Defensive Duties Zonal Marking

Many managers in the Premiership are adopting zonal marking defending as opposed to the well versed penalty area man to man marking which takes place inside the penalty area, with the man marking not widely used in open play, as opposed to twenty years before. Set pieces are a key part of a manager’s tactics, incorporating corner kicks where the zonal marking concept comes into play. Managers will highlight to defenders of room for improvement, a softly, softly, approach will not be taken by the manager who will look to create possible match situations on the training pitch. The days of defending the goalposts on corner kicks is a distant memory with managers taking charge of a goalkeepers preference with the need to fill the penalty box with extra defenders to concer, the Manero prefers defenders defending the goalposts on both sides at corner kicks. Defending on set pieces in particular must be touch tight and must display an aggressive urgent tone of defending without committing a foul, defending must not be of a passive intent and the players must create a vocal, defensive intensity. Man marking within the penalty area is self explanatory, mark any unmarked player, where the attacker goes, the defender does likewise, many managers designate players to mark a particular opposition player within the penalty area. Zonal marking is a different concept, where defending at the corner kicks is marked down with players defending withing grid zones and not moving outside of those areas, the players know where to position themselves, obviously the grid markings are not laid down, it becomes the player’s mindset taken from training sessions with the aid of a diagram the zonal marking defending will be explained.