Analysis of the Rooney Goal

[MaineRoadMemories]

Given Save

Just before the goal, Boyata completely lost Fletcher who brought a great save from Given. Fletcher was just standing at the near post where no body picked him up.

BUT LOOK IN THE MIDDLE. Rooney completely unmarked in the six yard box. You cannot say we were not warned! Richards and Zabaleta were caught on the wrong side completely. Ireland is marking nobody and Kompany was in a bad position afer as he was beaten as the near post blocker.

Corner Positions


This is the starting positions for the corner kick. Loads around Rooney, three left unmarked but the team very much defending the 6 yard line. One on the back post and two as near post blockers. Zabaleta, Ireland and Richards look like they are to look afer the loose United players.

I can't see anything wrong myself in this zonal set up for the corner kick.

Coming out Positions

Now the corner has been played short and the players are re-positioning as they run out. We have 5 defenders picking up the penalty spot. De Jong on the back post races out right past Rooney and continues a few yards ahead of him.

As Giggs swings a very good ball into the box, United players from deep start running at speed into the 6 yard box. City defenders stay static where they were looking to do a standing jump but the ball has too much swerve on it and goes deeper into the penalty area.


Final Position


Now the City and United players are in equal numbers on the six yard line. Boyata is challenging the United player (Fletcher again) to win the header, both miss it.

Barry, De jong and Kompany are all caught in the same position ahead of Boyata and effectively out of the game completely. Only Barry needed to be there as the near post blocker. De jong and Kompany are at fault here. Richards has stayed out to mark a United player as he didn't run in.

Zabaleta didn't run back to the far post, only Ireland tracked back but he was caught napping too and ended up the wrong side. If rooney had missed it the other United player would have scored at the far post.

In conclusion..

• Boyata did his job, just missed the ball,
• Ireland got caught napping slightly
• Richards did his job
• Zabaleta didn't bother moving
• De Jong ran right past Rooney and out of the game and is at fault
• Barry did his job as near post blocker
• Kompany was no where near anybody and is my main culprit

The Given Decision

There's debate about whether Given should have come for the ball as it was only 7 yards out. There are good reasons for both trains of thought. Personally I think the ball was too good and quickly whipped in for him to make a call to come. Also look at how quickly the balls dips from this screenshot. Given would have needed to take out Boyata and Fletcher with a punch which would have been just as risky as staying on the line.

[13021J]

Good analysis. My thoughts are that zonal seems to work on a bog standard ball straight into the box corner, we have at least 2 or three defenders attacking the ball which is great. But as teams observe this they come up with cunning plans (Scunny, Rags) that involve short corner routines to exploit us. Should come as no great surprise.

I agree with the Given section, ball was too fast and dipping to be dealt with by the keeper.

[lets all have a disco]

Id have saved that piece of shit header it was right down the throat.

[DoomMerchant]

Id have saved that piece of shit header it was right down the throat.

thank you. about time someone said it.

cheers

[lets all have a disco]

Id have saved that piece of shit header it was right down the throat.

thank you. about time someone said it.

cheers

Its true though,nobody has mentioned that Shay stood rooted and did jack shit.

He could have put anything in front of it and saved it,the defenders fooked up and let a free header come in but Shay's reactions were facking gash.

This is my first bad point for Shay all year,but it needs to be said.

[Mr Miyagi]

Wow.. a lot of effort has gone into that....

But it just confirms to me that Given should have contested the ball. The fact it was whipped in towards him only strengthens my opinion.

[lets all have a disco]

He's a coont of the highest order but i bet 10000000000000% VDS would have had his fist on that cross so quickly and the game would have gone into extra time.

[david yearsley]

He's a coont of the highest order but i bet 10000000000000% VDS would have had his fist on that cross so quickly and the game would have gone into extra time.

As , dare I say it, would have a certain Mr. J. Hart

[john@staustell]

How about some analysis of the cross? I've noticed that if the other team take something short, or look like doing, the near post man runs across and the far post man runs to the near post, someoen else coming in behind (hopefully).

This seems long-winded to me, and even if it didn't happen in this case, the pictures dont show a lot of desperate defending by the two City closing players.

[Dubciteh]

He's a coont of the highest order but i bet 10000000000000% VDS would have had his fist on that cross so quickly and the game would have gone into extra time.

As , dare I say it, would have a certain Mr. J. Hart

i dont think hart wouldve i think hes similar to given and would of been rooted too, james now on the other hand would of got somethin on it.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Given Save

Just before the goal, Boyata completely lost Fletcher who brought a great save from Given. Fletcher was just standing at the near post where no body picked him up.

BUT LOOK IN THE MIDDLE. Rooney completely unmarked in the six yard box. You cannot say we were not warned! Richards and Zabaleta were caught on the wrong side completely. Ireland is marking nobody and Kompany was in a bad position afer as he was beaten as the near post blocker.

Corner Positions


This is the starting positions for the corner kick. Loads around Rooney, three left unmarked but the team very much defending the 6 yard line. One on the back post and two as near post blockers. Zabaleta, Ireland and Richards look like they are to look afer the loose U***d players.

I can't see anything wrong myself in this zonal set up for the corner kick.

Coming out Positions

Now the corner has been played short and the players are re-positioning as they run out. We have 5 defenders picking up the penalty spot. De Jong on the back post races out right past Rooney and continues a few yards ahead of him.

As Giggs swings a very good ball into the box, U***d players from deep start running at speed into the 6 yard box. City defenders stay static where they were looking to do a standing jump but the ball has too much swerve on it and goes deeper into the penalty area.


