Big Sam played a "little trick" on Spurs in West Ham victory

[elvis7754]

"Big Sam" Allardici has always moaned about the lack of credit he gets for his tactical genius because he's English. Here's a superb example of those tactics at work.

Read the full article at TheTottenhamWay

 

[degoose]

i did hear about the pitch issue as Eriksen had stated after the game that the turf was also bobbly making the passing really difficult for a team setup like the way Poch plays. I guess for west ham passing isn't really a big thing.

 

[Danners9]

West Ham 0-1 Tottenham

Well done, Sam.

 

[Huddlestone22]

Fuck up the pitch to play dog shit football and lose anyway. Real genius there Fat Sam.

 

[Geyzer Soze]

Makes sense

 

[chinaman]

Never knew big Sam is a lawn bowler. We used to tailor the lawn according to how our opposition plays. If they were touch or finesse players, we'll let the grass grow maybe another mm, and then water the lawn heavily before the game; but if the opposition of the day are heavy bowlers, we'll cut the lawn very short and don't water it on game day.

 

[guate]

If this is true I'm surprised there are no regulations governing this type of situation.

 

[Mullers]

It nearly worked if Noble hadn't missed his penalty who knows what could have happened. We can't always play on great pitches or against open teams so we need to find a way of beating those kind of sides.

 

[mil1lion]

Teams do the same against Barca all the time but they usually overcome it. We have to learn to perform on all pitches if we're to be a great team.

It doesn't surprise me that Sam would try something like this. Unfortunately we have to accept that there will be teams who will play anti football in order to prevent us from playing. They will play every trick in the book if it gives them an advantage. The only thing you can do is adjust to the conditions and come up with the answer.

 

[eddiebailey]

Interesting to see if Poch is capable of developing a plan B for poor pitches...

 

[Rumbaldo]

he let the grass grow an extra 6 inches? so like half way up the ball? someone is exaggerating i think

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

@guate hit the nail on the head. Surely there must be a regulation over grass length?

Next season it'll look like this

 

[Ribble]

I remember that Wigan left relaying their pitch until after they'd played us one year, and as a consequence the match took place on what was pretty much just a ploughed field. Modric tore them to shreds regardless, the classy little bugger.

 

[mark87]

We have plenty of pitches at the training ground, have them at different lengths and practice on them to get used to whoever we're due to play.

 

[Armstrong_11]

erm... thats what home advantage is all about right?

teams who play a passing game will always have shorter grass and will water down the pitch to make it slick.

have also heard stories, like in Anfield they will polish the floor of the away team to be super smooth so players may slip and fall, maybe hurt themself. there is also a rumor of one stadium (can't remember, older one i think) which has a staircase leading to the pitch with one step a few inches higher, all the home players know this, and the away players bang their toes on it.

even in tennis the host country will have a meeting with their best players to decide what kind of tennis balls they want to use and the speed of the surface. I remember an interview with Roddick when he said the USTA will always have a meeting with him so he can advise them on the conditions he wants to play in.

 

[Locotoro]

It's part of the game. Every 1% counts

 

[Japhet]

When they come to the Lane we should stick a lifesize model of Jabba the Hutt in the away dressing room so their players will think he Sam has a twin.

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

Wimbledon used to blast shit music out to put opposition off.

I think west ham moved their advertising hoarding closer to the pitch once to stop stokes long throws.

 

[Don_Felipe]

There's more on this here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18496396

and

http://www.afinelung.com/?p=6820

 

[punky]

6" longer ? Surely if it were that much longer the cameras would pick it up. It would be coming over the players boots.