Wanna know why? Because Stoke shrink the width of their pitch down as much as they can to reduce the width of the opposition, improve their long balls and make set pieces easier with better angles. It plays right into their hands. However, when they go to away games at other stadiums, they don't have that advantage so they never get anywhere. That's why Stoke have one of the best home records in the league, but one of the worst away records. Quite disgraceful really.
Why is it disgraceful? We are perfectly within our rights to do so. I don't think it's as simplistic as you say. Yes there's no doubt shrinking the pitch gives us an advantage, but we have shown on many occasions on bigger pitches that when we bother attacking we can play well and create chances, it's just Pulis tends to only let the players do that when we go behind as he generally plays for a 0-0 or sneaky 1-0 away from home. I am convinced that if we were just a little more positive away from home, we would pick up more points.
Would you not rather play fairly? Would you not rather your team played better football? After all, you guys pay big sums of cash to watch the play. It isn't all about the results. Stoke aren't a bad team, so even on larger pitches they're going to play reasonably well on their day. However, I have never, ever seen a team where they have a home record which rivals the best teams in the entire league, yet an away record which rivals that of the relegation candidates. There's just far too much of a gulf for it to be down to football or confidence alone. I know Stoke fans really get behind their team at the Brit, but the more I see it, the more it seems like this messing around with pitch sizes creates a major home advantage. There's even news that Stoke resize their pitch back down to the minimal PL requirement after every Europa League game. It's so blatant. Why there is no standard PL pitch size is beyond me.
Please tell me what's "unfair" about reducing the size of our pitch. We're well within our rights to do so. Is it also unfair that the likes of Arsenal and Man City have extremely large pitches? Fulham and Bolton (up until this season) have very similar records to us on the road, yet their form at home is excellent. I agree that our away record is pants, but I don't think it's down to the size of the pitch. After all, we beat Bolton 5-0 on probably the biggest pitch in the country (Wembley).
According to league rules we do - Our pitch is well inside regulation - I see no difference in making your pitch as big or as small as possible - Is the fact that your pitch has shrunk 25m square in the last 4 years disgraceful? In 2007 your pitch was 110 x 73m but now it is 105 x 68. I beg to differ. It does - what you fail to recognise is that everybody does it to one degree or another..... Cutting / wetting the grass and how far the billboards are from the pitch are all examples of pitch tampering. Read this http://avoidingthedrop.com/2011/03/01/life-as-a-pitch/
I actually think we inhibit ourselves by playing on a smaller pitch. Once we lose the advanatge of long throws, which is very early on in a game, we reduce the areas for our wingers and Walters/Jerome to run into and hence limit the effectivness of the long ball game. However, TP's long ball play is aimed at winning throw ins, where other teams aim to get the ball into dangerous scoring opportunities. We also invite more pressue when we sit and defend because we are playing in a more enclosed space and we dont have the natural talent of other teams in being able to play our way out in triangles. So whilst I see what TP is doing, I actually dont think we gain as much as he thinks! The rules are the rules (although I think it should be standardised - I cant think of many other sports that have such variences) and so we are entitled to do what we want!
Chapaz I honestly don't think it's anything to do with the size of anything.. Until last season, I hardly ever missed an away game.. season T holder so home games are nailed on certs for me.. I've seen it numerous times away from home and here's why we struggle so much IMHO. The pitch size does not matter, as said above Wembley is in fact one of the biggest around and we hammered Bolton there.. It's simple basic passing where we are sadly lacking.. we do not have the midfield players who are able to complete three or four passes without literally giving the ball back to the opposition. We also ALWAYS "Sit too deep" away from home and trying to play on the break is fair enough. IF like the "Majority of the prem teams have" player's who can actually win the ball, and keep it for more than five sec's. We are so deep that it's difficult with sub standard midfield player's who simply can not pass a football. Hence, most of the time we just hoof it clear and it puts constant pressure on our defence. Eventually if you keep hitting a brick wall, it will crack and give way. Which, is exactly WHY it's almost unanamous that we the Stoke fans dislike the way Tony Pulis sets the team up. We simply do NOT just "go for it" away from home. IF we did who knows we might get three or four wins a season instead of defend what we have tactics.. i.e. play for a pt away, for me it isn't good enough. At home, we play with two wingers, when both are fit and it's a different story as results show this. Although our pitch is small in comparision to most others and indeed, we do have to revert to "the rules" for Europa games... funny thing is, in those game we've done pretty well so far.. played four, won four.
