Zonal corner defence, one player per patch of grass
Soccer · Set piece · 11 of your players and 6 opponents
All eleven of yours defending the goal at the top against six attackers. Nobody is marking a shirt here — everybody is responsible for a piece of the penalty area.
Opens on a soccer pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
The zones, and who owns them
The keeper is on his line, with a body inside each post so a ball that beats him still has someone behind it. Four defenders stand in a row about eight metres out, spaced roughly six and a half metres apart, and the row they form is a little wider than the six-yard box — that is the arrival zone for a standard corner and it is covered end to end. Two more sit either side of the penalty mark at about twelve metres for the ball that clears the first row. One holds the space just outside the penalty area for the cut back or the shot from the edge. And one goes out to press the taker.
Attacking it are six: the taker on the flag, runners heading for each post, a target on the penalty spot, one arriving from twenty-two metres and a short-corner option up the line. Their other players are back in the far half.
Zonal or man-to-man?
Zonal wins on two things. Your best headers of the ball stand in the places where corners actually land, instead of wherever the opposition's tallest player chooses to walk. And nobody can be dragged out of position by a decoy run, which is what the blocking and screening routines are designed to do.
It loses on one, and it loses badly if you ignore it: an attacker arriving with a run of ten metres beats a defender standing still, every time. Zonal defending is not standing still, it is attacking the ball from a known starting point. A back post defender who watches the flight and then jumps has already lost.
Coach these three things
- Attack the ball forwards. Draw a short run from each of the four in the row, out towards the delivery. If your diagram has them rooted, so will your team be.
- The short corner. Move the attacker up the touchline and see who leaves the block to cover. The answer should be one player, and always the same one.
- Second balls. Animate a header dropping to twenty metres and check the edge-of-box defender is the one who arrives, not a centre back who has run out of the zone.
Load this set-up, drag your zones to fit the players you have, and rehearse it on screen before you rehearse it in the rain.
Also known as
- corner
- set piece
- zonal marking
- defending corners
Shapes to look at next
Attacking corner (right)
Set piece · 19 players
A right-side corner: taker on the flag, runners at the near and far post, a target on the penalty spot, a short-corner option and three held back for rest defence. Ten outfield players — the keeper is in the other half, off screen. The nine defenders show a zonal set-up to attack against.
Read the setup
3-5-2
Formation · 11 players
Three centre backs, wing backs pushed high and wide onto the touchlines, a midfield three inside them and a front two. Overloads the middle and asks the wing backs to cover the whole flank.
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4-2-3-1
Formation · 11 players
Back four, a double pivot screening in front of them, three attacking midfielders and a lone striker. The modern default: solid through the middle with a number ten between the lines.
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4-3-3
Formation · 11 players
Back four, a single pivot with two eights ahead of them, and a front three holding the width. The wingers sit on the touchlines so the full backs have the space to overlap.
Read the setup
4-4-2
Formation · 11 players
The classic two banks of four with a front pair. Drawn as a mid block defending the goal at the top: back four on the edge of the penalty area, midfield four across the middle third, strikers up on the halfway line.
Read the setup
5-3-2 low block
Defence · 11 players
A back five dropped onto the edge of the six-yard box with a midfield three in front and two strikers held back for the counter. What you set up when you are protecting a lead.
Read the setup
Put the Defending a corner (zonal) on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
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