Good find. 
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from a couple of seasons ago......
Since Rafael Benítez arrived on Merseyside the Reds have implemented a zonal marking system on set pieces and corner kicks. The system does exactly what it says on the tin: the players guard zones rather than the opposition; setting-up in danger areas in and around the six-yard box, so that they are automatically in a good position to deal with the ball, wherever it happens to be delivered.
The best way to understand the whole concept of zonal marking is to think of an extension of what a goalkeeper does at set pieces. The keeper defends the ball; he does not mark the opposition striker. His job is to follow the path of the ball, and intercept it when it comes into his zone – which should end at around 10 yards from his goal. So it's fairly simple to understand.
In all of Liverpool's televised live games this season the commentator, or summariser, has mentioned how much the Reds struggled with set-pieces last season, due to that pesky zonal marking system.
Clive Tyldesley is on a mission to mention it as many times as possible. At least Andy Gray mentions how big a side Liverpool are, and that the Reds should be good at defending set pieces; but there usual follows a barb about zonal marking, to suggest that the converse is true.
Quite frankly, that Liverpool are poor at defending set pieces has become the biggest falsehood since it was claimed that Chesney Hawkes was the future of music.
The truth is that Liverpool only conceded from two corners all last season, both coming in Premiership games (Chelsea away and Everton at home). In total the Reds faced 137 corners in the league, meaning Benítez's men conceded on just 1.5 per cent of them. Only one team, Chelsea, were able to come even close to that, allowing three goals from 127 (2.4 per cent).
In terms of goals conceded from free-kicks delivered into the box, Liverpool also allowed only two in the Premiership all season, again one less than Chelsea. So the Reds conceded one-third fewer league goals than the next-best team when defending set-pieces.
Widening the net to all competitions, Liverpool conceded eight set-piece goals, compared with Chelsea's nine, Arsenal's 12, and Manchester United's 15. Liverpool also played the most matches: meaning fewer set-piece goals conceded from a greater amount of games.
And the Reds did not concede a single free-kick shot all last season (this is not down to zonal marking, but is an interesting fact all the same, and something the other top four teams could not boast).
Already this season it's been seven games, with just one set-piece goal conceded, in the first league game at Sheffield United. The average last season was one conceded every eight games in all competitions.
It's fair to say that Liverpool can look nervous on set-pieces. But who doesn't? With the whip and swerve players put on deliveries these days, and the movement of the newfangled balls, no team can ever look relaxed in these situations; it's a potential scoring chance, after all. But can we stick to the facts, and not continue to propagate ill-conceived ideas?"_____________________________________
Weak willed, Wank or do they have a masterplan?
Think we have the answer..Slot!!
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i am sure that 2 seasons ago 12 out of the last 16 of the champs league used it.......useless info i knowOriginally posted by Jack D Rips View Post
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Weak willed, Wank or do they have a masterplan?
Think we have the answer..Slot!!Comment
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Sure, I understand that but it seems to me defenders won't be running as far as attackers in a zonal system and, within reason, that could mean attackers having a slight edge there. I'm not saying that edge is enough or that there aren't plenty of other countervailing factors but you wanted a marginal cost in using zonal...Originally posted by einar View Post
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Suppose you have a physicist and a sociologist standing at the side of a field, observing a set of events unfolding on the field. The physicist does [describes] it using the terminology of mass and velocity and frequency of radiation and the rest. And the sociologist does it by describing it as a rugby match.
May the Lord bless this post.Comment
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Thanks. Very good.Originally posted by ShaggyAlonso View Post
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Suppose you have a physicist and a sociologist standing at the side of a field, observing a set of events unfolding on the field. The physicist does [describes] it using the terminology of mass and velocity and frequency of radiation and the rest. And the sociologist does it by describing it as a rugby match.
May the Lord bless this post.Comment
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Originally posted by zimbo View Post
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Suppose you have a physicist and a sociologist standing at the side of a field, observing a set of events unfolding on the field. The physicist does [describes] it using the terminology of mass and velocity and frequency of radiation and the rest. And the sociologist does it by describing it as a rugby match.
May the Lord bless this post.Comment
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My ex girlfriend dumped chesney hawkes for me......although she still carried on going to his gigs, later after we split i found out she was dating the guitarist, if i am going to be truthful not sure if she was ever faithful to meOriginally posted by zimbo View Post
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Weak willed, Wank or do they have a masterplan?
Think we have the answer..Slot!!Comment
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Originally posted by red g View PostMy ex girlfriend dumped chesney hawkes for me......although she still carried on going to his gigs, later after we split i found out she was dating the guitarist, if i am going to be truthful not sure if she was ever faithful to me WTF???
'Religion is killing each other over who has the best imaginary friend'Comment
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A couple of weeks ago on Goals on Sunday, Chris Kamara was as usual going on about zonal marking and how rubbish it was. Then one of the guests mentions that Brian Clough used zonal at, I think Forrest. I have never seen Kamara shut up so quickly :-)Comment
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I wish I'd seen that. Chris Kamara is a joke..
Suppose you have a physicist and a sociologist standing at the side of a field, observing a set of events unfolding on the field. The physicist does [describes] it using the terminology of mass and velocity and frequency of radiation and the rest. And the sociologist does it by describing it as a rugby match.
May the Lord bless this post.Comment
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These pundits are not the footballing intelligentsia they are entertainers.
He came over to the US a couple of years ago to do the analysis for something or other and they asked him about Zonal Marking and he couldn't explain what it was properly. He spent the whole time rotating through a decent sized list of cliches (only some of which related to the action) and spent the rest of the time chuckling at his own jokes. I don't know how you guys can bother with all that. The few bits and pieces I've seen on the Sky site and streams like Soccer Saturday(?? The Panel thing) are even worse.
The real sad thing though is that these clowns talk a load of old crap, but you go on the forums after a game and everyone else is repeating those exact same words as though they were their own and not 10 minutes later are creating posts saying how stupid these pundits are. It's bizarre.
Err, I don't know what brought all that on!Comment
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