Zonal Marking - A show about football tactics

By The Athletic

What's Zonal Marking - A show about football tactics about?

The Athletic’s Michael Cox & Ali Maxwell break down the tactical & technical details of football past & present, focusing on a single subject each episode with the help of expert guests

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Euros Notebook - Pogba impr...

06.24.2021

The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville an Ali Maxwell open the Euros notebook once again to share their insights on the final round of group games and look ahead to the round of 16 There's a look at how France ...

Zonal Marking - A show about football tactics episodes:

06.24.2021 Euros Notebook - Pogba impressing, Spain improving, England v Germany tactical preview The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville an Ali Maxwell open the Euros notebook once again to share their insights on the final round of group games and look ahead to the round of 16 There's a look at how France ...
06.21.2021 Euros Notebook - Cautious England, woeful Turkey and galloping Gosens The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell are back with another Euros tactical notebook, picking out a variety of interesting things from across the second batch of group stage games. Topics covered include a possible explanation for Gareth ...
06.16.2021 The Zonal Marking Euros Notebook - what we've noticed so far The Athletic's Micheal Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell have been hard at work watching every second of Euro 2020 so far and have been noting down anything and everything they consider to be interesting enough to bring to your ...
06.09.2021 Euro 2020 Preview - Groups D, E and F The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell are back with the second of our big Euro 2020 previews and this time we cover the second side of the draw with groups D, E and F Plenty to get ...
06.08.2021 Euro 2020 Preview - Groups A, B and C The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell for the first of our big Euro 2020 preview pods and we kick things off with groups A, B and C. Michael has watched many hours of footage to bring ...
06.01.2021 Bonus Pod - England at the 2018 World Cup This episode originally went out in March but seeing as we're having a week off to prepare for our massive Euro 2020 preview episodes next week we thought we'd kick this back up the feed for any of you who ...
05.26.2021 Pep v Tuchel - Champions League final tactical preview The Athletic's Michael Cox, Mark Carey and Ali Maxwell look ahead to Saturday's Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea from a tactical and analytical perspective. Can we learn anything from the two games they've played against each other ...
05.19.2021 The Alternative Team of the Season The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell gather to offer their distinctive take on football's traditional end of season awards Tasked by Ali with picking an alternative team of the season, with the stipulation being that they can't ...
05.12.2021 How Guardiola made Man City champions again On October the 15th, four games into the Premier League season, we released a pod titled 'How does Guardiola get Man City back on top?' - they were struggling and looked miles off the pace. Eight months later they have ...
05.05.2021 What went wrong for Fulham, West Brom and Sheffield Utd? The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell have called time on Fulham and West Brom's stay in the Premier League and all but consigned them to the Championship for next season along with Sheffield Utd, so what went ...
04.28.2021 The defensive glossary - half-backs, sweeper keepers, the libero and beyond The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell complete their quest to classify every possible position and role on a football pitch with the third and final edition of the ZM pod footballing glossary, this time focusing on defenders ...
04.21.2021 We need to talk about crossing... This week's Zonal Marking pod is a European Super League Free Zone, come shelter from the storm with The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville as they take a deep dive into that most quintessential part of the English game ...
04.14.2021 The race for the Champions League - analysis & predictions The race to qualify for the Champions League looks set to be the most exciting thing about the run-in as we approach the end of the Premier League season. Leicester, West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton are all still ...
04.07.2021 What makes an entertaining football match? What makes an entertaining football match? Loads of goals? Tactical battles? Tension? The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell pick five games from the Premier League this season with the highest and most evenly balanced xG they could ...
03.31.2021 The Championship Run-In Rundown - stats and players to watch for every club When Michael Cox is away... The Athletic's Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell will delve into the Championship and pick out the most interesting stats and best players to watch from each of the 24 teams as we prepare to head ...
03.24.2021 How good were England at the 2018 World Cup? With the international break upon us The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell thought it would be the ideal time to travel back to summer 2018, to the hazy days of waistcoats and wasted pints, as Gareth Southgate's ...
03.17.2021 The goalkeeping blind spot - why is it so hard to measure the performance of keepers? The Athletic's Michael Cox and Ali Maxwell are joined by our new analytics writer Mark Carey to tackle the thorny issue of how we measure the performance of that most unique of positions - goalkeepers. Taking the lead from Mark's ...
03.10.2021 Quite Unique FC - finding Europe's unicorn players The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell set out to select an XI from across Europe's top five leagues consisting of players who are unique in their positions - whether it be a curious tactical style, strangely high ...
03.02.2021 The Attacking Glossary - Striker, Centre-Forward, False-9, Second-Striker and beyond The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to bring you the definitive guide to the many, many roles and positions you may find among attackers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
02.24.2021 West Ham & Leicester - the top four gatecrashers Are West Ham genuine top four contenders? Can Leicester do what they failed to last season and hang on to a Champions League spot? The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to examine the contrasting tactical approaches ...
02.16.2021 Champions League knockout phase - every team analysed The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to preview the Champions League knockout stages which get underway on Tuesday night. Coxy has studied the tactics, Worville has mined all the data, and Ali will guide us through ...
02.10.2021 Europe's biggest outliers - from Leeds, to Montpellier, to Berlin and back again What do Leeds, Nîmes, Montpellier, Union Berlin, Elche, Nice, Freiburg, Brighton, Burnley, and Benevento all have in common? They're all mixing it with the big boys of European football in areas you might not expect. Punching well above their weight ...
02.03.2021 Running stats explained: Pace, intensity and the Premier League 'plodders' The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to delve into the world of running stats and explain the many different ways in which they are used in the modern game. We'll look at whether the 'distance covered' ...
01.27.2021 What Chelsea can expect from Thomas Tuchel The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to tell us what Chelsea can expect from Thomas Tuchel, the tactical chameleon. We'll study his career to date starting with his first job causing a scene at Mainz, his ...
