For Bielsa, that defensive structure is a man-marking structure and so the aggressive press works in such a way as to allow Bielsa’s team time to find their marking responsibility in the event of a turnover. If there is a correlation between the in- and out-of-possession phases of the game, then we might be able to suggest one or the other changes their defensive system to benefit their positional approach. There is probably one final potential benefit from the man-marking system adopted by Bielsa. One of the aspects that has been left largely ignored here is the pressing element of Bielsa’s approach. “The Principles of Leeds United’s Defensive System under Marcelo Bielsa: A Primer”, Sid Gillman’s Offensive Philosophies Were Decades Ahead of the Times, Opinion: Sports Networks Should Pay Their Workers Despite COVID-19, Justin Olsen’s Long, Tragic Road to Pyeongchang, MLB Loves LGBTQ Fans (They Just Love Money More), Chipper ‘Larry’ Jones and a Short History of Feuds Between Baseball Players and Rival Fans, A Lesson Worth More Than All The Money In The World, NBA Bubble League Pass Rankings, Part II — The Teams at the Top, The Incredible Black Football Teams Under Thursday Night Lights. © Sports-nova | Live Scores, Current Sports News, Articles and Quiz, Sports-nova | Live Scores, Current Sports News, Articles and Quiz, Zonal Marking : The Renaissance into the Art of Defending, Mikel Arteta addresses one position of his squad which he wants…, Solskjaer talks Man United’s January transfer plans and confirms youngster’s departure, Arsenal star on the ‘long-term’ target list of Serie A heavyweights, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lays eyes on Lille midfielder, Boubakary Soumare, How to know when a player is reaching stardom – Haaland’s…, Monty Panesar Exclusive: ‘Getting Sachin Tendulkar as my first test wicket…, Cheepauk Super Gillies player gives his verdict on KKR spinner Siddharth…, The Near Transfers: Players who almost signed for a different club,…, Central Defensive Midfielders: The Heroes who don’t wear Capes, Sadio Mane hits back at the ‘mindgames’ of Pep Guardiola ahead of the mammoth clash. When it comes to Marcelo Bielsa, there is a received wisdom which pits him as an incurable idealist, ignoring any evidence to the contrary and stubbornly persisting with his approach even when it seems fruitless. Within this general man-marking system, Bielsa implements what he calls a “partial libero” principle. Zonal defending is more practical and efficient than strict man-to-man marking, although individual marking assignments often complement zonal organizations. You can’t keep your front three advanced because if the opposition full backs are advanced, then your wingers need to drop deeper. However, I hope this article helps to move the conversation along that Kees van Hemmen prompted. Because of the slightly different starting points in the midfield from each of the formations when the systems play against each other they match up. It is very similar to the previous concept of position-oriented zonal marking. On the face of it, if there were a benefit from using a man-marking defensive system alongside a positional approach, it would seem likely to come from some sort of structural “fit” that would allow easier transition between attacking and defensive setup. For Leeds, this is never really an issue. Pace down the wings, a good striker partnership, and a squad well-versed in zonal marking. The advantage is that the player will stay relatively close to the opposition player but the disadvantage is that you may find them wandering out of position to find someone to mark. It is an easy tactic for coaches to use when defending to adopt a man marking style. In this match, they went with a position-oriented zonal marking system, the only difference this and the ball-oriented zonal marking seen at times in the match is … That said, there is a level of almost arbitrariness to Bielsa’s idealism too. Just a footnote for readers regarding leeway-oriented counter pressing. You have to think on your feet and make decisions as a “partial libero” but that will be the same in every game you play. Simply put, both zonal and man marking have their pros and cons and both are still used whenever needed. This would indicate that there isn’t a structural benefit to man-marking. While this is a wholesome statement for both attack and defence, it has added significance for zonal marking because it brings the space in the loop. Munich Disaster: How did Real Madrid and Liverpool help United keeping... Indian Football Team Qualification Scenario for 2022 FIFA World Cup Explained. However, an issue that the zonal marking limited was the runs by the midfielders into the box. It’s a compromise between the idea to nullify an opponent and to retain a compact space-coverage. I had heard of zonal marking lots of time - for me it was a bit like someone talking about an aspect of physics - I had heard of it, nodded my head in agreement, but didnt quite understand the ins and outs of it. