I watched match of the day this morning and our defending was abysmal. Zonal marking NEVER works ! Why the FXXX are we using it ? Players score goals, zones don't. What is the point in marking zones when a ball placed away from a zone is the danger ??
We use zonal marking because whoever it was who insisted on that hasn't a darn clue about defensive strategy. Piskie, I hope you're right because if this team blows the next EPL match, I'm going to be on the picket line..... with a supply of ice cream It pains me as I'm sure it does all of us to see our team having to go through this. But holy smoke, defensive tactics should have been worked on an eternity ago. Does it take a minimum of 6 months for the management to realise this? I suppose better late than never but how long it's going to be before we climb out of this mess is anyone's guess. If we fail on the defensive work, we may as well forget about anything about which to be proud of for the next few seasons.
We only just started marking zonally!!we used to mark man to man. and its working out great so far...sigh.
Wenger's philosophy is all very well, but that's OK when you've got world-class players, like Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira and Cesc Fabgregas. This set of players haven't got that ability at the moment, so you have to be better structurally and set your team up better defensively.
I was watching the game at Ewood Park online and saw for instance that Mertesacker was nowhere near Samba and Santos was crowded by Blackburn's taller men while Mertesacker was at the far post. How does zonal marking work when we don't match a tall defender to a similarly-statured opponent? Whatever, we need someone to come in and work the defence into shape or the gloom will continue...
