EFFECTIVE marking at dead-balls isn't as simple as telling Pogatetz to pick up the big lad and stick with him no matter what when the ball comes in and Tayls, stick on the near post. What if the big fella doesn't make the run and your best and most physical header is left redundent? What if the run to the far post is a decoy and someone else steams through the gap?
Having a pop at Boro's 'zonal marking' system is all the rage this week, and understandably so after the last gasp sucker punch at the Stadium of Light when a routine near post corner sparked Keystone Kops chaos. That followed an equally sickening scene as a fumbled clearance from another flag-kick came back in and low rise Julio Arca was left looking like a dejected nipper as six foot competitive dad Danny Higgenbottom barged him aside to head home at the far post in the demoralising 1-0 home defeat to Bolton.
In fact a string of dead ball debacles going back to Cardiff opener - the moment the season shattered apart - has helped send Boro into a worrying tailspin in recent weeks, so much so that, according to dejected Luke Young, management are weighing up whether their zonal system has been rumbled and may be axed in favour of the traditional man-to-man approach.
Shell-shocked Young got the short straw at Sunderland and was ushered down the tunnel to explain where it all went wrong to the assembled Teesside press corps - well, me, Mark Drury from BBC Tees and Gordon Cox from the club website - and after some agonising over the cruelty of the late kick in the teeth he flagged up the problem unsolicited. I managed to press him further later on and he expanded on the problem and admitted there had been a discussion on the failings of the zonal system and changes were being considered.
Some of what he said was in the Gazette (and then recycled elsewhere), but there was a bit more, and I've got it in my notebook so what the hell, here's an extended 12 inch remix.
"It was a cruel blow," said Young. "And worse, that's twice in two weeks we've been done from a corner in almost exactly the same way and maybe thats something we need to look into. Bolton caught us like that too and there is nothing defenders hate more than being done at a set piece because it is something you should be good enough to deal with.
"We mark zonal," he explained. "I think maybe a couple of teams have been looking into the way we are setting up for set-pieces and being clever about finding little holes. We have to deal with it in a more professional way."
Zonal marking involves defenders taking responsibility for a specific area of the box and picking up opponents who run into their particular zone when the ball is delivered as opposed to more traditional man marking where defenders are designated an individual and track them wherever they run. The advantages are that defenders are less likely to be drawn out of position following decoy runs leaving gaps to be exploited by attackers arriving late and so can more effectively protect vulnerable areas like both posts. Having designated roles also means they can set up quickly for free-kicks to prevent them being vulnerable to a quick one from the opposition plus it also means they are in place ready to break forward when they gain possession.
The disadvantages are that rather than the tallest defenders cancelling out the most potent aeriel threat, shrewd movement can hand a height advantage to the attacking side, as when towering Higginbottom beat hapless Arca in the air to head home Sunderland's opener, and unless everyone is drilled to perfection markers can 'lose' their man as they run across zones leaving an alert attacker to find an unprotected spot.
Boro have used the 'zonal' system since Steve McClaren was in charge and have made it work very effectively. In the early part of the season Gareth Southgate's side were among the meanest when it came to defending set-pieces and until two months ago only Manchester United were more water-tight.
Even now the OPTA statistics show Boro have conceded on 14 goals from set-pieces and that only six teams - including Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United - have leaked fewer.
But the system has been creaking in recent weeks. Boro leaked an early goal from a free-kick in the painful FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Cardiff while Chelsea's winner in the 1-0 Stamford Bridge showdown, Arsenal's late leveller in the 1-1 draw at the Emirates, Bolton's goal and now Sunderland's sucker punch have come from set pieces. Now Young believes it may be time for Boro to go back to the drawing board when it comes to defending dead balls.
"I don't think it lack of concentration," he isnisted. " We mark zonal and teams are getting clever and are starting to putting people in positions that cause you trouble. They have obviously looked at what we are doing and are hurting us so it is something we will have to look at ourselves. We have to work on it and decide whether to continue with zonal or start going man to man.
