Originally posted by Irishnev
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I still think that if there is an issue with how defending a line is being organised then that is on the defenders.
Said this already on this
If a defensive line is being set up inside our six yard box, then it is on our back four to be organising that line and leading it imo.
If there are players out of place then our senior defenders need to be shouting and getting them in place.
If there are players out of place then our senior defenders need to be shouting and getting them in place.
It is on the defenders, especially the senior ones imo, to be arrange who goes where and to be vocally letting the non defenders know what to do. That would fall under being diligent and pro active, but our senior defenders were neither in that play.
The coaching staff can do this all day long at the training ground but in the heat of a match the defenders need to be the ones organising the defending be it of set pieces , be it the moving a line up and down in play and so on.
And if an attacking player being used in a line to defend a set play is prone to switching off, then the defenders on the pitch with him know him and should know to be keeping him switched on.
The defending of that set piece was cack and it is as clear as day in the setting up of that line when the footage is watched that regardless of what zone people are being put in, the defenders are doing very little organisers, very little by way of geeing up to get everyone switched on.
Can be said that this zone is where the attacker should stand all day long but an attacking player will not have the defensive instincts that a defender should have and will need to have someone switch him on, especially so when that attacker does not even speak english yet.
Klopp and his team are the ones at fault for the training ground stuff, but nobody will convince me that the defenders are not responsibile for the organising and implementation of in match defending of set pieces. All four at the back for us as seasoned internationals and one of them could have called an audible when they looked back across the line and saw how many were on the line around the keeper or if they thought someone needed that last second shout to keep them alert. They do not have to change which zone every player is in, but they are the ones that need to be controlling that defensive line.
Ball comes in, ball goes in the net and our defenders are then the first to be raising their hands and moaning.
We might have been using zonal marking in that situation but that still does not mean being passive inside your own little area and that one cannot track an obvious threat when that threat makes a run right across them.
What we did there was neither zonal nor man marking, we did no defending.
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