by bigmick » Sun Sep 20, 2009 12:22 pm
On the question of zonal marking from set-pieces, we surely at some point are going to have to have a look at the way we are doing things. Yes I've been a staunch advocate in the past, and yes I believe in the system, but it's not good enough just to say "well it's worked for us in the past" and to plough blindly on. It's definately not working for us now, and before people jump in and say "it's the players" I know it's the players, but to be frank I don't really care who's fault it is, we have to find a way of defending free-kicks and corners which doesn't make us look likely to concede a goal every ten minutes.
Playing with a bean-pole striker worked for us in the past, but it didn't stop us from buying Torres. Mass rotation very occasionally worked in the past, but it hasn't stopped us (eventually than God) getting more sensible. Now whether the problem is the players don't believe in it, don't understand it, are actually just sh!t or whether the opposition have found ways to work around it is for the manager to work out. As Owzat says though on another thread, if we don't/can't/won't work it out then he is culpable.
I don't care whether we stick with the system or ditch it, but we have to get more secure. Feck knows how we're going to cope with the likes of John Terry, Vidic and Cahill attacking set plays. The way we are right now it'd be a free for all. Ultimately we must make the system work or ditch it and try something else.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".