The Etihad Pitch

It looks really bad. Heavy and slippery with tufts sticking up. Has it ever been this bad? Felt it affected our performance a lot
Agree.

Madrid are playing matches on their training ground, we should play ours at the minihad so that pitch can get ripped up and relaid.
 
Agree the pitch doesn’t look good. Besides the bubbly surface it seems to be covered with glu. It somehow slows down our game. Unless it is the players ...
We seem to prefer away games this year. As more teams do apparently.
 
If we do get through, let’s hope we have to play the semi in Hungary! Or can we play on the CFA pitch?

That Etihad pitch isn’t good enough!
 
The pitch hasn’t been great for a couple of years now - it seems to cut up very easily and there’s obviously a lot of work due in the summer.

It may not necessarily be a disadvantage to us though if we get through to the semi-final.
 
Think someone said it was due to be relayed last summer, but because of the uncertainty it wasn't done, it's obviously past it's sell by date lee usually has an excellent pitch, can't see it being the ground staffs fault
 
Thought it would be a lot better than it actually turned out to be. We've not played on it for nearly a month but it cut up just the same. It looks sticky in the middle. The central players seem to tire on it too
 
I seem to remember on the stadium tour a couple years back, there was a mention that the grass is interwoven with synthetic fibres so I imagine it's a right ball-ache to replace.

Yes it is. There is a bed of mesh under the surface and the grass blades grow around these fibres that are embedded in the mesh. Same as they have at Arsenal.
 
I was hoping it'd be 'better' after our break from home home games especially as the weather has been decent but no. We'll have to live with it, the disallowed Dortmund goal was caused by the ball sticking .....it's a worry.

I believe the seed mix is only good for a certain length of time then starts to 'go off' and is impossible to get back to a good level.
 
It's a desso pitch , which has a life span, due to be replaced last season. Bit unfair to complain about something that couldnt be done due to a pandemic ;)

Wasnt it returfed in the first covid break ?. But there wasnt time between the end of last season and the start of this.

I would guess City groundstaff are doing all they can but if but if the pitch is knackered its knackered !

Grass is a living entity and needs proper maintenance and it also has a life span. I use to get the same problem when I managed golf courses, golfers would want to play in the winter , on ice/frozen, snow, completely trash the greens than moan that the course down the road has better greens ! Why ? Because the course down the road rested their greens and did more maintenance. Simple . In the end we had to rebuild 6 greens at a cost of 35k each !. Ì was there 22yrs and they never listen to us highly qualified staff. It was a fight to be allowed to grow the news in correctly as they wanted to play 365 days a year with 3 months of laying lol

Yes the pitch isnt great but not alot can be done about it to be honest.
 
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I too was hoping for it to be better after the break but it was really disappointing. Yes the players were nervous but I think the state of the pitch affected us more

Our pitch might cost us the CL this year, it's disrupting our flow and having twice as much possession as the other team means we have to work twice as much because of it. In the second half you can see our players were exhausted, not to mention the rebounds like the Eddie one, it's a like Russian roulette.

With no spectators I would rather have two away games than play at home or play at a neighboring one.
 
I too was hoping for it to be better after the break but it was really disappointing. Yes the players were nervous but I think the state of the pitch affected us more

Our pitch might cost us the CL this year, it's disrupting our flow and having twice as much possession as the other team means we have to work twice as much because of it. In the second half you can see our players were exhausted, not to mention the rebounds like the Eddie one, it's a like Russian roulette.

With no spectators I would rather have two away games than play at home or play at a neighboring one.

We seem to be doing ok this season at least.
 

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