Read this brilliant piece on why zonal marking is one of the biggest problems Manchester United are currently facing.
Zonal marking: The modern style of zonal marking is the result of European evolution over the years, taking the corner-defending strategy from chaotic to some manager’s holy grail.
Some managers swear by the tactic and others hate it. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seemingly swears by it. However, could it be the poison that United keeps consuming?
If you aren’t familiar with zonal marking on a corner, here’s a quick overview: Each player is allocated a zone within the penalty area and that player covers their zone. With good coordination and physicality from the defending team, you, in theory, shouldn’t concede.
The tactic has been used by Solskjaer's reds since he inherited the role of manager from Mourinho in 2018.
In the last Premier League campaign, United conceded a woeful eleven goals from set-pieces, ranking them 5th out of the twenty teams for most goals conceded from set-pieces. This demonstrates a clear weak point that opposition sides would have looked to capitalise on coming into the 2020/21 season, and that’s exactly what they’ve done.
Two clear examples of United once again struggling from set pieces can be seen in the matches against Southampton (A) and West Ham United (A).
In the affair at St Mary’s Stadium, United saw Jan Bednarek head home from a brilliant Ward-Prowse corner. Awful defending from the Reds and it didn’t end there. Despite winning in the trip to the London Stadium to take on former manager David Moyes, Ole’s side let in a goal following some disappointing defending on a corner, allowing Tomas Soucek to get onto the scoresheet.
So, the question here is; ‘Is Zonal Marking a major problem for United?’ It is clear that United have players who can defend in the team. Captain Harry Maguire, known for his outstanding ability in the air, is one man capable of holding off opposition from set-pieces but perhaps the poor application of zonal marking restrains players like Maguire from being able to defend to their fullest.
If you take a look at the example in this article, Marcus Rashford is marking Bednarek, who goes on to win the header. The key problem here is that Bednarek is able to get goal-side of Rashford and wins an easy near-post header.
With zonal marking, there is going to be a free man who should be able to win the header yet Bednarek beats every United player to the ball. On top of this, Southampton managed to score from this set-piece despite being visibly outnumbered by defenders.
It’s very obvious that there is a clear struggle for the team when it comes to set-pieces, adding to one of the many consistency problems that United have been facing.
Moving on from this, United could look to improve on their set-pieces in many different ways. With zonal marking, many mismatches occur within the box, which can lead to very easy goals for the opposing sides.
Manchester United could look to incorporate a simpler man-marking operation to their game to counter these mismatches and look to become a better side in terms of defending set pieces.
It’s only one aspect of United’s game but it’s obviously a weak point for Solskjaer’s side. However, if you improve one step at time, you can soon find consistency.
Originally published for The United Stand.
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