Zonal Marking

[TheTimVilla]

Citeh's first goal was either zonal marking or fucking crap defending. Please leave me with that one straw to clutch at that it was zonal marking. Please.

[ozzjim]

Rule 1 - Defence: Get there first............ simples..........

Is the right answer. I can't see how much more than that is needed on set plays. Set yourself man to man and fucking win the ball for me.

[Percy McCarthy]

Pinched from another thread:

Andy Gray with his machines last season was adamant we were one of the better sides at defending set pieces because we were man-for-man and Liverpool struggled because they were going the fancy, continental zonal route.

Yet a few weeks back Laursen said we used to be zonal when he was at the club, but it looks like we've now gone man-to-man. Whether the OS got the wrong end of the stick I'm not sure, but I don't see how man-to-man marking can leave so many opponents unmarked - as it has done and countless times this season.

We were defo zonal, surprised Gray never spotted that. He was right about Liverpool though, but the truth was we were good at it while they were crap. Probably because we had Cuellar, Carew/Heskey, Dunne and Collins to mark the zones, while they had the two centre-halves and not much else of use in the air.

[KevinGage]

Zonal marking, eh? Tch. I think we should make the libero and the trequartista do it.

I'm fucking fed up to the back teeth of having to google words in your posts.

No need bob.

I majored in Latin.

Libero is short for librarian and trequartista is Latin for treacle tits.
Dunno who this applies to in our side. Not sure we have anyone who looks suitably bookwormish and nerdy enough to be a librarian. Dunne is obviously treacle tits though.

Hope this helps.

[Percy McCarthy]

Rule 1 - Defence: Get there first............ simples..........

Is the right answer. I can't see how much more than that is needed on set plays. Set yourself man to man and fucking win the ball for me.

Why though, when zonal marking has been so successful for us the last few years?

[eamonn]

We were marking zonally the last few years, and were good at it. We are not now, and we see the result.

Prior to last season (an impressive 39 goals only conceded) we let in 48 goals in 08/09 and 51 goals in 07/08. So I'm not sure it was the defensive system employed or rather MON always improving the personnel in defence from the previous year.

[bob]

Zonal marking, eh? Tch. I think we should make the libero and the trequartista do it.

I'm fucking fed up to the back teeth of having to google words in your posts.

No need bob.

I majored in Latin.

Libero is short for librarian and trequartista is Latin for treacle tits.
Dunno who this applies to in our side. Not sure we have anyone who looks suitably bookwormish and nerdy enough to be a librarian. Dunne is obviously treacle tits though.

Hope this helps.

Who are you and why do you talk so much sense?

[Percy McCarthy]

We were marking zonally the last few years, and were good at it. We are not now, and we see the result.

Prior to last season (an impressive 39 goals only conceded) we let in 48 goals in 08/09 and 51 goals in 07/08. So I'm not sure it was the defensive system employed or rather MON always improving the personnel in defence from the previous year.

Didn't concede so many from set-pieces as we do now though. I read somewhere that it was one all season in 08/09 (I think).

[KevinGage]

To the untrained eye (that'll be me) our current system -if I can even call it that- looks closer to what I'd expect zonal to be.  That is, marking space, and being quite happy to stand off a player if he isn't in a particular area (or zone).

Whereas man-to-man would, for me, look like what we were doing last season. Where every defender (or tall forward) had a guy to mark and his job was to do nothing else but get in ahead of his man if the ball was in floated in his general direction.

The latter would seem to work better for me in a league such as the English one, where as many as five/six players from the opposition might be 6ft+ and a danger at set pieces.

Zonal would run the risk of the farcical situation of players not picking up an opponent just because he hasn't drifted into a certain expected area - and we've seen plenty of farcical situations from set pieces this year.

Can we agree that whatever we're attempting to do, it isn't working?

[Percy McCarthy]

To the untrained eye (that'll be me) our current system -if I can even call it that- looks closer to what I'd expect zonal to be.  That is, marking space, and being quite happy to stand off a player if he isn't in a particular area (or zone).

Whereas man-to-man would, for me, look like what we were doing last season. Where every defender (or tall forward) had a guy to mark and his job was to do nothing else but get in ahead of his man if the ball was in floated in in his general direction.

The latter would seem to work better for me in a league such as the English one, where as many as five/six players from the opposition might be 6ft+ and a danger at set pieces.

Zonal would run the risk of the farcical situation of players not picking up an opponent just because he hasn't drifted into a certain expected area - and we've seen plenty of farcical situations from set pieces this year.

Can we agree that whatever we've attempting to do, it isn't working?

Yes, but it's not zonal marking the wat we were doing it up until this season. It seems logical that this was the basis of Dunne saying the new guys are out of touch with modern football.

[damon loves JT]

Bob, I can't change. I've only got one pair of pants.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

We'd be better off trying out anal marking.

[KevinGage]

Well this season is definitely arse biscuits, so it's a natural enough progression.

[villa1]

Our players seem confused to me. I seem to remember them starting off zonally and then suddenly changing to man to man when the opposition players made their run, but not quite knowing who to pick up. It could have been the other way around too if i'm honest. Can't quite remember.

[brian green]

What telling the colours of pelargonium seedlings has to do with us conceding goals from corners is beyond me.  I wish you Moderators would stop these threads drifting off topic.