Man marking v zonal

[Pablo]

I've only ever heard it before as an adjectival phrase - "ring rusty." Ring rust sounds very unpleasant indeed and probably worth a visit to the doctor.

It certainly would go a long way to explaining his lackluster performance.

[wiw]

I'm sure after reading Rafa's dossier on zonal it'd be no contest

[Shaggy]

Not the way we were doing it, it wasnt.

Didn't we have four strung across the six yard box, two more ahead of that in their zones and then four other lads picking up men? We didn't put men on either post.

In terms of the question about getting a run over a static zonal marker, it doesn't matter what system you use, the forward always gets the run on the defender as it's the forward who is calling the shots. The defender is always reacting to what the forward is doing.

[Pablo]

There's a thread on here somewhere that explains the whole zonal marking concept in great detail. I remember being fascinated reading it at the time. I think you have it roughly right above Shaggy. I think there was also one guy assigned to monitoring the edge of the penalty area. It's a much misunderstood system.

[Craig_H]

Didn't we have four strung across the six yard box, two more ahead of that in their zones and then four other lads picking up men? We didn't put men on either post.

In terms of the question about getting a run over a static zonal marker, it doesn't matter what system you use, the forward always gets the run on the defender as it's the forward who is calling the shots. The defender is always reacting to what the forward is doing.

I dont recall anyone really picking up men, if i'm honest. My recollection is that it was completely zoanl. I thought we'd have 5 strung across the 6 yard box another row of 3 in a line just ahead of them and then the remaining two around the edge of the box.

As for the second part, if the defender is tracking the forward and then identifies the flight of the ball, he can then get himself ahead and above the forward to intercept it, as he's been running in with the forward - at one point, the defender can cease to 'stick' to his man, as he will have judged the flight of the ball and can then nick in ahead of his man to cut it out. The zonal defender can also judge the flight of the ball, but is going to be starting from a static position, without the momentum of a run.

[BobTheCharmer]

fabio is a class act and bloody good player.

Oh you're being serious.

[Neil Young]

Didn't we have four strung across the six yard box, two more ahead of that in their zones and then four other lads picking up men? We didn't put men on either post.

In terms of the question about getting a run over a static zonal marker, it doesn't matter what system you use, the forward always gets the run on the defender as it's the forward who is calling the shots. The defender is always reacting to what the forward is doing.

My understanding is zonal allows the attacking side fewer free headers. Man-to-man allows fewer headers overall but a higher proportion of free headers. Zonal makes it harder for the attacking side to block off defenders which means there should always be a defender challenging the attacker.

It's probably a close call as to which is more effective, especially somewhere like England where, I imagine, the high ball is more common than in some other places. Of course I'd be very surprised if Benitez hadn't taken all that and a hell of a lot more into account when deciding his defensive scheme. But that doesn't necessarily mean Hodgson is wrong to employ man-to-man - he may feel zonal's possible superiority is all very well in principle but players, or at least the ones at his disposal, may be more comfortable using man-to-man and so it might, he thinks, be more effective in practice.

[CJ]

i thought that i once read rafa saying that the defender shouldnt be static waiting to head the ball in a zonal system.

could be wrong.

also both systems no doubt have good and bad points. i think many of us have said that zonal isnt stupid as sky would have you believe. many top clubs play zonal and even English teams have done well with zonal.

also you can blame individuals in a zonal system its just beyond the low iq people they hire.

also its beyond me but it doesnt mean that the manager coaches and players dont know who was at fault.

the problem with both systems is that they use people and people make mistakes.

[Shaggy]

Let's face it, in the grand scheme of things none of us has a ****ing clue.

[banditos]

Let's face it, in the grand scheme of things none of us has a ****ing clue.

Speak for yourself cobber!

[BrianF80]

Zonal all day long for me, man to man is draconian in that it allows you to aportion blame after a goal has been scored - He was your man, you were meant to be marking him etc... it also encourages the wrestling like Poulson and Carra were doing all last night which means at some point we will have a penalty given against us because of it.

Zonal is about the prevention of chances by filling the space and is a (fairly) newish system in England which is why dinosaur ex pros don't understand it and ridicule it

Zonal is exactly the same. If a goals is scored from your zone, your fault. The media may bull**** about who is at fault because they don't understand the system but coaches know the deal.

[BrianF80]

With regards to zonal, and the fact that a running attacker's always going to get the jump over a static defender - how do you counter this then?

a) You get ball side of the attacker.
b) you disrupt the attackers jump
c) You do as we did last year and have a spare man behind the zonal line (usually Torres) and allow him to run and jump at the ball regardless of the zone. With the added advantage that he's facing the right way.

[Craig_H]

a) You get ball side of the attacker.
With his momentum and run, he's still going to get above the defender.

b) you disrupt the attackers jump
How do you do that without fouling him?


c) You do as we did last year and have a spare man behind the zonal line (usually Torres) and allow him to run and jump at the ball regardless of the zone. With the added advantage that he's facing the right way.
When you say behind the zonal line, you mean goal-side of it? In which case, the player you choose would have about 5 yards of space to use for his run (at most), whereas the attacking player has potentially upto 10-15 yards, which means he's likely to get a better jump.

[BrianF80]

Let's face it, in the grand scheme of things none of us has a ****ing clue.

Not true. I'm sure I posted a series of vidcaps on here last year that showed our exact setup at the time.

[Shaggy]

Not true. I'm sure I posted a series of vidcaps on here last year that showed our exact setup at the time.

Posting images of how we set up is not remotely the same as having a real understanding of how it works though, is it.