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Does Pitch Condition Have Any Effect?


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Was just wondering whether the pitch condition has any relevance on your team's performances. Common sense tells you teams who keep the ball on the ground, and have passing set as 'Short' rather than 'Direct' would suffer on poor pitches; yet would play better on pitches in good condition. However I am managing Truro City in the Blue Square Premier, and my pitch condition is 'Very Poor'. My tactics are set to play an attractive, expansive game, and the ball is rarely hoofed into the Cornish sky. However my home record is twice as good as my away record despite the pitch not suiting the way I play in any form.

So in short, does pitch condition actually have any effect?

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I've tried a short passing game with my FC Halifax side having built the midfield around a young midfielder who unlike most at that level can pass. My ground however is not owned by my club and so I can't relay the pitch and its now so terrible that sometimes the condition isn't even shown. Despite my style of play, this helped me beat some big named clubs in the previous season and reach the 6th round of the FA cup (we came crashing down in a 4-0 loss away to Aston Villa). In the league its a different story and some of my best results occur at the start of the season, when the pitch is new, and in the early part of this season, on surprisingly good League Two pitches. A 9-0 away thrashing of Port Vale was an exclamation point on what my club could do if not for a completely buggered pitch, but I persist with my style at home, more out of stubbornness than good judgement. In that same little run we scored something like 25 goals in 4 straight away games in what has to go down as my best run in this version, but at home we've only mustered something like 7 in 5 games. Hopefully I can get a new stadium where I can get the pitch fixed if needed in the next few seasons.

So yeah, from my experience it does have an effect.

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My pitch condition is "terrible" and i'm having it sorted at the end of the season, but I can't say i've noticed it having any effect. Although I have had a large number of injuries this year. Maybe that's down to the pitch, maybe it's not. There's no real way to know.

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If your players are used to playing on a pitch in terrible condition, even if they do play a passing game, then they will be used to the state of the pitch and will have adapted, which visiting teams may not if they play on a good pitch every week.

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