Delap's throw ins

[stokelad]

we had enough men back in the box but no one picked up that donkey fuller giving him a free header. we made him look like a world beater inthe end.

Calling Fuller a Donkey is ridiculous,ok im a soke fan and am going to defend our players,but calling him a donkey NO!!!!! to me fuller is now the complete striker,he used to be greedy but has now started to pass the ball when he needs to,and he shows on occasions flair and skill that any top 4 side would have in there side at the drop of a hat(as i said sometimes).Take his goal against Villa last season if it were any of the top 4 strikers it would be repeated over and over and over again,but because its little old stoke it gets pushed aside.When Fuller comes on as a impact sub the whole game changes near enough everytime (for the better) as he gives the team a lift and his holding up of the ball is great.Now if i was looking at donkeys it would have to be adebayor,he wasnt even in the game saturday and to be quite honest he has been dogshit for you all season,i am not knocking him or even comparing him to fuller as they arnt in the same league but calling our players donkeys when you have a fair few in your side totalling probably more than 100 millon compared to our Ric who cost us £500,000 is stupid.

gaz

 

[foley87]

Why doesnt Adebayor stand infront of them and hand ball it?

Then just alternate who stands infront til weve got everyone booked???

 

[bluenova]

Not sure what the issue is with zonal marking - we've looked a hell of a lot safer with it than without.

Eleven players back does seem like overkill though, but I used to have kittens when a corner came in - now I am surprised when we don't head it clear first time.

Delaps throws are very different - a corner tends to have to go up and then down whereas a throw is head height all the time. They're also not faced every week, so players won't get better at dealing with them, unlike corners - you can't even practice properly without someone comparable to Delap!

 

[jimharri]

www.Doh!.com

 

[bridgeblue]

I nearly had a thrombi at the game on Satrurday. Where has this 'all eleven back in the box' thing come from?

There was one occasion where the whole team was so flat the ball was half cleared to the edge of the D and there was not one City player in a position to pick it up. That is a joke.

Now I'm no Fabio Capello but by having all our team in our area we create chaos. It smacks of desparation. It leaves the opposition to focus entirely on their attack without worrying about a counter (which is one of our strengths).

The OP is spot on, get the big lads back, manmark, attack the ball and be ready to turn defence into attack by getting the ball out to the likes of SWP on the halfway line.

Lets try and turn their one and only threat into our advantage.

I agree, in the home game against Stoke under Hughes we left 3 players on the halfway line,(kept a clean sheet) this makes it easier to pick players up because they will only have a maximum of 5 attacking players in the box and as you say it gives better chance to attack.

 

[uwe282828]

in mancini first interview he was asked how he would deal with Delaps throws.he said given will catch them.Not if his feet are stuck to the line.

 

[warpig]

we had enough men back in the box but no one picked up that donkey fuller giving him a free header. we made him look like a world beater inthe end.

he used to be greedy but has now started to pass the ball when he needs to,and he shows on occasions flair and skill that any top 4 side would have in there side at the drop of a hat

hahaha. yeh keep on dreaming.

 

[NorCalBlue]

Not sure what the issue is with zonal marking - we've looked a hell of a lot safer with it than without.

Eleven players back does seem like overkill though, but I used to have kittens when a corner came in - now I am surprised when we don't head it clear first time.

I agree. I've generally felt a lot safer with the new zonal system, but it's still not immune to defensive cock-ups. I think the idea of zonal defense for a corner (or throw-in...) is that the defense is moving towards the ball to attack it instead of dangerously jumping with an attacker as they head towards goal. As we saw a lot under Hughes, if you go man-to-man and the striker gets away from the defender, he's completely unchallenged. In zonal, there should always be a challenge on any ball that comes into the danger area. That didn't happen for Stoke's goal. The problem may have been that we had too many players in there, so each one left it for someone else (aside from the fact that Given should probably be doing something about a ball right on the six yard line), but I think the blame lies with the defenders, not the system.

I'd stick with zonal, but put 2 or 3 guys on the edge of the box to deal with balls headed out by the defense. There'd be fewer players in the box to get in each other's way, and the guys on the edge could challenge any opponent out there, and/or start an attack of their own. I'd also get the zonal group another couple of yards out and have Given take responsibility for anything in the six-yard area.

 

[Freestyler]

Put 4 men on the halfway line, drag more Stoke players away, man mark Fuller, have your tallest mark their most threatening in the air, problem sorted.

 

[NorCalBlue]

My experience is that man-making is only really effective when the defender fouls the striker (pushes him, holds him, "uses his strength", etc.). In a fair run and jump for the ball, the striker will win often enough to make it an extremely dodgy defensive strategy. However, since refs almost never give penalties in this situation, it is often a good tactic. So the question is; (a) do we want to cheat to be successful (argument in favour: everyone else does it), and (b) will we complain if the ref correctly gives a penalty against us?