I've never seen anyone on TV "defend" (pardon the pun) this strategy on corners and free kicks. Anytime there's a goal against a team using it, the pundits gleefully pounce on it like hungry rats to shake their heads in disbelief at this nonsense (never thinking that many more goals are therefore conceded using man marking). We have the best defense in the league and clearly employ said method, whats the thoughts on it - bearing in mind the received wisdom from anyone on TV that its ridiculous?
Good post. I reckon that there are always dangerous set play attackers that you should mark/obstruct. e.g. Pearson at Luton. Otherwise zonal is OK.
It just seemed today that Pinnock won at least 5 headers at corners - I wonder - does he mark the same area every game - i.e statistically where generally most corners are delivered? Or do they look at previous Southend corners and move him to where they mostly get delivered?
We struggled with it early season and conceded a few that I believe would have been prevented had we adopted a man marking system. Now... I don't even notice it because it's working so well. I'll hold my hands up and say I thought the system was wrong. I no longer think it is, it just takes a while to master. Helps having the likes of Pinnock Moore and Lindsay in your team.
It worked today and at Portsmouth. Like all things it depends on how it’s done. I think we have got better at it a and now usually someone attacks the ball and we have players dotted around to cover all areas sometimes it fails for example at Wycombe our last defeat we had just lost a player and weren’t organised properly and they scored. But today we looked more likely to score from a Southend corner than they did
I have to admit I was never a big fan of zonal marking, but the stats don't lie, only 8 conceded in last 15 games They clearly are working at it
Lindsay won his fair share from their corners too. Those 2 were immense today. It’d be nice if they could both have this domination from our own corners too but I shouldn’t be greedy I guess.
If a team is good enough to use it why not? Every player knows his responsibilities and should be switched on. They will still man mark even in a zonal system. It's football, it's dynamic and it's flexible.
The reason given by the players at the club when Stendel asked them why they operate man marking was ‘so we know who to blame if it goes in’. I like zonal. Just takes time to develop efficiently
