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I've never played in a team that does it, and I'm struggling to see the major benefits. Surely if everyone has their man to begin with, and we have 2 men on the post, as long as they don't have 9 men attacking the box then at least our lads know their job.

Any ideas?

It won us the league with the best defence.

I think most have pointed out that we just didn't do our job.

Apologies - just seen the stuff on zonal marking in the other thread. Still, my point stands.

There is absolutely nothin wrong with zonal marking.

PROVIDED ..... that everyone realises that the destination of the ball is the most important zone and SOME FUCKER ATTACKS IT.

Not rocket science.

I honestly think we'd have won the league with man marking too. Or at least I wouldn't use zonal marking as a reason why we won the league.

Maybe FiFA should draw half circles round the goal posts and name them the post zone. Maybe then some idiot might consider them included in a zonal marking strategy and put a player on each of them.

It may have stopped Ajax scoring a goal last night. Numpty football.

Yffi_88 wrote:I've never played in a team that does it, and I'm struggling to see the major benefits. Surely if everyone has their man to begin with, and we have 2 men on the post, as long as they don't have 9 men attacking the box then at least our lads know their job.

Any ideas?

Benitez used it at the dippers, It always appeared when they conceded a header Hyppia and Carragher would look at the bench and say wtf is this crap about, For me Lescott and Vinny pick either the best header or the tallest two on the posts and Joe cleans out the rest if it beats the first man, Our corners are no problem for the opponents as we are so poor it is a given we hit th first man who clears it. to late now as the damage is done in the C L. Problem is worse when a team allow your b4 to set up and then put aball in an area that suits them.

all the pundits say they hate it because the attacking team gets a running start at the ball while, most of the time, the defenders are virtually standing still and that drastically decreases their chances of challenging for the ball in the air.

It works the majority of the time for us and we've had the best defence for the 2 previous seasons using it. The pundits only highlight it when we concede from a corner (which is hardly ever).

Zonal marking got a bad rep in the media as Liverpool used it, and were useless at doing so. Every week they'd concede a goal from a corner or set piece and the media would harp on about it.

I don't have a problem with zonal marking. A well-organised defence can use it with few problems.

Unfortunately, the organisation within our defence has been lacking for most of this season.

london blue 2 wrote:It won us the league with the best defence.

I think most have pointed out that we just didn't do our job.

I think this reply gives us all the reasons we need to use the zonal system. It can work very well for us.

Barca use a zonal system with a team of mainly dwarves & have a great record at set plays. Mind you, Tony Pulis would have them for breakfast if they played in the Prem so I don't know what point I'm making there.

I'll get me coat..

What happened to the days of saying Vinny he's your man,Joelon he's your man etc etc.

Does it take more time to scout the team and work out who is who's man etc i dunno.

As an attacker it is so easy to lose your man who is marking you with a tiny it of movement. Plus the ball isnt always crossed into the box so it is best to keep somekind of defensive shape.

Its all about attacking the ball, reacting to a cross and getting there first. Why dont the defenders take a few strides back before the kick so they have a slight run into their zone?.. surely that would be better than a standing jump

Oh and statistically more goals are conceded when man marking

TheGOAT wrote:As an attacker it is so easy to lose your man who is marking you with a tiny it of movement. Plus the ball isnt always crossed into the box so it is best to keep somekind of defensive shape.

Its all about attacking the ball, reacting to a cross and getting there first. Why dont the defenders take a few strides back before the kick so they have a slight run into their zone?.. surely that would be better than a standing jump

Oh and statistically more goals are conceded when man marking

I'm certainly no expert on what's the best way to defend corners but this system worked for us last season. Wed night was just a case of lads not doing their jobs properly. And that leads to interesting question imo: who would you trust to take care of their man marking role, day to day, corner to corner? call me miserable twat but looking at our defenders I wouldn't trust many of them in that.