01.19.2021 Mesut Ozil's Arsenal legacy The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to assess the legacy that Mesut Ozil leaves behind at Arsenal as his seven and half year spell at the Emirates comes to an end. We remember the excitement which ...
01.13.2021 The midfield glossary - 6s, 8s, 10s, Enganches and beyond... The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to bring you the definitive guide to the many, many roles and positions you may find in midfield. What's the difference between a 6 and an 8? What makes a ...
01.06.2021 What's going wrong at Chelsea? The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to explain what's going wrong with Frank Lampard's out-of-form Chelsea side from a tactical point of view. Why have they struggled to beat anyone above them? Why are they so ...
12.30.2020 An interesting stat from each of the 20 Premier League teams The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell round off 2020 by looking at all 20 Premier League teams and picking at least one interesting stat, observation or quirk for each of them. You'll find out which team has ...
12.23.2020 Is Big Sam more than just a long ball merchant? Is Big Sam really just a boring long ball merchant? The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell gather to look at the stats, the data and the evidence from Sam Allardyce's career in the aim of answering that ...
12.16.2020 Do Arsenal have a problem with the 'big games' in the WSL? The Athletic's Michael Cox and Ali Maxwell are joined by our women's football writer Katie Whyatt to look at why Arsenal are struggling in the big WSL games this season after they lost to Manchester City at the weekend, a ...
12.09.2020 Why have Arsenal become obsessed with crossing the ball? When Mikel Arteta recently referred to Arsenal putting in 33 crosses in one game as "pure maths" it piqued the interest of The Athletic's resident analytical gurus Michael Cox and Tom Worville - what could Mikel mean by such a ...
12.02.2020 What kind of player is 2020 Cristiano Ronaldo? The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell take an almighty leap into the stats to work out what sort of player Cristiano Ronaldo is right now in 2020 as a 35-year-old at Juventus. We know his game has ...
11.26.2020 Half-backs, inverted centre-backs and more unusual positions we're seeing this season The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell are back with another tactical masterclass, this week casting their eye on some of the more unconventional roles and positions we've seen a host of players taking up this season in ...
11.18.2020 Javier Mascherano: the accidental centre-back The Athletic's Michael Cox and Ali Maxwell are joined by Argentinean football expert Rupert Fryer to celebrate the career of Javier Mascherano as he announced his retirement this week after an outstanding 17-year career. We chart his career starting with ...
11.12.2020 The top five overachievers across Europe this season The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell for a whistle-stop tour across Europe to look at five unheralded teams who have found themselves in unexpectedly lofty positions in the league table so far. Starting on home soil ...
11.04.2020 Surviving the difficult second season in the Premier League The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell for the second part of our series looking at the challenges of staying up after being promoted to the Premier League. This week we look at the various ways teams ...
10.29.2020 How to survive your first season in the Premier League The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to debate the various 'do's and dont's' for a maiden season in the top flight of English football... Is it better to sack or stick with the manager who brought ...
10.22.2020 Bad Stats - where we are all getting it wrong when talking about football The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to get a few things off their chests about the use of statistics in the general conversation around football. Do assists really tell us anything about creativity? Why do we ...
10.15.2020 How does Guardiola get Man City back on top? The Athletic's Michael Cox and Sam Lee join Ali Maxwell to look at Manchester City's start to the season and assess the ways Pep Guardiola's side have changed their tactical approach since they last won the title. Why did they ...
10.08.2020 Why have there been so many goals in the Premier League this season? The Athletic's Michael Cox joins Ali Maxwell to assess what has been a goal-tastic start to the season in the Premier League as we head into the international break. They look at the numbers and the tactics to try and ...
09.30.2020 AC Milan: the history and reawakening of a sleeping giant The Athletic's Michael Cox and James Horncastle join Ali Maxwell for an in-depth look at one of the most iconic clubs in world football: AC Milan. Taking the lead from James recent behind-the-scenes piece on the club we cast our ...
09.23.2020 Every Premier League squad profiled The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to profile every Premier League squad by average age, depth of quality and numerous other quirks along the way. Who is well-stocked across the pitch? Who are the unsung players ...
09.16.2020 Explained: Why left-footed centre-backs are so in demand Right now we're offering listeners of this show the opportunity to try out The Athletic for just £1 a month You can enjoy all of Michael's great tactical analysis, including a recent article on how Bielsa's Leeds approached their first ...
08.27.2020 Breaking down the Champions League final - PSG's pressing & Bayern's switching of possession Right now we're offering listeners of this show the opportunity to try out The Athletic for FREE. You can enjoy all of Michael's great tactical analysis, including a recent article on how Pep's decision to field a 'Mourinho Team', saw ...
08.20.2020 Champions League Special Right now we're offering listeners of this show the opportunity to try out The Athletic for FREE. You can enjoy all of Michael's great tactical analysis, including a recent article on how Pep's decision to field a 'Mourinho Team', saw ...
08.12.2020 Lionel Messi - how many things is he the best in the world at? Sign up to The Athletic now for access to Michael Cox's tactical musings and Tom Worville's statistical masterpieces - including recent pieces breaking down the tactics that lead Arteta's Arsenal to triumph over Chelsea in the FA Cup final and ...
08.04.2020 The Big Champions League & Europa League Preview The Athletic's Raphael Honigstein, James Horncastle and Dermot Corrigan join Ali Maxwell for a comprehensive look ahead to the return of the Champions League - looking at every single game on the schedule and all the potential storylines that could ...
07.30.2020 Evaluating the managerial changes in the Premier League last season There were seven managerial changes in the Premier League last season, three of them at Watford, but did Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham, Everton and the Hornets make the right calls in sacking their managers? The Athletic's Michael Cox joins Ali ...
07.23.2020 The resurgence of the three-man defence The Athletic's Michael Cox joins Ali Maxwell for a look at the tactical increasingly fashionable trend of playing a back three this season after Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea all used the system last weekend in the FA Cup semi-finals. ...
07.15.2020 Judging Sarri's impact on Juventus and Ronaldo The Athletic's Michael Cox and James Horncastle join Ali Maxwell to assess Maurizio Sarri's first season at Juventus. On the verge of leading Juve to their ninth straight Serie A title, we look at how Sarri has measured up to ...

