The pitch at Old Trafford

kps88 said:
I think SAF is just using it as an excuse to save the players some face in the media. We managed 45 perfectly fine minutes on that pitch, we just turned into spastics after that who could't keep the ball for more than 30 odd seconds. You're telling me these world class players can't adapt to a bad pitch within 45 minutes? We've played on worse pitches in the past and not done half as badly.

It's not like Southampton were just lumping it forward either. They managed to pass it around and play decent football.
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"In the second half, the players just found the pitch impossible," he said. "We tried to play the way we normally play and found it difficult because the pitch had dried out a lot. We lost an early goal in the first half but it didn't deter us from playing some fantastic football and we could have been four or five up at half time, but once the pitch started to dry out the players found it difficult to play a different way and it really required us to play the ball into the gaps, which we don't normally do. We can't use the pitch as an excuse, but it didn't help us. It's a worry. We've won the game and I think that's the one thing we can take out of it."

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-F...ts-united-were-lucky-against-southampton.aspx
 
When he says "we can't use the pitch as an excuse", he's basically doing just that.

Did it really dry out that badly after half time? Point still stands that Southampton managed to actually play football on it just fine.
 
It acts as a bit of a neutralizer between the 2 teams. So it is a factor, to whatever degree.
 
hp88 said:
I am sure it was done this summer, just before the Olympics started.

It's the grass.

http://www.dessosports.com/sports/football/football-projects
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That's interesting. Every UK stadium listed in there has actually a very good pitch indeed (apart from Wembley, not sure what's the problem there). I was wondering whether we have that hybrid grass thing and it turns out we don't which is weird. Even Burnley has it.

Maybe it's about time someone from the club looked at it.
 
FreakyJim said:
That's interesting. Every UK stadium listed in there has actually a very good pitch indeed (apart from Wembley, not sure what's the problem there). I was wondering whether we have that hybrid grass thing and it turns out we don't which is weird. Even Burnley has it.

Maybe it's about time someone from the club looked at it.
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I'm sure Wenger purposely insisted on Desso when the Emirates was built...the pitch being the centerpiece of the whole structure. They have these massive rigs that blast UV onto the pitch to keep it tip top. The short sighted tits at the FA didn't possess that gumption...it was all about building this enormous, iconic stadium and the pitch was just thrown in at the end. Turns out the turf couldn't handle the abuse leaving them with a £700 million embarassment. After numerous attempts to correct it they took a chance with the Desso turf, it saved their asses and allowed Wembley to stage a Champions League Final with another one to follow this year.

Anfield is also hybrid turf, the scouse turned to it after years of problems with the natural grass. It has held up well for them too. United should definitely explore it, its more costly but it will save them further embarrassment. If the pitch is in a shit state for Real's visit then UEFA will be sure to chastise the club over it. We all want to see fantastic football and it would be a shame for the pitch to hinder that. It isn't good enough considering Old Trafford is a 5 star UEFA venue.
 
kouroux said:
Any reason why it wasn't done last summer ?
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It looked pretty decent on the first day of the season, but after December it's finally been found out.

Perhaps the ground staff thought it was still in good enough condition for another season?
 
the pitch had nothing to do with it I think it was just a bad day at the office these things happen now and again although saints have not won many they have drawn plenty and are a tough outfit to beat
 
I'm not going to rule out the "Ronaldo" hypothesis. The more I think about it, the more horrifying a pitch is exactly what Fergie would surely want to compromise Ronaldo's talents. Don't even be surprised if we water the pitch before the game with Real even if it's raining buckets.
 
The pitch is in a bit of a state, but I didn't like SAF sort of using that as an excuse for the performance. Southampton passed it around fine in that 2nd half, that's for sure!

It'll settle soon enough.
 
The pitch will cause us problems (and possibly injuries) if it doesn't improve over the next few weeks. Hopefully it will settle a bit, even if it won't be perfect.
 
It is so weird to be having these problems, when for as long as I can remember we've had the second best pitch in the Premier League.
 
MancFanFromManc said:
Can't believe its lasted 10 years, I remember us changing it several times a season. Done a couple of stadium tours with my kids and there always seems to be those huge heat lamps on it, apparently it rains a bit in Manchester :-P
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Don't think they are heat lamps. They are lamps that imitate sun light and therefore help the grass grow. Think that is why the pitch has lasted so long.
 
It's not 10 years, I think Fergie said we changed it around 2007.
 
The pitch is a total disgrace, and I can't believe more is not being made of it. You can see that we generally start off OK on it, then as it deteriorates, so does our performance. The style that we're trying to play, is simply not conducive with a choppy pitch. Yes both teams have to play on it, but it definitely acts as a leveller - and it will cost us points if it doesn't improve.

Against Southampton is was awful after the warmup. Guarantee that goal wouldn't have happened if it hadn't bobbled to Anderson, then bobbled to Carrick. We have to be at our best to beat Everton, and the pitch prevents us from being at our best. Simple as that.

At the moment, I'm happier playing away. Which is a ridiculous situation. And there's no excuse for it - City have to put up with the same climate and theirs is fine.
 
99 red balloons said:
At the moment, I'm happier playing away. Which is a ridiculous situation. And there's no excuse for it - City have to put up with the same climate and theirs is fine.
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Their stadium isn't as big and doesnt prevent the sunlight reaching the pitch as much.

Also it was the games against Newcastle and West Brom that have ruined the pitch when the rain was awful. City were away and their pitch was unused.