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Zonal marking is more difficult when defending set pieces such as free kicks and corners, and most teams change to man marking in these situations. The structure is decided by the opponent and the only real tweaks will occur in the forward areas where the -1 inferiority can lead to some issues. But despite reading, listening or watching everything I could get my hands on about Marcelo Bielsa’s approach to football, I had never come across anything which explains “the why,” as Kees calls it. He applies a +1 Rule in defence and a -1 Rule in attack. “But when you talk about zonal marking, in reality you as a manager take responsibility. If you’re man-to-man and lose the ball and track back, you will largely stay man-to-man. You have entered an incorrect email address! We’ll go into this more in a bit. This is probably the strongest line of attack in attempting to come to an answer to the question at hand for this reason: an aggressive press works against a transition towards a zonal structure but doesn’t necessarily have to work against a man marking system. This should come as no surprise. TRY FOR FREE. The next variant of zonal marking is man-oriented zonal marking. Stindl joined Plea in the first line of press and protected the passing lanes to Kroos and Casemiro. What are the benefits of Man vs Zonal … For many, counter-pressing has revolutionized the game and zonal-marking has had a lot to do with it. The buzzword that is often thrown around here is “superiorities”. It’s as much about getting back into a functional structure as quickly as possible. The first one is position-oriented zonal marking where the team moves as a closed unit and closes down the space between the lines. So, it’s a mixture of man and zonal marking, or more aptly put, man-marking in a zone. In this context, Bielsa senior is picking up on two aspects of his son’s football style in particular — the pressing and the man marking — as aspects that he doesn’t like. However tactics change according to in-game situations like defending set pieces, taking the risk when the team is in a knockout match or has fewer players on the … As this graphic from SkillCorner shows, Leeds United are comfortably the most dynamic team in the Premier League at the moment (not to mention Europe): Although Manchester City come a close second behind them when it comes to team sprint distances, it seems unlikely that Leeds man-marking system reduces the ground they have to cover in order to get back into a defensive shape. Perhaps this carries little to no ramification at all. Communication is very important when zonal marking is used, to ensure that no gaps are left in the defensive coverage. 10. Could it be the case that because man-marking systems aren’t aiming for an ideal structure — a 4–4–2 or 4–5–1 setup, for instance — that they actually become more efficient in transition? It could be the case that he likes the fact that playing against Leeds is relatively unusual within elite football. This gives his idealism a strange quality — almost a zealotry — which seems, as zealotry so often does, to conceal some sort of inherent insecurity about the idea itself. I suspect there won’t be until some form of functional tracking data becomes widely available. As a result, by pressing aggressively in a man-marking approach, you should be aiding the defensive structure rather than detracting from it. That simply means situations where a team has an overload — where their players outnumber their opponent’s in an area. If the ball comes into a zone, then it is that player’s responsibility to deal with it. Leeway-oriented counter pressing: ... Hi great article I.ve really enjoyed your articles on both pressing and zonal and man marking. Each player has a space to cover and marks the opposition player who gets into his space. The man-marking system, Nico proposes, is probably the more simple system to coach compared to a more zonal approach and will therefore leave more time to focus on the possession phase of the game. With the more abstruse elements of Bielsa’s approach to football out of the way, let’s clarify the more concrete aspects. This is not acceptable for big teams who look to have the lion’s share of ball possession. The most frequent strategy is to form a line, and defend using zonal-marking principles. If you enjoy this content and want to help us create more and better pieces, why not consider signing up to our Patreon page to get bonus material? It's asking your player to go one-on-one with the nearest opposition player. In terms of advancing ideas about why Bielsa might prefer a man-marking system to marry up to his positional play system, there isn’t really any scope for an evidential approach at this point. On top of this, you have the added negative that your players have to drop in the defensive phase. But in the case of Marcelo Bielsa, despite his outspokenness on football being primarily entertainment, he is just as pragmatic as that arch-pragmatist himself: Jose Mourinho. Man-oriented back threes are similar to zonal-man set-ups, such as José Mourinho’s gameplan during the 2017 UEFA Europa League Final, but there are still some considerable differences between the two strategies. The formation used by a team may dictate whether or not to use zonal marking. But the beauty of a man-oriented system is that it is entirely commensurable week on week. Here, we will talk about the most practised two in short. But does an aggressive press complement a man-marking rather than a zone-oriented defensive approach? His thinking is