Older episodes

Zonal Marking - A show about football tactics

What's Zonal Marking - A show about football tactics about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Zonal Marking - A show about football tactics episodes:

Euros Notebook - Pogba impressing, Spain improving, England v Germany tactical preview

Euros Notebook - Cautious England, woeful Turkey and galloping Gosens

The Zonal Marking Euros Notebook - what we've noticed so far

Euro 2020 Preview - Groups D, E and F

Euro 2020 Preview - Groups A, B and C

Bonus Pod - England at the 2018 World Cup

Pep v Tuchel - Champions League final tactical preview

The Alternative Team of the Season

How Guardiola made Man City champions again

What went wrong for Fulham, West Brom and Sheffield Utd?

The defensive glossary - half-backs, sweeper keepers, the libero and beyond

We need to talk about crossing...

The race for the Champions League - analysis & predictions

What makes an entertaining football match?

The Championship Run-In Rundown - stats and players to watch for every club

How good were England at the 2018 World Cup?

The goalkeeping blind spot - why is it so hard to measure the performance of keepers?

Quite Unique FC - finding Europe's unicorn players

The Attacking Glossary - Striker, Centre-Forward, False-9, Second-Striker and beyond

West Ham & Leicester - the top four gatecrashers

Champions League knockout phase - every team analysed

Europe's biggest outliers - from Leeds, to Montpellier, to Berlin and back again

Running stats explained: Pace, intensity and the Premier League 'plodders'

What Chelsea can expect from Thomas Tuchel

Mesut Ozil's Arsenal legacy

The midfield glossary - 6s, 8s, 10s, Enganches and beyond...

What's going wrong at Chelsea?

An interesting stat from each of the 20 Premier League teams

Is Big Sam more than just a long ball merchant?

Do Arsenal have a problem with the 'big games' in the WSL?

Why have Arsenal become obsessed with crossing the ball?

What kind of player is 2020 Cristiano Ronaldo?

Half-backs, inverted centre-backs and more unusual positions we're seeing this season

Javier Mascherano: the accidental centre-back

The top five overachievers across Europe this season

Surviving the difficult second season in the Premier League

How to survive your first season in the Premier League

Bad Stats - where we are all getting it wrong when talking about football

How does Guardiola get Man City back on top?

Why have there been so many goals in the Premier League this season?

AC Milan: the history and reawakening of a sleeping giant

Every Premier League squad profiled

Explained: Why left-footed centre-backs are so in demand

Breaking down the Champions League final - PSG's pressing & Bayern's switching of possession

Champions League Special

Lionel Messi - how many things is he the best in the world at?

The Big Champions League & Europa League Preview

Evaluating the managerial changes in the Premier League last season

The resurgence of the three-man defence

Judging Sarri's impact on Juventus and Ronaldo

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