Zonal Marking

Why the F**k don't we put men on the post?

We use a mixture of zonal and man-to-man. Skrtel just lost his man.

Yea, but you see Skirtl pointing to a zone today after the first goal and saying to Reina that his zone was "back there"

This is getting ridiculous.

Can we have zonal-marking and have men at the posts?

Yea, but you see Skirtl pointing to a zone today after the first goal and saying to Reina that his zone was "back there"

Exactly what I was thinking.

Before the game the lads should be told who is there man - THEY ARE YOURS, DO NOT LET ME GET AWAY FROM YOU.

I also think it's a bit stupid having every man back.

At least have about 3 players outside of the box.

Why the f**k don't we put men on the post?

My thoughts exactly.  We seem to have players marking zones with no players in them, may as well stick them on the posts and Adebayor's goal would have been cleared off the line.

Conceded from more set pieces than Portsmouth.  That is a joke in itself.

Agree with men on the posts.

Let's face it, if one of their players gets a touch on the ball in the six-yard box, Reina's reaction time to cover the entire goal is minimal to say the least.

Two men on the posts cover either side, he covers the middle, just seems obvious.

Still, I imagine the stats speak otherwise else we'd put men on the posts, but for a vertically challenged team like ours, I just have the feeling we'll often lose out in the air, so the extra cover is worth it on the posts.

Jaysus when are we going to stop using this, after the set piece today we have overtaken Portsmouth as the team that has conceeded most from set pieces.

It is to easy to play against all Adebayor had to do today was take 2 steps back. Teams have worked out how to play against it just run into the space no one will follow you and if it goes into a zone you have a running jump on the opposition.

To be honest every time there is a set piece we look like conceeding.

This is getting ridiculous.

Can we have zonal-marking and have men at the posts?

My thoughts exactly.

 I think Zonal marking shows Rafa's stubborn side as it seems to work in fits and starts but he will not consider a change. I understand the logic but 11 goals this season from set plays would indicate a problem even though we havent had a settle back four all season.

If zonal marking is such a bad thing then please explain why we had such good defensive records last season and the season before that when we also used it. The difference this year is that the players are executing the plans badly. They are not playing well. If we used man to man instead, they'd go and F**k that up too.

With our confidence in defence shattered is seems madness not to pick up the posts especialy on corners

The header today was scored by a man exactly central on the 6 yard box, and no Liverpool player even contesting the header.

This is surely the most dangerous place in the penalty box for someone to be given a free header.

In a bizarre twist Lucas gets almost the exact same free header with seconds to go in the match. We all know the rest.

I am sorry but its just not working.  We need to give man-marking a shot at least after zonal has failed so many times. And please atleast post men at the posts fro the corners. 

The zonal ststem works when you have got a settled side and everyone knows their roll in the system but when the team changes because of injuries the plan goes to pot , listening to an interview with a manager recently about zonal marking and he was asked would he change the system if the players wanted to use the man marking system he said he would change and use the system the players wanted , could you see Rafa changing , not a chance  , stubborn is his middle name , so while he is still here we are stuck with it , why have so many players in and around the six yard box and no one on the posts baffles me and costs us goal after goal , Aderbayor won't score an easier goal this season , totally unmarked 6 yards from goal it's a crime and woeful defending is becoming the norm . 

Agree Johncolf! Rafa's too stubborn to change a system that does not suit a constantly changing 11. Whilst its clearly not Rafa's fault he has hardly been able to field the same 11 in two consecutive games this season, it is obvious that zonal marking just isn't working at the moment. Giving adebayor that much time is outrageous, probably their most potent aerial threat gets given that much space on the edge of the 6 yard box!! Come on Rafa, even if its until we can name a settled side mark players man for man!!

Got to have the posts covered from corners when we have all players back!!!!

Exactly what I was thinking.

Before the game the lads should be told who is there man - THEY ARE YOURS, DO NOT LET ME GET AWAY FROM YOU.

To be honest I think it's too easy to blame zonal marking.  It worked pretty well in keeping our defence tight for the last few years.

Man City employ man to man marking and I distinctly remember their defending being ripped to pieces on MOTM.  Martin Skrtel scored from a set piece FFS.

Adebayor scored because Martin Skrtel didn't do his job properly.  He wasn't positioned correctly in the zone and did not attack the ball like he should have done.  We've conceded far too many goals full stop - not just from set pieces but from open play as well.

The whole ethos of zonal marking is keeping your eye on the ball and not keeping your eye on a player.  That's the way it should be.

How many times has Pepe Reina got the golden glove with our 'sh*t zonal marking' ?

Get a grip some of you and stop re-spouting whatever sh*t the media tells you to believe.

I know what you're saying, but something definately needs to be changed.

There's something going horribly wrong for us to have conceded as many goals from set pieces as we have in the past few months.

And like I said before, I still don't get why we put pretty much every man in the box to defend a corner. All that happens is that we head the ball out and they get possession again.

What F**k happen to Skrtel? All he care about was to score. He is a defender FFS. Its nice to score. But F**k. Put more work on your defending! Its not just Skrtel's fault tho. Zonal Marking was great last season because our midfield always have the contorl of the game. Now we dont. And Carragher was still Carragher last season. Why cant we just try to use man mark for one game. And see how it go!?

Zonal marking is the right way to defend set pieces. You have 4-6 players in their zones, then another 2-3 track the running players.

If the ball comes in your zone you attack the f'ucker and clear it.

Where we go wrong, well firstly we never cover either post. When the ball comes into the box that fast it only needs a touch from somebody and its past Reina. We always need to keep two players on the posts. Benyaoun and mascherano would be my two for this job. It makes the goal so much smaller when you suddenly have 2 extra men on the goal line.

Secondly, i watch the way the team lines up when defending set pieces, and the back 4 all stand on the six yard box. Dont no why rafa does this. He should have the 4 biggest players standing there. So tell Insua to do 1 and replace him with Gerrard. Skrtel, Agger, Johnson im happy with.

Players tracking the runners should be Carragher and kuyt. Because there the two most likely players in the team who will throw themselves into any tackle etc.

Put lucas as far away from our goal as possible.

That leaves Nando. i hate it when rafa brings every player back to defend a set piece, so basically there is 20 players now in our box. Were just asking for s'hit. If he leaves 2-3 players on the half way line, then the other team are going to have to leave atleast 3 as well but most likely 4. So it would be so much easier to defend if theres less bodies in the box.

we can't do man to man marking, we just can't. we haven't got a big enough team to do it. Insua, aurelio, lucas, mascherano, benayoun etc would struggle and we'd get caught out more.

We are sh*t even with all our 11 players back to defending set-piece.

I think we're terrible at set pieces all round. How often do we score from set pieces and look how much we concede from them. Rafa deffo needs to sort this out on the training ground. Why the f**k would you do zonal marking against teams like city? so simple just use our centre halves to mark Adebayor and Lescott and other players to mark other potential threats