Final Position


Now the City and U***d players are in equal numbers on the six yard line. Boyata is challenging the U***d player (Fletcher again) to win the header, both miss it.

Barry, De jong and Kompany are all caught in the same position ahead of Boyata and effectively out of the game completely. Only Barry needed to be there as the near post blocker. De jong and Kompany are at fault here. Richards has stayed out to mark a U***d player as he didn't run in.

Zabaleta didn't run back to the far post, only Ireland tracked back but he was caught napping too and ended up the wrong side. If rooney had missed it the other U***d player would have scored at the far post.

In conclusion..

• Boyata did his job, just missed the ball,
• Ireland got caught napping slightly
• Richards did his job
• Zabaleta didn't bother moving
• De Jong ran right past Rooney and out of the game and is at fault
• Barry did his job as near post blocker
• Kompany was no where near anybody and is my main culprit

The Given Decision

There's debate about whether Given should have come for the ball as it was only 7 yards out. There are good reasons for both trains of thought. Personally I think the ball was too good and quickly whipped in for him to make a call to come. Also look at how quickly the balls dips from this screenshot. Given would have needed to take out Boyata and Fletcher with a punch which would have been just as risky as staying on the line.

GREAT ANALISIS THERE MATE AND I CANNOT FAULT YOUR SUMMARY.

[david yearsley]

Sorry but Hart comes off his line far more than Given - have you watched Brum lately ? Even at City he came out sometimes flapping due to inexperience but I think he´s much more confident in his decision making these days - just my opinion mate

[Dubciteh]

Sorry but Hart comes off his line far more than Given - have you watched Brum lately ? Even at City he came out sometimes flapping due to inexperience but I think he´s much more confident in his decision making these days - just my opinion mate

ive watched brum a bit and everytme he comes hes in no mans land(well maybe not everytime)!!! But your right hes more confident now and he will come back better for it, whether he will be better than given unlikely but i hope so.

[crossan]

Given has made some vital saves for us since he came to the club,you cannot really fault him on the goal, it was a pinpoint cross onto one of the worlds great strikers end of,we gave them a run for their money over the 2 legs and we have shown that we are a real force,we just need to tighten up a bit at the back,Mancini will sort it.

[david yearsley]

Having just watched everything back again nothing will ever convince me that the Bellers incident wasn´t the turning point of the whole tie - ok we should have cleared the ball out of the box but had not Barry taken the corner he would surely have picked up the ginger pig on the edge of the box - the sense of injustice and anger is really only beginning to kick in - too late now of course but one is left with that feeling that crime "does" pay

[Ted Hughes]

Good analysis but we already had a zonal defending thread where I for one have already said exactly the same thing.

The other question though is why does this happen? The excuse for it when Hughes was here was that we don't practice enough but seeing as we now practice it all the time, why do they forget how to do it?

Pressure & panic has a role v teams like rags but that doesn't excuse the defending v Scunthorpe. Imo, apart from the fact that one or two of the defenders simply aren't good enough (Zabba etc) I recon it's because defenders often take a few seasons to gel together & learn how to operate as a top class unit as does the rest of the team. If it happens quicker then it's credit to the manager but individual mistakes often happen, you can't make players think; they learn it for themselves, often from making those very mistakes. Hughes was ridiculously sacked purely because of it but hopefully they'll let Mancini have time to sort it out.

The last time our 1st choice defence was together was the best defensive performance of the season v Chelsea though, where we looked like a top 4 team defensively, so it may not be as far away as it looks right now.

[Original Dub]

Fantastic analysis mate!

It really does show exactly where the defenders went wrong and the only reason I didn't know whether it was Shay's fault was because I didn't have a full understanding of zonal marking. But anything anyone has said just re-affirms the fact Rooney was left standing with no defender close to him and that in no way was the goalkeeper's fault.

SHAY IN!

[edge275]

Fantastic analysis mate!

It really does show exactly where the defenders went wrong and the only reason I didn't know whether it was Shay's fault was because I didn't have a full understanding of zonal marking. But anything anyone has said just re-affirms the fact Rooney was left standing with no defender close to him and that in no way was the goalkeeper's fault.

SHAY IN!

Would you have Buffon over Shay?

[Original Dub]

Fantastic analysis mate!

It really does show exactly where the defenders went wrong and the only reason I didn't know whether it was Shay's fault was because I didn't have a full understanding of zonal marking. But anything anyone has said just re-affirms the fact Rooney was left standing with no defender close to him and that in no way was the goalkeeper's fault.

SHAY IN!

Would you have Buffon over Shay?

I haven't a fucking clue mate. So many top players come to the prem and they aren't as good as they once were, even world cup winning goalkeepers.

To be honest, I don't think there would be a massive difference to our defence. A keeper can only do so much. Buffon is world class, but he'd struggle with a defence that changes constantly, has two managers in one season and is in the preocess of learning zonal marking.

I've no problem knowing Shay is world class, but he needs a settled defence in front of him. They know where he's going to be at all times and if they do their job, we should be fine. I've seen him behind a settled defence for Ireland and we've played top quality opposition including France and Italy recently and we looked solid as fuck.

Also, when roberto Mancini and Giovanni Trappatoni say he's the best goalkeeper they've ever worked with, I have to agree.

So yes, I'd like Buffon in goal. Or Shay. Most of all, I want a defence with continuity and total understanding.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I said it from the very beginning in the match rating thread, I was shocked to see people giving Kompany 9's and whatever when he was clearly at fault for the goal.