Man marking Zaha

[GingerBeerMan]

I was thinking about this recently. As Zaha is the player that makes their team tick, would there be any advantage to sacrificing one of our players to totally mark him out of the game?
I remember in the Euros when Pirlo was marked out of the game by Spain and was totally ineffective, also when Messi was man marked in World Cup 2010 and was less effective than usual.

I was also thinking who could take the role of man marking;

Bridcutt - Too important for us in the middle and to the way we play to waste
Bridge - Probably the best option, but he does bring an awful lot to the team we'd miss
Bruno - Not the best defensively and is more effecting when attacking, no need to waste his best talents by man marking.
El Abd - Would struggle for pace but has shown he can mark effectively (Carroll last year).

Everyone else - Not suitable.

Any thoughts?

 

[Mr Putdown]

I was thinking about this recently. As Zaha is the player that makes their team tick, would there be any advantage to sacrificing one of our players to totally mark him out of the game?

One?

 

[Buckley's Mad Eye]

I'd agree with marking him out of the game. Crofts has the necessary discipline to do it.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Nah, just wind him up, get him booked, and he's half as effective, as happened at Selhurst last season.

 

[Buckley's Mad Eye]

Nah, just wind him up, get him booked, and he's half as effective, as happened at Selhurst last season.

Crofts in his face all match would achieve this.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Crofts in his face all match would achieve this.

El Abd is the textbook wind-up merchant to be honest, any ideas when he's likely to be fit? And Bridge?

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Just don't go near him in the penalty area as he is bound to dive and try to con the referee.

 

[perseus]

Did you see that Zaha dive in the penalty area?

Prevent him getting the ball by interception, close him down in groups and shepherd him inside from the left and block the shot, or shepherd him inside from the right and then it will be on his left foot so the ball will go into the stands. He is not even that good. If we mark him in the penalty area, it might be best to research the referee. There is one argument that we do not bother to mark him at all and then he can fall over on his own. Or we could get Harley to man-mark him.

We should have man-marked Chris Eagles in injury time though.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Just don't go near him in the penalty area as he is bound to dive and try to con the referee.

The dive yesterday on the Football League Show . And then the cheek of Holloway to have a go at the reporter "WAS IT A DIVE? WELL IF IT WASN'T A DIVE THEN IT MUST HAVE BEEN A PENALTY". Tit, of course it was a dive.

Also Crofts sounds like a good idea.

 

[Bigbelly]

Just don't go near him in the penalty area as he is bound to dive and try to con the referee.

That what Im dreading the most. We all know he's going to attempt to cheat the ref and get a pen. Can see palace getting at least one against us.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

That what Im dreading the most. We all know he's going to attempt to cheat the ref and get a pen. Can see palace getting at least one against us.

Exactly as he did up there last year. Luckily, the referee gave us an equally questionable penalty to even it out. Maybe Gus should spend the week talking about how we need a strong referee to ignore Zaha's antics, that is what all Premier League managers do with Suarez these days.

 

[blue and white stripes45]

The old fashioned way will work,just kick chunks out of him

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Just don't go near him in the penalty area as he is bound to dive and try to con the referee.

Did you see the effort yesterday? Did he get booked for that?


Edit:

The dive yesterday on the Football League Show . And then the cheek of Holloway to have a go at the reporter "WAS IT A DIVE? WELL IF IT WASN'T A DIVE THEN IT MUST HAVE BEEN A PENALTY". Tit, of course it was a dive.

Also Crofts sounds like a good idea.

Laughable, wasn't it? Not so funny if players don't get punished or they win the spot kick.

 

[El Turi]

Nah, just wind him up, get him booked, and he's half as effective, as happened at Selhurst last season.

Is the correct answer. It doesn't take much to wind him up. He completely flew off the handle on twitter yesterday because a Leeds fan dared to say he had a bad game yesterday.

 

[The Sock of Poskett]

Exactly as he did up there last year. Luckily, the referee gave us an equally questionable penalty to even it out. Maybe Gus should spend the week talking about how we need a strong referee to ignore Zaha's antics, that is what all Premier League managers do with Suarez these days.

Well that's one scenario we could do without at the moment to be honest, unless whoever our nominated penalty taker is after Ash has a chance to get his eye in on Tuesday night. If our new spot kick expert has to take his first one at Selhurst in the midst of a fiercely contested derby, it will take someone with balls of steel and ice in his veins.

 

[Bigbelly]

Exactly as he did up there last year. Luckily, the referee gave us an equally questionable penalty to even it out. Maybe Gus should spend the week talking about how we need a strong referee to ignore Zaha's antics, that is what all Premier League managers do with Suarez these days.

Would be nice if Gus can put some kind of pressure on the ref about Zahaa antics. Zahaa reminds me of a certain Andy Johnson who played for them. Looked like he was taking lessons in Ice skating.

 

[Icy Gull]

We are good enough to win this game without worrying too much about any of their players. Just play our natural game, let's not set up to stop any of their players. Zaha is good, he's not a world beater. Just really hope that Bridge is back

 

[Se20]

If you have a player to do a marking job on Zaha, it will probably have to be a midfielder, this allows the full back to double up and cover. The danger with this is you will be short in midfield, and midfield dominance will have a big bearing on the game.
In training now, Holloway has a marker on Zaha all the time, so he's getting use to the close attention, and as Derby found out recently, even with 3/4 players on him, he will wriggle out of it.

 

[bobzam]

The dive yesterday on the Football League Show . And then the cheek of Holloway to have a go at the reporter "WAS IT A DIVE? WELL IF IT WASN'T A DIVE THEN IT MUST HAVE BEEN A PENALTY". Tit, of course it was a dive.

Also Crofts sounds like a good idea.

This!! One of the worst dives ever, why was he not booked?!?

 

[Se20]

This!! One of the worst dives ever, why was he not booked?!?

If he dived, he should have been booked.
No booking and no penalty, so the ref was uncertain, so it wasn't the worse dive ever was it ?