This zonal marking caper

It can work, I don't have a problem with the system itself. I just don't think we have the players to do it. If you are playing a zonal marking system you need players that are fantastic in the air as they will need to compete with an opposite player who has the jump on him.
 
Ruben Sosa said:
Let's see if the management have the balls to change it, and get back to the basics.
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Hopefully mate but no one seems to have the balls at Rangers these days, whether it's the Directors, the management or the players.
We're a shadow of the club I've been following for 50 years unfortunately.
 
RH_2020 said:
That’s twice I’ve seen Goldson crouch down in the zonal set up when the ball is crossing in (last night and PSV at home) not sure if it’s being coached or he’s just a big sh**ebag?
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Shitebag.

If he jumps at best he wins the ball at worst the guy behind doesn’t see the ball until it’s past the ducker and doesn’t have a free hit.
 
Most teams deploy a mixture of man-to-man and zonal marking these days. It's just that almost all of them do it a lot more competently than us.
 
Gio hasn’t changed it after any other poor goal we have conceded from corners so he’s not going to start now.

He’s far too stubborn to see he’s at fault and it came across last night.

He won’t change and we will continue being shite until he goes.
 
I wish we still had Walter managing us.

That sort of behaviour would have been drummed out the players.

For the years playing 541 I would have accepted that last night. Probably got a 0.0.

Many faults and it's on the managemnts head.
 
Every single corner we defend looks like our players have no idea where they should be. They look completely lost and that shows because nearly every corner or freekick into our box the opposing gets a very decent chance to score.

I can see it is not working. I have seen that from day one, you all can see it, the pundits can all see it but the stubbornness of our management team cannot see it or don't want to see it.
 
Not a defence of Sands, but he’s filling in at left C.B., it’s neither his favoured position nor his natural side.
We signed two Centre Backs and let two go.
The two we signed needed to hit the ground running but it appears they hit the ground too hard as both apparently have aggravated recurring injuries.
Neither is a young prospect with high potential sell on value.

Of the two we let go neither were world beaters and one had injury issues, but he was a highly experienced, fast, tall defender proven at a reasonable level while the other is a relatively young player whose main assets were getting his head on crosses and putting his body on the line to block.

I don’t think either of these guys were particularly high earners and, if money was tight, perhaps we backed the wrong horses.
 
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We done it the first game of the season against livi they scored 1 n should have scored 2. It’s been about 10 weeks since n gio hasn’t learned that We don’t have the players to do it. Same as passing out from the back we aren’t good enough to do it
 
RangersEasyOK! said:
Tillmans just as good in the air as Aribo, Bassey and Balogun were awful at defending corners.

Our "replacements" are injured granted Davies is back to the bench last night.
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They were far from awful at defending corners. I’d acknowledge that it maybe wasn’t a particular strength but neither was it an inherent weakness of theirs. Awful is how you’d describe our current crop.

Winning aerial duels isn’t a strength of Davies either so we’ll likely have similar issues even when he becomes a regular in the team.
 
In my opinion an attacker running onto a header is always favourite to win the ball. A defender standing still defending space is always less likely to win a header.

Unless we clear the ball at the near post it almost always ends up with a free header for the attacker.
 
I get the logic in using this method if we had several players with the bravery and commitment as Marvin Andrews that would header his own gran out the way to get to a ball first

We have one centre half in Goldson that’s ok in the air. And even then he’s not the best in the air.

Yet we persist with a marking system that gives opponents a run on us.

It’s utterly baffling and removes accountability from individuals
 
Zonal marking takes all responsibility away from the players.
Normally you have your man and if he scores your at fault.
What happen if the ball drops in the middle of two “zones” who attacks it? You have a split second to see what zone it’s landing in and you then have to decide…
To me it’s no wander we keep conceding goals and I don’t see the point in it.

Mark your man, be brave and do everything possible to stop him scoring.
 
When i lived in London and followed Wimbledon FC, the club appointed a Norwegian guy Egil Olsen who was all for zonal marking.

He and zonal marking lasted one season during which sadly, the club were relegated.
 
The best way to defend corners I’ve seen was hearts under levein. You’d have the players man marking, with their best aerial defender (Berra) in the 6 yard box, controlling his zone and attacking anything that came near it. Generally got a good run on it due to the others preventing runners into the area. It worked well at Ibrox against us anyway.
 
If the players don’t like it they should just ignore him and man mark. What’s he going to do? Drop everyone?
 
