ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:25 pm wrote:red till i die!! » Tue Mar 10, 2015 5:01 pm wrote:There isn't much wrong with that pitch lads. Rodgers wants it changed because in his opinion it inhibits one touch football which is fine but its pathetic using it as an excuse when you fail to win a game. Funny enough he never complained about it before or after the city game.
If that pitch does get relaid in the summer then it will only add to his already arsenal of excuses in that its a new pitch and it will take time to establish.
To be fair by modern standards our pitch is awful, there's bare patches everywhere and whenever a camera zooms in close it looks like a ploughed field. The goalmouth at the Kop end was muddy the other week and I haven't seen that in years!
I seem to remember that we had a lot of trouble with our pitch before this one went down, if I remember correctly the centenary stand was getting the blame (blocking sunlight) and at one point in the 90's there was more sand on the pitch than grass. I think we imported turf from Kentucky in the end that was very durable but obviously after 15 years it's worn out.
I haven't been over this season so wouldn't have seen it up close but it doesn't look that bad on TV. Certainly not that bad that it could be used as an excuse for us playing poorly.
You are correct in saying that the centenary stand was getting the blame and It was back under houllier when the work got carried out. They introduced synthetic grass at the time which accounts for 3 % of the total surface and the result being that it wouldn't get churned up as much. They also installed the latest technology at the time like under-ground heating, better sprinkler system and grow lamps so that we could basically grow grass all year round. It should be more than enough to give us a top quality playing surface even after 10+ years and I genuinely believe we have a top pitch that a rolling could sort to get us through the season.
Anyway the new system we will go for will be the Desso Grassmaster
A few premier league clubs and wembley already have it and as far as i can tell it will incorporate up to 20% synthetic grass into the surface so as to pretty much eradicate divots. It will be great for us to upgrade and Rodgers is perfectly entitled to want that but he shouldn't be using it as an excuse to justify the odd poor performance.
Besides there is no guarantee the pace or standard of football will improve if we do relay it with the Desso Grassmaster. You only have to look at the bitters to see how much it has brought them on.