this: it’s known that Marcelo Bielsa focuses on repetition and pre-rehearsed movements in possession which famously require a huge amount of time and effort to bring into fruition. Read more: Central Defensive Midfielders: The Heroes who don’t wear Capes, Football being the dynamic game it is, soon brought up problems for the man-marking reliant defences. A few months ago, I had written about “the how” of Leeds’ defensive system in a piece entitled “The Principles of Leeds United’s Defensive System under Marcelo Bielsa: A Primer”. That means that a player is able to leave their marking responsibility when they judge a more dangerous situation to have arisen elsewhere. That system continued for a good amount of time. With the right execution and chemistry between the players, such a system becomes very hard to break down (the first leg between Atletico and Liverpool in the Champions League can be used as an example). This style is best explained as a mixed variant of zonal covering and man-marking. With his man-marking systems and the basic principles of +1 in defence/-1 in attack, you can guess the structure from the structure of the opposition. In both cases, the press is used to buy time for the rest of the team to fall into a defensive structure. The opposition players cannot hurt you if you pay close attention and everyone was under surveillance ideally. In putting this question to my good friend Nico Morales, he suggested there could be a simplicity factor at play here. They are both option oriented and covering space. The other day, I was sent a question from a Twitter DM that includes some of the brightest young minds in football analysis. There is a famous saying – the perfect game of football would end 0-0. Yes, it may be the case that the basic system is arbitrary — not intrinsically better than another system in terms of its effectiveness — but there is an internal coherence. IPL opening ceremony cancelled – Is this a welcoming decision from the board? And no doubt more statistically-inclined individuals might be able to take these ideas and fashion them into hypotheses that can then be furnished with data and made to look more or less plausible. Whether it’s defending from set-pieces or open play, the defenders chase down the opposing players they are marking, not allowing them even an inch of space. Football needed a solution and it was provided by the great Arrigo Sacchi – “Our players had four reference points: the ball, space, the opponent and his teammates. Football is a game of infinite possibilities and that is what makes it so beautiful. Despite being a Manchester United fan, Kees van Hemmen has an eye for tactical subtlety: “Anybody read anything good on man marking and how it interplays with aggressive pressing structures and positional play? I think this is potentially the most difficult question to answer in this subject area. Their spatial relation to their opponent is constantly changing and so is constantly at the forefront of their mind. Attackers started to drift across spaces, drop deep, overlap – thus disrupting the shape of the opposition defence. 10 system out of their game. Obviously, defensive transition isn’t simply about getting back into defensive structure as quickly as possible. The contrast to man-marking is obvious. There is actually a curious pragmatism to Bielsa’s idealism. On the one hand, the aggressive press is necessary for a team playing high possession football with players in advanced positions because it buys time for the team to fall into a defensive structure. It forced the Real Madrid build-up towards the flanks. Luckily, perfection is a Utopian term and unless we reach there (never), the Tom and Jerry battle will give rise to more mischiefs from both aspects of the game and keep entertaining us. Here, a player is still guarding his space only but his exact position in that wide area is concerning the opponent’s attacker in that place. Pace down the wings, a good striker partnership, and a squad well-versed in zonal marking. It’s almost as if there is nothing to suggest the certainty of the idea beyond his holding of it. This requires great stamina, top match fitness and picking a player to mark right from the very start of the game. In this match, they went with a position-oriented zonal marking system, the only difference this and the ball-oriented zonal marking seen at times in the match is due to the independent pressing system of the front two. It simply indicates any on-ball system that looks to use player movement to generate an attacking edge. This is a very important aspect of counter-pressing where the defending team aggressively presses the opponent players to force errors or close down passing options and reclaim the ball. I began this article with a question about the interplay between aggressive pressing structures, a man-marking system and positional play. Mikel Arteta addresses one position of his squad which he wants to strengthen, A tribute To late Paolo Rossi – The Eternal Azzurri International. Pace down the wings, a good striker partnership, and a squad well-versed in zonal marking. The basic principle would be this: in pressing, you are moving towards the ball and therefore towards a player. You’ll be marking your player. Whether or not this lends itself to any attacking benefit