You may have heard that the dimensions of the pitch at Madesjki Stadium have changed for this season. When the ground first opened the pitch was officially 102 x 70 metres (that's 112 x 77 yards). This was already a bit of a shock because the classic dimensions of a pitch are 105 x 68 metres (115 x 75 yards). This represents the mid-points of both the Football League regulations and the (tighter) international regulations, and has often been used for new stadia like ours where the pitch didn't have to squeeze in between rows of houses.
Anyway, 102 x 70 metres it was. However, over the summer we have reduced the width by about a metre on each side, giving a width of 68 metres. I am mightily annoyed that I managed to attend the Southampton game without spotting this - must be slipping in my old age. Obviously you can't see the old lines because of the fact that the pitch was re-laid over the summer, which would have been a bit of a giveaway.
This change is entirely deliberate and (thankfully) entirely down to what Reading FC want - that is, there's no egg-chasing influence on this decision. The theory is that because we don't have superb wide players, narrowing the pitch will suit our game more. Now, the first obvious point is that since all these decisions were made, we have signed Tony Rougier who obviously is a wide player. This might indicate both that we intend to play him as a more central forward and also that our interest in him really did only develop once Nicky Forster's injury status became clear.
The second question is whether it actually makes any difference. My instinct is always to think "well what difference can a couple of yards make anyway?", but perhaps a more appropriate way to look at things is that the area of the pitch has reduced from 7,140 to 6,936 square metres. That's a reduction of 3%, which is significant (even if it doesn't sound like it!).
At the Swindon game, there were several occasions when our players were using the full width of the pitch. Matthew Robinson's runs down the left often seemed to be glued to the touchline, and Rougier often took up extremely wide positions. In that game at least, I think that the slightly narrower pitch hindered our game more than the opposition's. And do you remember Andy Gurney's booking? Had the pitch been wider, his hack into the stands may have looked like a genuine attempt to get to the ball rather than just creating time for our defence to reposition.
Now obviously things aren't quite as simple as that. If the pitch had been wider, Robinson would still have run down the touchline - it's just that the defence would have had further to travel to reach him. Rougier would still have taken the wideset possible position at times to draw his markers out wide (not that they managed to stop him legally once during the entire game, anyway!). The ball that Gurney was chasing might instead have been hit that little bit harder, and he would have been in exactly the same position.
The other point about the smaller pitch area is that it should work in the favour of the team with less stamina. This probably makes little difference in any one game, but over an entire season there will be times when it does have an effect. And this is where I think I start to see a glimmering of what is going on. Pardew likes to play Darren Caskey out wide - normally on the right, but he has also experimented with him on the left and Igoe wide right. Caskey has many qualities and is one of our top players, but his fitness has always been suspect. It always seems worse at this stage of the season (as if he has enjoyed the relaxation of the off-season rather more than his team-mates!).
Narrowing the pitch means that Caskey has to get through less running. It means that the defenders can close up to him quicker but his skill is usually sufficient to beat the first man, anyway. If Caskey stays wide all season (that's a comment about his position on the pitch rather than his girth), then the change in pitch dimensions should work in our favour.
And I hear than Jan Molby is looking to reduce the Kidderminster pitch to 100 yards by 50, so that he can make a comeback.
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