Zonal marking vs man to man.?

I think Kenny Dalglish has got it right with his man to man marking
as opposed to zonal marking.Under zonal marking,this early in the season me must have
conceded at least one goal from corners.What do you think.?<

 

We must have? Do you mean you don't know?

Perhaps you could get Andy Gray to check his stats. Oh, hang on, he hasn't got any.

Here's a stat for you: Up until 2010, Reina had more Golden Gloves than all the other PL keepers combined. That includes Cech and VDS. (Actually, it only includes them because nobody else had one at the time.) Despite Chelsea doing a double and us having a stinker of a season in 2010 Reina still tied with Cech and only lost out on more games played because of the Europa.

3 Golden Gloves says zonal is better when it works but it takes good organisation; man-to-man is easier for dummies, which is why Andy Gray hated zonal.

It's amazing that with man-to-man you know who to blame, which seems to mean the goal doesn't count, or maybe that the defender who lost his man will never let it happen again. I dunno, ask Andy.

If zonal leaks a goal it's the system and therefore by extension Rafa's fault; if man-to-man leaks a goal it's the defender's fault, even though the manager chose man-to-man and picked the defenders to play it.

This is what I think.

 

MFG - I agree that if zonal marking is done properly it is extremely effective. The problem is it is very hard to get right, hence the problems we had when Benitez used it.

I think at this stage Kenny and Steve are doing the right thing by sticking with what they know best.

 

I quite like zonal marking, it can work very well. Its turned into a cliche though. when ever a goal is scored from a corner or freekick its because they are using Zonal marking, but conversly its never pointed out when going man for man that its the systems fault.

Its and easy get out for comontators and reports alike to blame Zonal Marking, Lazieness.

 

Yeah, I understand we had to get five Golden Gloves for zonal to be considered second best method of defending, rather than coming after man-to-man and parking a bus.

Three just wasn't all that compared to one each for the top two teams in the league.

Come on, where's the logic in your argument?

Ahh, wait. The magic word: 'Benitez'.

Duh, now I get it. Jeez, the commentators wouldn't shut up yesterday about Benitez this and Benitez that. Apparently Lucas would still be 22 years old if Benitez was still here.

So what do you reckon about Barca using zonal?

http://defensiveminded.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/barcelonas-zonal-marking-at-corners/

It'll never work. The fools.

 

To be completely honest i cant be arsed with stats this and stats that.

All i know is our defending from set pieces under Benitez was terrible, the majority of the time. Reina may of got golden glove awards, but he is an outstanding keeper. You put an average keeper in the middle of our old style and we would of been truly ****ed. Plus the fact we were well known for being extremely defensively minded during long periods under his reign.

And to use Barca as a counter argument is pathetic considering they dominate Spanish football and usually have about 65% possession in games. Try backing it up with someone less obvious than Barca, perhaps a team that has to defend during long periods in games. Barca use it effectively during set plays etc. but they have a team spirit and understanding that makes it simple, many teams don't have that kind of understanding, hence, it becomes a hard system to get right.

And by the way i was and i still am a big fan of Benitez - so don't start throwing accusations around that i'm using him as scapegoat for a system that i believe was floored during his time in charge.

 

That's because we were loads more defensive than any other team.

 

Both systems have flaws, but both work. I don't see why one should be high-lighted over the other. It was just a stick used by Andy Gray and other ''experts'' that never managed or were failed managers ie John Giles and Lou Macari to beat Rafa with.

 

Sorry but it wasn't, it's just that when zonal does go wrong it looks awful, any mistakes were reviewed, commented and repeated ad nauseam by the media as part of the anti rafa campaign

 

The thing I loved was when someone scores, the commentators go crazy about how with man marking "you know who to blame" but with zonal you don't. Who cares who's fault it was, the fact is blaming someone isn't going to cancel the goal is it?

Zonal works fine, if everyone know's their job and attacks the ball in their area. It doesn't work when the ball is delivered into an area where there isn't a great headerer of the ball as the attacker then get's a run on them.

 

Well from this fans eyes the defending from set plays during his time was pretty dreadful.

 

You need strong headers of the ball to zonal mark. It's effective when done correctly.

 

As I said, when zonal does good wrong it looks calamitous but you will have to try looking harder with those eyes rather than just following whatever the media tell you to believe.

 

I'm not even talking about the media?

I watch every game without fail. I agree that when it goes wrong it looks terrible but also when it works it is a great system. But it's one of those systems that is hard to get right, and although we did at times, we often ****ed it up royally.

 

I think man marking looks terrible when it goes wrong. How many times do you see a player completely unmarked from a corner because he's lost his marker (Skrtel v Bolton for example). Knight just stood still and let Skrtel walk into the middle of the goal and head in. If that was Zonal, then there would have been a player in that space to at least challenge for the ball.

 

But the stats said we did that less using zonal than most teams using man to man, forget where they are now but there were posted many so many times that this went away as a topic.

 

Ok fair enough. I guess it's one of those systems that really stands out when wrong. Personally i always felt nervous when we employed it, and feel so much better now we use man to man

 

Know what you mean.

 

Seems to be working now !.

 

Necro post. Zonal is by far the superior method when done correctly. As I said in 2011.