Football - Liverpool FC: Rafael Benitez insists his players believe in zonal marking system despite more set-piece problems

Nov 23 2009 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

Football - Liverpool FC: RAFAEL BENITEZ believes his players still believe in zonal marking despite Liverpool’s continued failure to defend set-pieces costing the chance of a morale-boosting victory at the weekend.

The Anfield outfit required a goal from substitute Yossi Benayoun to salvage a 2-2 home draw with fellow top-four aspirants Manchester City on Saturday.

After Martin Skrtel prodded Liverpool into the lead shortly after the interval, poor defending allowed Emmanuel Adebayor and then Stephen Ireland to put the visitors ahead.

Adebayor’s goal was a free header from a Craig Bellamy corner, the 12th goal Benitez’s side have conceded from a dead-ball situation this season.

It has led to criticism of Liverpool’s continued use of zonal marking, but while admitting there must be an improvement the Anfield manager has no plans to change his approach.

“When you’re using a zonal marking system you have to attack the ball and if there’s a player near you, you have to challenge,” said Benitez. “We watched some set-pieces beforehand, and Richard Dunne scored against them when they were using man-to-man. In England, 35% of the goals come from set-pieces.

“But it is clear you have to attack the space or the player, it doesn’t mean you have to stand like a post.

“I think the majority of players believe in it, maybe you can find one or two who don’t. But we were one of the best – THE best – before. This year has been bad but it is still early in the season. We will see how things are at the end.

“We were improving at set-pieces, but it’s something we have to keep looking at.”

Liverpool have now won just one of their last 10 games and conceded 27 goals in 19 games in all competitions this season, and stand five points off the Champions League qualification places (if Tottenham win, that is).

Their defence, disrupted by a calf injury to Glen Johnson before kick-off, was further affected by Daniel Agger being forced off after 11 minutes following a sickening clash of heads with Kolo Toure.

“We have had too many problems with defenders from the first game of the season,” said Benitez. “Like on Saturday, in the morning we thought ‘this is the team’, but then Glen Johnson couldn’t play.

“The understanding between the defenders is vital but it is a question of time. We had a shocking day with injuries. Glen was not happy with his calf and he had been limping a bit in training. Then we lose Agger. We had one problem after another.”

Ryan Babel was also substituted early on after suffering an ankle injury in a collision with Steven Gerrard, and all three are now doubts for tomorrow’s must-win Champions League clash in Hungary against Debrecen.

Fernando Torres will not travel to Budapest as he recovers from his groin problem with Benitez admitting the striker could yet miss Sunday’s Goodison derby.

“We thought it’d be two or three weeks and he’s only about 12 or 13 days into that, so there’s no point in him going,” said Benitez.

“The next few days will decide whether he will be fit for Everton, but at this moment there are no guarantees.”

Gerrard made his first league start in seven weeks at the weekend, and Benitez added: “Stevie has been training this week, but was coming back from three weeks without any. One week sometimes isn’t enough, especially when you have to recover afterwards.

“I asked him how he was about 15 minutes from the end, and he said he had a few cramps. In the last few minutes he was struggling, but he’s okay.”

Of Saturday’s game, Benitez said: “I think we deserved more from the game at the end. I didn’t see Pepe Reina having to make too many saves.

“I am really pleased with the efforts of all the players, they were working hard to try and get the win right to the end. You can make mistakes but you have to be pleased with their character. If we win one or two, things will get easier.

“Over the last three games you could see we are doing a lot better. Against Birmingham there was a massive, massive positive difference. Saturday was the same – we got a very good reaction.”