Tottenham's Big Pitch Problem

The talk of a Wembley hoodoo that casts some kind of bad karma spell over Tottenham is a good example of how superstition filters its way into soccer games.  Manager Mauricio Pochettino cites the hoodoo as a mental thing but after the Swansea draw on Saturday, it is more likely to be a physical thing, or at least learning to play on a pitch 450 square meters bigger than White Hart Lane, Spurs old home ground was.

Spurs received special dispensation from the league to play on the smallest pitch in the Premier League, a size that was below regulation.  That small pitch contributed to a 2nd place finish after the team dropped only 4 points at home with a record of 17 wins 2 Draws and 0 Losses.  Already the home performances this year have seen Spurs drop 7 points already with a Wembley record of 0 Wins 2 Draws and 1 Loss. 

What is saving Spurs bacon is currently the 100% record away from home though that 100% represents only 2 wins from 2 away games played.  A hoodoo is not the reality Spurs are facing, the reality is that Tottenham's high intensity and high press game needs adjustment to the big pitch at Wembley, that can sap the legs of teams playing there.

What gets missed regarding the poor start at Spurs new temporary Wembley home is that by playing at Wembley this year, the team will learn to play on the biggest pitches and if Spurs do get better at that, then this increased playing surface is a positive to the team, especially when it moves into the new ground next year.

The attendance record at Wembley has not shattered any league records but it is also not inviting to buy tickets to watch teams like Swansea or Burnley.  The Chelsea game should have been a record attendance but Wembley officials considered the game to be "high risk" in terms of crowd control, so limited attendances to 70,000. 

That is the chief problem of building stadiums in London, the impact on the city is considered and thus Spurs were allowed to build a 61,000 seater stadium. Renovations to the Camp Nou stadium will eventually mean that Barcelona will be playing in a 105,000 seater stadium and when Spanish teams can fill their stadium every week that is 44,000 more spectators than will fit into Spurs new stadium.   That itself means Barcelona can pull in a few million more dollars each week at home and thus can afford to pay its top players far more.  The same is true for Real Madrid and one can guarantee that if Harry Kane should score against Real Madrid, a huge checkbook will come out for both Harry Kane and Deli Alli. 

Manchester United who have the biggest Premier League stadium at 75,000 are planning to renovate Old Trafford to move their stadium to a size comparable against the "Big Boys".  Spurs needed to build a new stadium and yet even at 61,000 the new stadium is 2nd tier in terms of capacity compared with the big teams of Europe.

Spurs were hoping for some calls to come their way on Saturday because Swansea had essentially parked the bus with sometimes all 11 players in the defensive zone.  Deli Alli is not close to his best and Christian Erikson did not have his best game, but Harry Kane did hit the post and the referee added to the woes by not granting two penalty claims that were fully justified, one for a blatant hand ball and the other ironically, a hand ball decision against Spurs when the Serge Aurier had been tripped up in the penalty area, instead of giving the penalty, the referee blew his whistle for hand ball, yet the replay showed Aurier had controlled the ball with his chest. 

Referee mistakes do not make for a hoodoo, in the end Spurs players must learn to play on a bigger pitch and play with greater panache - at times on Saturday the passing game was too slow.  The only consolation is that Liverpool who had 35 shots against Burnley and played with panache, conspired to draw the game 1-1, which was a far worse outcome than Tottenham's failure to score against Swansea, and yet no one is saying Liverpool have a hoodoo against smaller teams, they simply were not clinical in their finishing and thus also lost points.

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