Room for the head in debate on man-marking versus zonal defending

The date was Saturday, December 17, 1983, and Torquay United were up against it at Blackpool in the old Fourth Division.

Midway through the first half, the Gulls under manager Bruce Rioch had to defend a corner at the South End of Bloomfield Road (writes Dave Thomas).

They’d been under pressure for a while, and the promotion-chasing Tangerines fully expected to break through at any moment.

As they prepared to take the flag-kick, their manager Sam Ellis suddenly leaped out of the home dugout and started waving his arms around, shouting fresh instructions.

And with good reason.

Rioch had posted three of his own players on the halfway line.

Ellis immediately ordered four of his own men back to mark them, and another couple were stranded between the centre-circle and the penalty area, unsure what to do.

As the referee hustled Blackpool to take the set-piece, they had only three of their own men in the goalmouth.

United’s two centre-backs were John Impey and David Carr, both eager to attack the ball, and in goal was John Turner, one of the club’s most aggressive ‘off his line’ keepers.

Sure enough, Turner caught the corner, and he wasted no time booting the ball upfield.

In attack United had a young Keith Curle, a flying winger who was later converted into one of the quickest defenders ever to pull on an England shirt, and the nearly-as-sharp Colin Barnes.

Between them, Curle and Barnes chased Turner’s clearance and forced the panicking Blackpool defence to concede a corner, seconds after they’d been hoping to score at the other end.

Your correspondent was honoured to be sitting next to the late, great Jimmy Armfield, of Blackpool and England fame, who was covering the match for Radio Lancashire.

“Well, I’ve seen something today,” enthused Armfield. “Well done to Torquay – what a brilliant move!”

United, without injured leading scorer Steve Cooper, lost on the day, 1-0. They went on to finish ninth that season, with Blackpool sixth.

But what Rioch was trying to do that afternoon – and United did it several more times to equally good effect – was to ‘clear the box’, so that his own defenders could attack the ball and clear the corner.

The absolute opposite happens everywhere now.

Goalmouths are packed with players, often more than a dozen in the six-yard area alone.

Most of them grapple with opponents, to the frustration of each other, fans and referees who very occasionally take action - and are then criticised because not all their colleagues do it.

At the heart of the mess is a simple footballing principle.

It is that to head with any power, you need some room to take a step or two to attack the ball. You can’t do it jumping from a spot.

The same goes for a goalkeeper – it’s hard, often impossible, to catch or punch a high ball without any room or from behind a wall of other players.

What Rioch was trying to do was help Turner, Impey & Co to do their jobs properly.

Of course Rioch wouldn’t have tried it if he didn’t have defenders or a goalie who were confident in the air. That would have been folly.

He wasn’t the first to do it either. Turner recalls that, when he was a rookie Derby County goalie on loan at Doncaster in the mid-1970s, then Rovers boss Billy Bremner used almost exactly the same defensive corner tactic.

Defenders and goalkeepers, especially at top levels, tend to be bigger than ever these days, yet they’re still struggling just to reach the ball at set-pieces.

But are coaches brave or innovative enough to do what Rioch and Bremner did more than 40 years ago?

Arguments rage about the merits of man-for-man over zonal marking and, week-in and week-out, we see the same ugly, undignified wrestling matches between players who often aren’t even looking at the ball.

It doesn’t have to be that way, you know..!