for the man-marking team, I don’t know. He is supposed to cover any opponent who is left over after any defensive reshuffles. You could call this spatial manipulation but it’s not just about space. Though the latter issue was solved by instructing Jaime Seoane to man-mark Pedri for the majority of the second half, Messi was consistently finding players behind the lines. In man-oriented zonal marking, you play with a basic formation in which the reference point is the “opponent.” From their respective base positions, the players orient themselves flexibly in the space they cover in order to maintain a certain distance to the opponent closest to them. It is more like sitting back and absorbing pressure, challenging the opponent attackers to come and penetrate but not pressing them close enough to make them commit errors. The topic is an important one and deserves further scrutiny. Every movement had to happen concerning these reference points. In attacking transition, Leeds always seem to be able to find space despite starting off close to their men in the defensive phase. A good example is when a centre-back man-marks a forward moving behind to receive the ball. For them, zonal marking is the second one – Man-oriented zonal marking. I consider the aggressive press as straddling both of these aspects. In some senses, this is logical because the pressing aspect is not unique to the man-marking system but common to all high possession approaches, as we discussed earlier. There is a tendency within modern football to label “negative” football “pragmatic” and “positive” football “idealistic”. There are quite a few variants of zonal marking. Multiple controversies increasing demand to introduce VAR in Indian Super League. While football started with unthinkable attacking formats, gradually the defensive side of the game started gaining importance too. If any of these are plausible at all, then they might offer at least the starting point for some sort of proper investigation at a later date. This allowed De Jong and Pedri to have a massive influence on the game. DONE DEAL : Arsenal and Chelsea target will join Manchester United... Statistician’s Journal : How long did Wenger rehearse to unleash Counter-attacking Arsenal? It was a simplistic and perfect concept on paper. And in the modern game, both go hand in hand instead of opposed to one another. Positional play is all about fashioning these overloads all over the field in a bid to create dangerous attacking moments. Here, a player is still guarding his space only but his exact position in that wide area is concerning the opponent’s attacker in that place. A few things need to be clarified: Firstly, it seems unlikely that a man-marking system reduces the amount of running that a team have to do. It’s not that I don’t like football, it’s because I am a Central supporter and also because I prefer another type of football, one which has less marking and pressing. As I was careful to stress, I have not attempted to give a definitive answer to the question because, unfortunately, it is almost impossible to apply any sort of empirical evidence to the inquiry. Where they differ is over the kind of football that will be more likely to get you over the winning line. We talk about it every time he comes home. With all the basics in place, we can finally turn to address the issue at hand. Handball Laws Explained: Premier League 2020/21, Fulham vs Manchester United – Preview, Lineups, Betting Odds and TV Guide, From shady pastures – Five transfers from the lesser known outfits of the Premier League, Champions Trophy : Five close encounters from archives. That overlaps with the tenets of a man-oriented system rather than a zone-oriented one. Returning to Kees’ original question, the nub of the matter is whether there is an inherent relationship between these two aspects: does Bielsa apply a man-marking system because he sees it benefitting the positional approach he has adopted in on-the-ball phases? Brought together — the idealism and the arbitrariness — and contextualised by the quote from his father, Bielsa’s ideas about football are united by a holism. Theoretically, there are variants and different orientations of zonal marking depending on the coach's preference and the culture of the country, which differ from one to another, some teams taking into account the man as well as the ball, as players would adjust slightly to the movement of the direct opponent. So far, we’ve focused the discussion on the defensive transition element of the interplay between positional play and man marking: the movement from on-ball to off-ball. Let’s not forget at this point that Pep Guardiola adopts a positional system in possession but a zonal structure out of possession. Whilst looking the team’s defensive strategies for corners, there is a much smaller difference in defending free-kicks. As a case in point, SC Freiburg has their center forwards close down the passing lanes. It created individual battles on the pitch which are fascinating when it’s a clash of equals but for sides having a great disparity in quality, the game became somewhat predictable, leaving no difference between a good team and a team filled with good players. While this is a good practice to keep the defensive shape completely intact, it is not very effective for winning the ball. For them, zonal marking is the second one – Man-oriented zonal marking. Maurizio Sarri was able to call upon N’Golo Kante, who was declared fit to start. If so, what is that benefit? Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'a_mLfvI-RkNlSEL_eA04iA',sig:'WHP129ZTsidhDlUDtGfLe1i7LDuJJZCleEr2fVnHU5g=',w:'594px',h:'355px',items:'948818152',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); For football though, this marking was a loss in one sense. Also, in man-marking, since the defending team is chasing the game, they were not able to set up their attacks according to their plans. There will be tactics and counter-tactics from attacking and defending teams and that’s what improves the game and makes it enjoyable, pushing the players and the managers to their limits of physical and mental excellence. In the absence of anyone more qualified to talk about this subject writing about it, then (and after conversations with far more qualified people than myself on the topic), I thought I would turn my mind to the question of “the why” of man-marking in Marcelo Bielsa’s football system. Been meaning to find something about Leeds/Atalanta that talks about the actual why of them doing it, not just the how.”. But the final few lines are interesting: ‘“Keep track of your own player and you’ll be in a good way.” I keep that thought in my head.’. Zonally, it’s an entirely different ball game. What is Zonal/Man Marking? The basic approach is this: try to get the ball possessed in a wide area where you can fashion an overload on the ball-near side and get your players attacking the five spaces between the players in a back four (or six spaces in a back three/five). Perhaps it is the case, then, that the man-marking system does lend itself to attacking transition insofar as being close to your man at the beginning of a transition ensures that you can attack the space immediately behind your opponent. Man Oriented Zonal Marking This zonal marking is oriented to the opponent and the pressing players seek to cover their respective zones while moving closer to a player which may be within the zone. However, there is a caveat. As I’ve already set out in “The Principles of Leeds United’s Defensive System under Marcelo Bielsa: A Primer”, Marcelo Bielsa looks to set his team up man-for-man in out of ball phases. Giving the striker the responsibility for pressing two strikers means that he can have a “spare man” — what he calls a “libero” — in defence to help out wherever there is trouble. For Leeds, the most basic attacking shape they look to get into is this: Given the flexibility of the positional system, the positions given aren’t hard and fast: the winger can underlap, for example, or the central midfielder. No doubt in a zone-oriented defensive system, the players keep the zone that they are responsible for in their head but there is a difference here: the individual is responsible for keeping track of their opposition player. On the face of it, this might appear unconvincing: the man-marking system seems fairly complex when it comes down to it. On face value, I would want to argue that the opposite is true: that a man-marking system will mean that any counter-attack will begin from a position in which the team in attacking transition are already close to opposition players. What would also be interesting would be how offenses try and break down differetn types of defense. Each player had to decide which of these reference points should determine his movements.”. For players who have spent their entire careers playing in zonal systems, it shouldn’t be too surprising that a week of preparation isn’t enough to ready them for the experience. positional oriented zonal marking The goal of position oriented marking sees teams aim to keep horizontal and vertical compactness as they sit in 3 clearly defined banks of midfield defense and attack moving as a collective unit, from one side of the pitch to the other in an attempt to close down space, especially on the wings. You can follow Jon Mackenzie on Twitter @Jon_Mackenzie. Except for Gian Piero Gasperini at Atalanta, there are very few coaches who use a man-orientated system out of possession. This is a more space-oriented man marking, It means that an opponent will be man-marked when he will stay in a specific zone. Maybe a better way of expressing this concept would be to say that, coming up against a man-marking system means that you are almost forced to play a man-marking system in defensive transition because that is the structure your opponent is using at the moment of turnover. For the fullbacks this helps prevent crosses and works great but my 2CBs are easily split by one pass, and Im wondering if I should change it. If you have any interest in contributing to this blog, get in touch with us @AllStatsArentWe. The point is that the reality of playing against the man-marking system is much more difficult than the theory behind it. Benefit for the man-marking system will mean there is nothing to suggest the certainty of the that... A mixture of zonal marking defensive reshuffles increasing demand to introduce VAR in Indian Super.... Situation to have the added negative that your players have to switch which player you mark from time time! 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