Also it would be just as much of a risk replacing it now as if it does not bed properly it will cut up just as much. The fact we only have 1 home game in nearly 20 days should help the pitch recover
 
PatrickP said:
Their stadium isn't as big and doesnt prevent the sunlight reaching the pitch as much.
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They have the hybrid grass mentioned earlier in this thread. I'm guessing that's a bigger reason for the better pitch they have than the sunlight which doesn't even exist in Manchester in the first place.
 
I have just researched Desso pitches and they do look impressive. Looks like they last for a hell of a long time. Anfield and Emirates also use it.

Anyway, we have had this pitch for 9+ years and had very few problems and our ground staff have done really well to maintain it. We had a terribly wet winter and we played 2 games in 5 days when it was wettest and it was just unfortunate.

I reckon at Everton the pitch will be fine and then the Reading game will have the pitch back to a good condition.

They might be looking in to hybrid pitches for the summer as that is something they can't do mid season
 
What I don't understand about all this "same pitch in place for the last 6 / 10 years" stuff is that I saw (or rather didn't see!) the pitch completely taken up, leaving just soil / sand with my own eyes, the summer before last. Had a meeting in one of the boxes in 2011, and there was no pitch in place.
 
Scrumpet said:
I thought it looked and seemed to play better today.
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True, but it still wasn't great. Nowhere near the very high standard we have come to expect at OT over the years.

It's probably not going to be back to its best at all this season, and we're just going to have to lump it. Maybe when they returf it in the summer they'll go with the desso stuff, as that would make it less vulnerable to the sort of unfortunate collision of terrible weather and packed schedule which fecked it up this season.
 
Amir said:
Didn't someone, somewhere, report we've been using some technology that resembles the effects of the sun on the pitch? Not that much else we can do, really.
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We put lights over the pitch to replicate the sun to help the pitch. Not something that they have just started doing though.
 
People talk about artificial fibres and hybrid grasses with little knowledge of what they actually are, you're basically reading paid for advertising spiel put out by the sports turf companies who are always going to make it sound like the dogs bollocks. The grass at OT will feature the same sort of seed mix as any other pitch in the league tailored to suit the growing conditions at OT which will never be good given the stand height and weather conditions, as for the fibres, we were amongst the first to use them, if we don't anymore then clearly they weren't doing much for us.

The artificial fibres only stop the turf kicking up, they serve no other purpose. Not sure which fibre injection team the gunners and scousers bought into but it's nowhere near as "computer controlled" and hi tech as some here seem to believe. It's basically a physical mix of short polypropylene or polyester fibres into the upper 2 to 3 inches of the pitch which impersonates the action of a root zone when the grass isn't too strong.

Old Trafford did have it, they were one of the first to use it over 15 years ago when they went with the Netlon Sportsturf system produced by Tensar in Blackburn. Rather than fibres it was a mix of 1 inch mesh grids into the soil which did pretty much the same thing. Not sure they renewed it when the pitch was relaid but kicking up is not the major problem at OT and if the fibres are too strong they can actually lead to injuries when studs jam into the turf.

The problems at OT are lack of natural sunlight and too much bloody rain, they do a pretty good job for most of the year but it's no surprise in mid winter that our pitch looks a bit shit.
 
FreakyJim said:
That's interesting. Every UK stadium listed in there has actually a very good pitch indeed (apart from Wembley, not sure what's the problem there). I was wondering whether we have that hybrid grass thing and it turns out we don't which is weird. Even Burnley has it.

Maybe it's about time someone from the club looked at it.
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Wembley's pitch has been good for a few years now. It was terrible and they had to relay it several times, how ever the last time they relaid it back in 2010 was with this Desso system. Seems to have worked.
 
Bury Red said:
People talk about artificial fibres and hybrid grasses with little knowledge of what they actually are, you're basically reading paid for advertising spiel put out by the sports turf companies who are always going to make it sound like the dogs bollocks. The grass at OT will feature the same sort of seed mix as any other pitch in the league tailored to suit the growing conditions at OT which will never be good given the stand height and weather conditions, as for the fibres, we were amongst the first to use them, if we don't anymore then clearly they weren't doing much for us.

The artificial fibres only stop the turf kicking up, they serve no other purpose. Not sure which fibre injection team the gunners and scousers bought into but it's nowhere near as "computer controlled" and hi tech as some here seem to believe. It's basically a physical mix of short polypropylene or polyester fibres into the upper 2 to 3 inches of the pitch which impersonates the action of a root zone when the grass isn't too strong.

Old Trafford did have it, they were one of the first to use it over 15 years ago when they went with the Netlon Sportsturf system produced by Tensar in Blackburn. Rather than fibres it was a mix of 1 inch mesh grids into the soil which did pretty much the same thing. Not sure they renewed it when the pitch was relaid but kicking up is not the major problem at OT and if the fibres are too strong they can actually lead to injuries when studs jam into the turf.

The problems at OT are lack of natural sunlight and too much bloody rain, they do a pretty good job for most of the year but it's no surprise in mid winter that our pitch looks a bit shit.
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Interesting read that, ta for posting.
 
Hal9000 said:
Wembley's pitch has been good for a few years now. It was terrible and they had to relay it several times, how ever the last time they relaid it back in 2010 was with this Desso system. Seems to have worked.
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Isn't Wembleys pitch problem due to overuse of the stadium for non footballing activities?

Also the pitch wasn't particularly better yesterday. The ball was still bobbling around like crazy.
 
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