Marking The Post At Corner Kicks - Any Use?

[afrocule]

Had an argument on a football forum some months ago regarding marking the post at corner kicks. Where 2 players (typically the smaller ones) mark the post

I noticed in the last few seasons some coaches are moving away from that agelong practice claiming it doesnt make sense. Ulli Hesse Lichtenberger seems to agree but I disagree

His claim is that its players that score corners, If every player is marked effectively then you wont even have an attempt on target and the goal line men should do better things that resting on the post.
He claimed those on the goal line makes offside difficult .

I totally disagree.

Whats your take
?

[estranged]

I agree with Uli Hesse there. If you take 2 players and have them marking the post like retards, you can instead tell them to do a better job marking the zones which is more effective. Bearing in mind that of a header does come in towards inside of either post, it takes pretty good reflexes on the defenders part to clear the ball with his head/feat. I mean you should go and compile footage of corner kicks and see out of 100, how many times marking the post has paid dividends. I think you'll be unpleasantly surprised. They don't even do it that much in England nowadays, and they never do it in Spain...

[mitkoa7x]

Covering the post has prevented countless goals. "Effectively marking" doesnt guarantee you a 100% success rate, its always 50/50. No matter how well you defend you're going to get a shot on target and if there is no defender on that post to clear the ball, there is a chance the keeper wont even see that ball through all the commotion.

[afrocule]

Here's a link to Ullis article:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns...corner?cc=3888

To sum up, this is an argument between what we see with our eyes and what works. I have always been a man-at-the-posts fan, however the article seems to suggest that the reason a ball is floating into the post in the first place is because there is a numerical disadvantage.

[xaviniesta]

the system that we have is the best we can do with this team at the moment (shortest tteam in europe after all)

two short guys (alves and alexis) cover the front and back post and other short guy (xavi) will cover the front. them we have 4 bigger guys who are in the middle who are most likely to go to the ball.
thats what you have to do when you have a shirt team. zonal marking. you can't man mark and DEFINATELY you can't put 2 guys to the post.

why? 1) it's either you have to take of 2 of your men up front, then you don't have anybody to play the ball or to take 2 men in the box which is nonsense too.
2) they squeeze all together where they put the ball and make the offside trap. if you have 2 guys in the posts then it will pay you, as you could read the article that was posted earlier. bayern lost the final due to that.


















and although we concede some goals per season because we are a short team, i still think it's a very small price to pay.

[Deco 20]

I'm a firm believer in the obvious fact that every defensive corner tactic not fielding 11 Peter Crouch-length players on the goal line is flawed.

[Fourteen]

There's no definitive answer guys, as in football, even though it's played by professionals who do specific training aimed towards scenarios such as corner kicks, alot of what happens in these scenarios are down to chance and possibility.

I've seen plenty of examples where the man on the post has saved the day and plenty more when the man on the post has fallen asleep and let the ball creep in when he should have stopped it. It's all down the how the team decide to set themselves up and playing to their strengths. For example, if you had 4-5 Peter Crouch's to help out with defensive duties, then marking the posts would probably not be within the interests of that defending team. If you take Barca as the defending team, then it probably is or should be within the interests of defending corner kicks to atleast put one man on the back post, simply because we don't have the overall arial presence to cover the threat of bigger opposition.

What i'm effectively trying to say is that it's unique to each team how they set up and in many cases not having a man or two on the posts can be as damaging as not using them in the man-to-man marking duties.

[Fourteen]

I'm a firm believer in the obvious fact that every defensive corner tactic not fielding 11 Peter Crouch-length players on the goal line is flawed.

That's so weird. As I was writing my Peter Crouch bit, i was convinced someone was in here using him in a similar example.

[evilhita666]

Covering the post has prevented countless goals. "Effectively marking" doesnt guarantee you a 100% success rate, its always 50/50. No matter how well you defend you're going to get a shot on target and if there is no defender on that post to clear the ball, there is a chance the keeper wont even see that ball through all the commotion.

1. Do the number of post-marking prevented goals greatly outnumber the ones that come from man-marking or zone-marking?
2. Post-marking does not guarantee 100% success rate either.
3. Effectively marking implies that the marking has been successful, therefore it has 100% success rate. If you concede a goal then you did not mark effectively.
4. It's not possible to effectively mark every single time, but the odds are a long way from being 50 / 50. Because according to that, 1 of 2 corners would end up favoring the attacking team, which as we know it's not true.
5. I'm not against post-marking, sometimes it works sometimes it fails, like many other tactics in football... I just found your post a little curious...

[gingerless]

corners are so un-football like, i fucking hate them. replace it with something else entirely imo

[HerpDerp]

I'd keep only one defender (at the near post) to avoid shitty goals directly from the corner or one from a "drill" cross.

[No Soy Galáctico]

In the level I play at we do, it is worth it as nobody heads the ball powerful enough like a pro or strikes the ball as effective and clinical. When given time and space, a prolific heading goal scorer connects with the ball from a corner and scores. Same with a poached goal ect. from a forward, it is this that is expected of the attacking side, the defending team does not expect to save the ball on the line and its quite a rare occurrence now what with the ball being lighter, & moves unpredictable - as it stands its hard enough for a keeper with his hands!

I liked what Benitez did with liverpool, when they zonal marked from set pieces.

[Jesse1509]

This article pretty much sums up the advantages of zonal marking at corners. It shows that we, despite our lack of height, don't concede a lot of goals from corners, relatively, that is. This empirically shows that this is probably the most effective tactic at defending corners.

http://defensiveminded.wordpress.com...ng-at-corners/