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The stadium myth..

FreddieYid

Well-Known Member
Aug 1, 2011
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Possibly just don’t like the way it’s rolled out as an excuse we will never know 100%

It’s not an excuse for anything we haven’t achieved, but it is testament to how well we’ve done with what we have achieved.

I don’t think anyone is saying we’d have beaten City to the title had we not been at Wembley, just that it’s a great achievement to finish 3rd, above this seasons Liverpool and as London’s top team having played there all year.
 
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chinaman

Well-Known Member
Jul 19, 2003
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My worry now is that it will take us sometime to acclimatise in our new stadium. I f we have to play the first 4 to 6 weeks away, and then take us another 4 to 6 weeks to really feel at home, we might give our top rivals too much of a handicap to really make up later in the season.
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
My worry now is that it will take us sometime to acclimatise in our new stadium. I f we have to play the first 4 to 6 weeks away, and then take us another 4 to 6 weeks to really feel at home, we might give our top rivals too much of a handicap to really make up later in the season.

Won't be as much of a change as whl to wembley as the pitch dimensions are the same.
 

chinaman

Well-Known Member
Jul 19, 2003
17,974
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Won't be as much of a change as whl to wembley as the pitch dimensions are the same.


With the difference in the visual background, particularly when a player is running, the depth perception and thus weight in passes need to be worked out.
 

Geyzer Soze

Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd
Aug 16, 2010
26,056
63,361
I think a lot will depend on the crowds & the acoustics etc. If it’s a fucking library it’ll be tough

Not that I think it will be. Just saying
 

Sevens

Well-Known Member
Apr 23, 2014
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Nonsense, I saw the games against Burnley and Swansea and they were our second and third home games of the season and I know that it was to do with Wembley, we battered them but were missing that extra few percent to get us the winner, against Palace we weren't at our best but we won because we had found our feet, however I still wonder if we'd have won more easily at White Hart Lane.

I don't accept that at all and there is no evidence to suggest it, there is just as much evidence that this team under Pochottino reached a level that reflected it's potential last season and that would have been matched this season had we been playing at White Hart Lane, if that wasn't the conclusion elsewhere in this thread then it wasn't dealt with at all.

Some people think this is all an excuse, it isn't it is an explanation that does excuse to some extent but anybody that thinks home advantage isn't a real thing because its still just a patch of grass really ought to explain why year in year out since football began teams do better at home than away, Wembley made a difference, that difference reduced as the season went on but having dropped seven points from nine in the first three games the die was cast. There will also be a bedding in period at our new stadium so be prepared for that but it won't be anything like as damaging as playing at wembley, the pitch dimensions will be familiar to us and other clubs won't be playing at the national stadium so it will just be finding our feet.

Except all the other seasons preceding it?
 

Sevens

Well-Known Member
Apr 23, 2014
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@alexis @Sevens Neither of you feel that we would have done better had we been at WHL this season?

I think we would have pushed Utd a lot harder for 2nd place.

I said further up that we may have been able to push Utd harder for 2nd place. The main point I am making is that we don't know what effect it had. It's impossible to prove either way. But I do think it's a very weak mentality to say it did cost us and there is precedent that we tend to start seasons off slowly which adds additional fog because we can't say with any certainty that Wembley was the reason we started slowly.
 

tommyt

SC Supporter
Jul 22, 2005
6,166
10,978
With the difference in the visual background, particularly when a player is running, the depth perception and thus weight in passes need to be worked out.

I agree. I remember one of our first few matches at Wembley and Toby's cross field passing was unusually off. The commentator mentioned how Toby would ping passess like that without issue at WHL because when he looked up he'd be able to calculate the distance of a pass better due to visual markers around the stadium.
 

worcestersauce

"I'm no optimist I'm just a prisoner of hope
Jan 23, 2006
26,891
45,039
Except all the other seasons preceding it?

2013/14 first three home games won 2 drew 1 finished with 69 points
Poch arrives
2014/15 first three home games won 1 lost 2 finished with 64 points
2015/16 first three home games drew 2 lost 1 finished with 70 points
2016/17 first three home games won 2 drew 1 finished with 86 points
at Wembley
2017/18 first three home games drew 2 lost 1 finished with 77 points

So not like all the other seasons preceding, not that that is a good argument anyway, and not continuing, the continuing improvement of Pochottino's first three seasons. We are far and away a better side now than we were when he came yet you see a dip and straight away claim it is because everybody turned to shit without accepting the slightest possibility that playing away from our home ground had any effect whatsoever.

I don't put a nine point drop entirely down to playing at wembley but to suggest none of it is down to playing at wembley is just wrong.
 

Sevens

Well-Known Member
Apr 23, 2014
4,583
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2013/14 first three home games won 2 drew 1 finished with 69 points
Poch arrives
2014/15 first three home games won 1 lost 2 finished with 64 points
2015/16 first three home games drew 2 lost 1 finished with 70 points
2016/17 first three home games won 2 drew 1 finished with 86 points
at Wembley
2017/18 first three home games drew 2 lost 1 finished with 77 points

So not like all the other seasons preceding, not that that is a good argument anyway, and not continuing, the continuing improvement of Pochottino's first three seasons. We are far and away a better side now than we were when he came yet you see a dip and straight away claim it is because everybody turned to shit without accepting the slightest possibility that playing away from our home ground had any effect whatsoever.

I don't put a nine point drop entirely down to playing at wembley but to suggest none of it is down to playing at wembley is just wrong.

Who suggested that? The crux of the matter is we do not know either way. It could well be that playing at Wembley was a factor in our slow start. It could be that playing at Wembley gave us a boost later in the season that we wouldn't have had if we had stayed at WHL. We just don't know.

The two things we know for sure are 1)that Poch teams usually start slow in terms of performance (if not results), that the middle of the season we are usually the best team in the league under Poch and at the end of the season we often stutter over the line (in performance terms, not necessarily results). 2) In three out of four seasons under Poch our away form is better than our home.
 

worcestersauce

"I'm no optimist I'm just a prisoner of hope
Jan 23, 2006
26,891
45,039
Who suggested that? The crux of the matter is we do not know either way. It could well be that playing at Wembley was a factor in our slow start. It could be that playing at Wembley gave us a boost later in the season that we wouldn't have had if we had stayed at WHL. We just don't know.

The two things we know for sure are 1)that Poch teams usually start slow in terms of performance (if not results), that the middle of the season we are usually the best team in the league under Poch and at the end of the season we often stutter over the line (in performance terms, not necessarily results). 2) In three out of four seasons under Poch our away form is better than our home.
I know.
 
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