Defending Corners in Soccer
Choosing the correct defensive set-up at corners can be a very important defensive tool in soccer but it is often completely overlooked or just briefly touched upon. Therefore this article is designed to educate you how to decide which organisation is best for your team:
Within each set up the coach can then decide whether to have a player on 1, both or neither of the posts. It should be becoming clearly evident now, that there is no single way to organise the defence when defending a corner. The approach employed will depend on:
- The Coach's Beliefs
- The Teams Strengths and Weaknesses
- The Oppositions Strengths and Weaknesses
The coach must then also then decide how many player's to bring back to defend and where their 'outlet' player should be positioned. The majority of these set-ups either place a player out wide on the corner taking side or on the halfway line, these can be altered at the coaches discretion. Although it is advised to inform all player's where the outlets will be so they know exactly where to clear the ball to retain possession.
This section aims to highlight the many different set-ups that can be employed so that coaches can make the most informed decision on their set-up and not just rely on the same one week-in, week-out to successfully deal with such situations.
Man-for-Man Marking: This is a system where the defending players are each responsible for one of the attacking players. Enter this Section
Zonal Marking: The defending players are responsible for 'zones' and any attackers within that region. View Set Ups
Semi-Zonal Marking: A mixture of the two previously mentioned set ups. Some defenders are allocated attackers to mark, while others are allocated zones. View Set Ups