I've been getting annoyed recently with the number of football commentators who continue to criticise the defence of Liverpool.  As a Liverpool fan, I feel it's my duty to put people straight when they repeat the banal comments of a football commentator as though they are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  The same I've had to do for ages with regards to the abilities of Peter Crouch (but that's another rant entirely). 

Apparently, the Red's zonal marking that Rafael Benitez introduced is the cause of our defence leaking lots of goals.  But this is merely another factoid that has been repeated enough times so people have accepted it as fact…

I came across this article about Liverpool's Zonal Marking on the Liverpool FC website, and it pretty much sums up my argument - and more eloquently than I would have put it. 

Since Rafael Benítez arrived on Merseyside the Reds have implemented a zonal marking system on set pieces and corner kicks. 

In all of Liverpool's televised live games this season the commentator, or summariser, has mentioned how much the Reds struggled with set-pieces last season, due to that pesky zonal marking system.

Clive Tyldesley is on a mission to mention it as many times as possible. At least Andy Gray mentions how big a side Liverpool are, and that the Reds should be good at defending set pieces; but there usual follows a barb about zonal marking, to suggest that the converse is true.   Quite frankly, that Liverpool are poor at defending set pieces has become the biggest falsehood since it was claimed that Chesney Hawkes was the future of music.

He then goes on to highlight the FACTS:

• Liverpool only conceded from two corners all last season, both coming in Premiership games (Chelsea away and Everton at home).
• In total the Reds faced 137 corners in the league, meaning Benítez's men conceded on just 1.5 per cent of them. Only one team, Chelsea, were able to come even close to that, allowing three goals from 127 (2.4 per cent).  
• In terms of goals conceded from free-kicks delivered into the box, Liverpool also allowed only two in the Premiership all season, again one less than Chelsea.
• So the Reds conceded one-third fewer league goals than the next-best team when defending set-pieces.  
• Widening the net to all competitions, Liverpool conceded eight set-piece goals, compared with Chelsea's nine, Arsenal's 12, and Manchester United's 15.
• Liverpool also played the most matches: meaning fewer set-piece goals conceded from a greater amount of games.  
• And the Reds did not concede a single free-kick shot all last season (this is not down to zonal marking, but is an interesting fact all the same, and something the other top four teams could not boast).  
• Already this season it's been seven games, with just one set-piece goal conceded, in the first league game at Sheffield United. The average last season was one conceded every eight games in all competitions.  

Nothing was said about Chelsea having problems defending corners and free-kick crosses last season. But why would it be? They still have an excellent record defending them. Just not as good as Liverpool's.

While it's not 100 per cent infallible (what system is?), it's currently proving the best method for defending in these situations, and the sooner people start acknowledging that fact, the better.

However, if a goal from a corner is conceded by the Reds on Sunday, and zonal marking is once again blamed – and then no one hears from me next week – you'll know exactly what happened.

I hope we keep a clean sheet this weekend of course.  But if we do concede, and the 'zonal marking' is blamed again, the TV will receive a tirade of abuse (I hope it can stand up to it)!