Will The New Pitch Size Benefit Us?

[weisheng]

If one of the reasons why we struggled away from home before is that we were used to the smaller highbury pitch, then moving to the grove would help us improve our away form wouldnt it?

i really hope the super quick counter attacks'll continue with the new stadium ..

 

[GoonerGurjit]

but wenger knows. he wouldnt make the pitch bigger if it wouldnt benefit us.

Excellent point. The pitch dimensions are according to what Wenger wanted.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

I think one factor possibly being overlooked here is the quality of the pitch. If it's anywhere near Highbury standard, we should be alright. The problems will come if we end up with a bog instead of grass.

That for me is just as important as the size of the pitch- the players will have been drilled on the training pitches by the time the season starts.

 

[GS1]

bigger pitch means no more lightning quick counter attacks

Yesss exactly, that's why I voted 'no'. Arsenal have been suited to such a style of play since the very beginging.

I'm not saying the new pitch dimensions will have a tragic affect on Arsenal's game, but it will take some getting used to.

:arrow:

 

[henryamir14]

more space = more movement = more goals = EPL Champ!!~

 

[the dawn raids]

Another good point is that playing on a large pitch most the time may even benefit us more in away matches now. Something of which we could have used last season.

this is a point that cant be underestimated. getting used to playing on a larger pitch can only help us away from home; the pitch wont feel as foreign and our players can really come out firing, familiar how to use the dimensions to their advantage. or thats the hope anyway.

 

[Number8]

bigger pitch means no more lightning quick counter attacks

Yesss exactly, that's why I voted 'no'. Arsenal have been suited to such a style of play since the very beginging.

I'm not saying the new pitch dimensions will have a tragic affect on Arsenal's game, but it will take some getting used to.

:arrow:

Having a larger pitch gives us the opportunity to counter attack more, even if it won't be lightning quick.

I wonder which players will suffer from a smaller pitch. I can't really see any problems, perhaps Gilberto is the one that has to be running alot more than he's used to. But he's proven in the CL that he's more than capable of doing that.

 

[Super Bob]

It's a strange one because the football we play logically should suit a bigger pitch - but we tend to play best at Highbury unlike Old Trafford, Reebok etc. that have bigger pitches.

Hopefully it's just a case of getting used to it and in the long run we can play even better on our new pitch than at Highbury.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

It's a strange one because the football we play logically should suit a bigger pitch - but we tend to play best at Highbury unlike Old Trafford, Reebok etc. that have bigger pitches.

Less to do with bigger pitches, more to do with getting the crap kicked out of us in front of complicit referees and northern chimpanzees monkeying around, I think..

 

[Clrnc]

having a larger pitch dosen't mean no lightning quick counter attacks. the players are still as fast, and if opponents are slow, our counter attacks are still as fast. larger pitch also means like bernabau, henry have space to counter attack even quicker, as the defenders have a larger amount of space to chase henry. so its dosent mean smaller pitch=faster counter attack.

it is no point having a small pitch in a large stadium. therfore wenger has this pitch size. i am sure the training ground will be to this dimension months before we play epl 1st match in this stadium. so we sure can adapt. and a good point is that if we are used to play in a big pitch, then we won't suffer when we play big pitch away games.

 

[Meatwad]

Well it's extremely flawed to compare how we played at Wembley and on big pitches on the road to how we can potentially play at the Grove. It won't have the same effect, in both of those cases those were "foreign" pitches in that we weren't familiar with them. The Grove will be our home field and the practice pitches will be the same size. It's one thing to practice all season on a highbury sized pitch and then play a game at Wembley or at OT, it's another to have everything uniform: practice pitch size, home pitch size, etc. As a road team it's much easier to adjust to a smaller pitch than a bigger one, it's kinda like running without weights around your ankles and then putting them on and running.

 

[kel varnsen]

this is probably the third time i've mentioned this, but i think wenger is building a new team with the new, bigger pitch in his mind. eboue, hleb, rosicky, cesc, reyes, cole, freddie and henry are all terrific off the ball and can run all day. i think wenger wants us to really take advantage of emirates by running and passing; finding space and really just overwhelm the other teams.

so yes, i think the new pitch will be an advantage. at least after a while.

 

[Clrnc]

it might not be a surprise if our slick passing on the ground moves, turns into long balls or crosses next season. you might never know. maybe wenger thinks opponents know too much of arsenal style and he might conjure up plan B to counter teams like bolton, chelsea, man utd etc. he also might be trying to sign players that can fit into his new system and players that runs on defenders. so that it might be an advantage on big pitch.

 

[Jkreffer]

From what we know of Wenger, he is very much a believer in remaining loyal to his beliefs. Very unlikely we will see a drastic change in the way we play.

 

[Jaz.14]

I can remember reading or hearing somewhere that the actual pitch playing size at the emirates stadium, will be bigger than highbury, but not actually as big as some people think. Im pretty sure its going to be smaller than old trafford etc. So basically its going to be a Medium - Large playing surface. I think that'l be fine for us, it will give us a bit more space for our passes, and teams that come to play a 4-5-1 may find it harder to get men behind the ball all the time, meaning im sure we'll find more space than we did at highbury. I don't think the pitch size will have any kind of dramatic impact on the way we play or how we perform. It'll take a little getting used to but after that im sure we won't even be talking about this...

 

[Clrnc]

i remember seeing the dimension and i compared it it was the biggest in england

 

[TheEconomist]

To be honest, i dont think it will make much difference. This season, we have played away from home, at some of the best stadiums in the world. They all had reasonably large pitches, some i think larger than the emirates stadium one will be. And i didnt really notice it made any difference to how we played.

 

[sesquioxide]

Well, worse comes to worse, we can always mark out a smaller pitch, I think? (Or are there regulations against that?)

 

[YeahBee]

To pages and nobody ahs mentioned Flamini, the only player who would run the most regardless of the pitch.

 

[Viper]

I don't see why the team would struggle on a bigger pitch as our training pitches have been expanded as well as us playing every 2 weeks at the Emirates stadium.

Our performance against Real Madrid at the Bernabau (features a big pitch) is a reason why we would do very well at the Emirates stadium.