"It is not something you can easily change overnight. Zonal is something we have practiced all season, it is what we know and are comfortable with and it has worked well for us for most of that time. It is just maybe now at the tail end of the season that it seems to have been found out a little bit so maybe we need to assess why and what we should do. "
It is right if the system is wobbling that Boro examine it. That should not be seen as a sign of weakness, dissent or a dressing room split. It is sensible management to look at how opposition coaches are approaching Boro's previously solid defensive set-up, where the potential weaknesses are and how best to counter that. It may be they need to work harder and be more determined to make the prefered system work rather than risk the possible consequences of changing horses in mid-stream.
Boro should be wary that they do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. 'Zonal' marking is widely employed in Europe, is part of the FA's official tactical text-book infra-structure for national teams and although - or maybe because - it is a complex system that demands a high degree of technical preparation and understanding from the players. No one will be surprised to find that Steve McClaren was a passionate advocate.
In English football Liverpool have been the standard bearers for the system and Rafa Benitez has reached two Champions League finals going zonal against the cream of continent and made Djimi Traore look a decent defender to boot. It is easy to say the boss uses it in order to play in Europe and that it has not fared so well in the thud and blunder of the Premiership - zonal has been a political hot potato in red Merseyside after every defeat for years now - but Liverpool have rarely finished outside the top four and rarely conced from set-pieces.
And besides, the Anfield approach to defending pre-dates Benitez. In a tactical teach-in on the BBC last year stopper turned surly scar-faced small screen tut-tutter Alan Hansen said: "We always used zonal marking when I won championships with Liverpool. It was all about winning the first ball and if not, you've got to clean up the second ball. The other thing of course is having a goalkeeper who we knew was going to come for crosses."
Ahh. That may point to one reason Boro's zonal system has wobbled in recent weeks. Brad Jones' vampireseque attitude to crosses may well have been a factor at Sunderland with his failure to dominate his box piling pressure on the rest of the system and causing it to crack. Likewise against Bolton stand-in shot-stopper Ross Turnbull played and whil ehe shows great promise he is not an integral part of the well oiled machine that is Boro's backline.
Former FA technical director and coaching guru Howard Wilkinson (don't laugh, he has more badges than a boy scout jamboree) has used the zonal system for more than 30 years and made it work as he became the last English manager to win the title and later made it the norm in coaching national teams from the senior side right down to the schoolboys although his disaster at Sunderland maybe emphasises that it ios as much about the quality of the players as the technical shape of the system that determine whether it works.
Wilkinson said: "Zonal defending is based on the principle that when free-kicks are taken in the attacking third in wide positions or from corners, there is a dangerous space which can be identified. Within this area roughly three out of 100 goals are scored from the first touch.
"The system attempts to concentrate the best headers of the ball in that space. Your other players are in positions to defend the second ball. With man-to-man marking, attackers can drag defenders all over the place by taking them away from the danger area. It is a collective responsibility whereas man-for-man marking is based on personal responsibility."
That raises an interesting point: under zonal marking when a goal flies in at a set piece it is the system that takes the flak while in man-to-man the blame might lie with a different individual every time, so the overall trend can be easily overlooked.
But there are issues that can be exploited. "The problem with zonal marking is that because of the movement of the opposition, you're going to have men that are unmarked," said Alan Hansen. "When you start off you need to decide who picks up whom and who then lets the other men go. Sometimes players follow the ball and attackers are able to find space. "
The problems that have been highlighted in recent weeks can best be tackled by intense preparation at Hurworth, the return of a keeper to whom the positioning and logic of the system is second nature and by the players charged with making it work applying themselves. More concentration, more determination and more steel in applying a tried and tested system that was so effective until recently is preferable to a kneejerk switch to an under-rehersed man-to-man method with two high stakes games looming. Now is no time for experimentation.
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