Blame the small pitch! Mauricio Pochettino pinpoints reason for Tottenham's poor home form

 

The Evening Standard's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Life's a pitch: White Hart Lane
Jochan Embley29 October 2014

Mauricio Pochettino has claimed the small White Hart Lane pitch, which is incompatible with his preferred playing style, is to blame for Tottenham’s poor home form this season.

Spurs have won two and lost three at home in the Premier League this season, with the latest loss coming against lowly Newcastle at the weekend.

Measuring 100m long and 67m wide, the pitch at White Hart Lane is third smallest in the League – only Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road and Stoke’s Britannia Stadium are smaller.

In contrast, with his old club Southampton, Pochettino was able to play his homes games on the joint-biggest pitch in the top flight (105m x 68m).

Speaking ahead of his side’s clash with Brighton in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday night, Pochettino said: “Our style means we need a bigger place to play because we play a positional game and it’s true that White Hart Lane is a little bit tight.

“It’s better for the opponent.

“For example, on Sunday, Newcastle play deep, same with West Brom and Liverpool, and it was difficult for us.

“We need time to adapt in our new set-up and understand out position better on the pitch.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in