We’re laughably bad at it, sands last night watched Alvarez make the run and didn’t even bother to disrupt it or jump with him. Abysmal defending.
 
Zone or man-to-an or some sort of combination, they only work if players compete and attack the ball. And you only notice the system if players aren't competing.

Gio is correct that mentality is the issue not the system itself, but we have to change the mindset and the simplest way to reset is to change the system.

It was very like Glasgow Hibs in the 55 season. Duffy has a reputation for being excellent in the air at a higher level than the spfl but their system got in his head and he was almost paralysed when crosses came in.

Goldson hasn't lost the ability to jump but right now he looks like a golfer with the yips. He bends his legs as if to leap and then just stops, and it looks like he's continually ducking.
 
I was happy when Goldson signed his contract, now I would not have him in the team I would rather play Leon King and if he makes mistakes he will learn from them, not make the same mistakes the next game.
 
YOGI_GER said:
Why have we adopted this stupid defending system?

I’ve never seen it work for any team, the players don’t seem to know what they’re doing with it.

Every set piece it’s heart in the mouth stuff, we had a warning 5 minutes before that first goal last night.

Get it in the bin ASAP, go man to man and on the post or we’ll see more embarrassments in the next few weeks
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He needs to get back to the drawing board and start again while there's still time to. He needs to admit he's got it wrong,but players need to get a grip as well and it's hard to take after getting to the Europa League Final and then celebrate qualifying and then stop playing.
 
Sheamaker said:
Benefit of it is you can attack the ball rather than just react to your opponent.

However to me there is so many flaws with it that it should be used with man marking, a mix of both seems to work.
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Mark the big guys and zonal mark the rest.

And have a man on the post
 
I'd say whoever decided to change it has fuked it up. Guess at the end of the day thats the manager.

Our throw ins are just as bad - we basically just horse it straight back to the opposition.
 
EK1422 said:
Statistically zonal is a better system than man-to-man.

Our take on it is a disgrace though. Although we would struggle in any set up given how badly we lack proper physicality in our team now.

McCoist nailed it in his half time analysis yesterday. When we lost Aribo, Bassey and Balogun we didn’t just lose three technically able players, we lost three physical specimens and didn’t replace them.
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We still have a physical presence in Goldson, Lundstram, Arfield, Morelos Colak, its just piss poor tactics.
 
Battlefield Bear said:
Serious question. Could someone try and explain the merits of zonal marking for me please? I genuinely can't see the point in it at all.
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There are none. Man to man marking instead of ball watching. For their first goal neither Goldson or Tavenier jumped for the ball. If that happened in my day they would have been dropped from the school team.
 
I think our players were looking at the backs of Ajax players looking for Zonal especially Sands. Then all of a sudden Alvarez sneaked in and scored. We're a shambles defending set pieces and all teams know it.
 
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BSPECIAL said:
I think our players were looking at the backs of Ajax players looking for Zonal especially Sands. Then all of a sudden Alvarez sneaked in and scored. We're a shambles defending set pieces and all teams know it.
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And you can guarantee that the sheep, if the game at the weekend goes ahead, will use this as their number 1 tactic.
 
GovanFront4 said:
It can work, I don't have a problem with the system itself. I just don't think we have the players to do it. If you are playing a zonal marking system you need players that are fantastic in the air as they will need to compete with an opposite player who has the jump on him.
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Exactly this.

There is nothing wrong with trying to implement different things, but it is down to the manager and coaching staff to determine whether or not the players are capable of executing it. If it doesn't come off you either have to admit your mistake and ditch the idea, or ensure it is improved upon with proper coaching.
 
Jari Litmanen said last night in Finnish studio concerning Alvarez goal, that it was the fault of Rangers' bad zonal marking. Or at least he thought it was supposed to be zonal marking, as clearly no-one was marking the man :D
 
Was this zonal markin thing this bad before we signed that football doctor whatever?

First thing to teach players that you can't leave too much space to opponents in your defensive third. Now it seems we withdraw all the pressure at our end and retire to the box (to zonal mark badly).
 
Zonal defending is @ load of piss as there is no accountability you have to pick up a space not a player at least when you had a man to pick up he was your man but you could at least pass the man on with communication an£ our defence not good enough to do it and also start putting some one back guarding the post
 
GovanFront4 said:
It can work, I don't have a problem with the system itself. I just don't think we have the players to do it. If you are playing a zonal marking system you need players that are fantastic in the air as they will need to compete with an opposite player who has the jump on him.
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And we have a 6’3 CB who ducks!
 
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