the pitch. I wonder if the drones told him to do it?

[AppyDAZE]

1 minute ago, Carey 6 said:

Slightly off topic, but about the ground. took this picture last night.

Look at the T in Bristol. They've replaced white seats with red ones. Also under the C they've put two too many black seats in. The rest of the stadium looks class, least they could do is make the atyeo look the best it possibly can. 

 

Looks crap don't it. I prefer the wide looking pitch. What the **** are we doing. This sort of thing is more in line with the Pulis's of this world.

[downendcity]

Perhaps LJ has asked for the pitch to be narrowed to help with the pressing game that some commented on last night.

The narrower the pitch the easier it is to press and close down the opposition defence, as they have less space available. It might not be a lot, but at this level it's all about small margins.

 

[RoystonFoote'snephew]

26 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

If the pitch has been narrowed, from the evidence of the extra quadrant at the SS end, it will be two yards narrower as the specified radius of a corner quadrant is one yard.

I've always believed our pitch is 75 metres x 110metres.

Thinking about it. Is the quadrant one yard radius or one yard diameter? I can't believe it's one yard from corner flag to outer edge of quadrant.

As I stated earlier, our pitch was officially recorded as 115 x 75 YARDS. A bug bear of mine, but I hate this modern mix of imperial and metric measurement. The laws of the game determined the pitch in imperial. The penalty area is 18 yards wide (not 16 metres 45.92 centimetres), the goal is 8 yards wide (not 7m 31.52cm) and there is a 6 yard box (not 5m 48.64cm). 

[Red DNA]

I think it was only done very recently as the grass would have grown out by now and I doubt if it had even been marked during the close season. 

I suspect the reason why they've done so late - and to only do the corner quadrants not the side lines, is to remind players when they see the old marking that taking corners they should take it into consideration. 

[Septic Peg]

@AdamB @Mkelly can you confirm as to why playing surface has been narrowed?

And why red seats in the Atyeo lettering?

[Abraham Romanovich]

No chance of this then ?

 

[Portland Bill]

1 hour ago, Judda said:

Surely makes sense as wingers is one position we are lacking in... makes the game more compact...?

Exactly, and this is why I don't like Johnson's negative tactics. 

Personally I want to see a City team with width, his tactics have narrowed the pitch for the last 18 months, now he has just confirmed his tactics ( even though I thought the pitch was narrower last season as well).

Disapointing to say the least.