Zonal Marking: From Ajax to Zidane, the Making of Modern Soccer

Zonal Marking : The Making of Modern European Football (2019) by Michael Cox is a very enjoyable tour of the last 30 years of European Football. Cox's excellent Zonal Marking site and his football analysis is greatly enjoyed by many people who are fascinated by football. Cox has followed up his previous excellent book 'The Mixer' with another really fine read for football nerds. In Zonal Marking Cox looks at how European tactics have changed over the past 30 years by focusing on one European country at a time. He starts with The Netherlands, then looks at Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and then Germany before a shorter look at how The Premier League now has managers from all these countries and now has a fusion of European styles. The book had an excellent overview presented in The Totally Football podcast over the European League break in 2019. For anyone who thinks they might like the book this a good place to start. The journey is highly enjoyable for any football fan. Cox starts by looking at Dutch football that he sees as dominant in the early 1990s and then goes onto Italian football and tight organisation and defence as key. From there the focus moves to French football with speed, Zidane and the 'water carrier' role of Didier Descamps. Then the rise of Portugese football and their use of wingers and Jose Mourinho. Spanish football is up next with Tiki-Taka, false nines, Messi and Pep Guardioloa. The last full chapter is on Germany, 'Gegenpressing' Jurgen Klopp and Bayern. Finally the melange of the modern Premier League is described. The story is a bit too neat and there are some dubious assertions, describing Dutch football as ascendant in the early 1990s is quite a stretch. The mixing of tactics has also been going on for a long time. It's all also complicated because the strongest national and club teams are often strong because of particular players and managers rather than better tactics. The book also mentions quantitative analytics a bit but the rise of this sort of analysis further complicates the role tactics play. Nonetheless, for any football fan the book really is a treat. The analysis of so many of the great great teams and changes of the past 30 years is really enjoyable. Many readers will no doubt find themselves looking back at highlights of the time. The way the book also makes the point that national styles do fuse and change in reaction to other changes is also really well made. Football isn't a game where only one country matters and the cross pollination of ideas is genuinely fascinating. All in all Zonal Marking is a really excellent football book and is highly recommended for anyone interested in football.

Reads very well and gets to the level of depth you would expect from a great writer like Michael Cox. If you want an overview of the ways in which the game has changed since the 90s you can't do much than combining this and his other book, the Mixer. Michael has a very particular view of what the game can and should be and this can be either the book's greatest strength if you agree with him (as I do) or its greatest weakness if you come in expecting something else. It also perhaps reaches on occasion when trying to break a complicated subject into easily packaged 4 year chunks, but never enough to take me out of the narrative. Really very enjoyable and informative on the whole.

I am relatively new to the sport, and picked up Zonal Marking to become more familiar with tactics. Overall this is a well written, interesting book on the shifting tides of football over the last 30 years in Europe. It does not go over global tactics as Inverting the Pyramid does. The reason for four stars is twofold. 1. There is not a single figure in this book. You would think the topic would lend itself to at least showing the formations and positions. Or when describing the sequence of a play, why not lay it out in a schematic too? This would have been helpful to me. 2. There is an underlying assumption that the reader is already familiar with every player on every team. When Cox starts describing exemplary plays in the chapters, listing player names, I easily became lost. As I said, I'm relatively new to the game. I know this is less of a problem for some people. I hope in a later edition he adds a team name or abbreviation in parentheses next to the player. Here is an example of a sentence with no guidance: "Dortmund's opener was typical; Pepe moved forward with the ball, tried to pass into Ötzil but miscued, and Sebastian Kehl, pushing up to intercept, played a first time ball into Lewandowski...." He begins talking about Dortmund but then leads with Real Madrid's players with only a surname, one of which is German.

Superb overview of the last twenty-five years of European football. On an emotional level, it evokes memories of games I’ve watched, who I was with and where I was watching them. On an intellectual level, it provides a deep analysis of the evolution of European football. Overall, a powerful evocation of the ability of football to connect rather than divide the disparate cultures and traditions of Europe.

Great history and flow of the evolution of the modern game. Much easier to read than “Inverting the Pyramid” which is great but the familiarity of these characters adds to the readability for the casual fan.

Michael Cox's analysis is spot on. A great read.

I enjoyed this look at the evolution of tactics in European football over the last 25 years. It was interesting to see how national cultures and stars stamped their influence on the game. It certainly has helped my understanding of the game and it’s modern history.

The book is a good source of knowledge, especially the history of the game tactics. The issue is in the flow of the book and so many repeated sentences. It could be half the size if it was edited properly. On the positive side, it does have lots of good knowledge in one place.

Gift for my son in law who is a soccer coach. He loved it!

This is a must buy book for football fans. Also the book is legit and also happy with the seller. Packaging was nice as well.

This is one of the best football books I've ever read. Michael is of course renowned on the internet for looking at individual football games and analyzing them well beyond the typical questions of whether a goal was "stunning" or a red card was "unfair". He looks at patterns - running patterns, passing patterns, tactical patterns. With Zonal Marking he is able to take his brilliantly analytical approach and apply it on a macro scale, looking at the development and evolution of modern European football over the past 25 years. But it is even more than that! It's not just about tactical concepts like "space", "verticality" and "gegenpressing”. The book is also full of quirky anecdotes, interesting quotes, vivid descriptions of particularly important matches, goals and individual contributions. As such, even though the analysis of each chapter is sharp and well-argued, the book is never dry. For every discussion of Dutch obsession about the concept of "space" there is a series of quotes by Van Gaal and Cruyf taking pot-shots at each other followed by a brilliant move-by-move description of a Bergkamp goal. For every look at Mourinho’s new approach to physical conditioning or Juve full-backs switching sides, there is an anecdote of Hristo Stoichkov punching a photographer at the hospital where the wife of his buddy (and rival), Romario, had given birth. It’s great stuff! The structure of the book works extremely well. Each part deals with the particular contributions by a given European football nation during its particular period of dominance. This includes that nation’s league, clubs, national team, players and – most pertinently – the coaches from those nations. This allows Cox to go through all of the features that make modern football what it is today - but with an added historical flow and an appreciation of certain influencers and innovators as well as national characteristics. In places, it veers close to feeling contrived, but it never is. Just when I feel that Cox is about to take a point a bit too far, he provides a counter-argument himself. It makes the book feel balanced and thoughtful, and its structure is not a straightjacket. All the chapter transitions happen smoothly, and to me, the author never seems to think that certain features “belonged” to one footballing nation/coach/player and them alone, then and forever. On the contrary, it weaves a story of how loads of clubs and national sides have been inspired by Ajax’ playing from the back, later by Italian tactics, then by French speed, followed by Mourinho’s focus on transitions, then by Spanish possession obsession, afterwards by German gegenpressing, all of which are then well and thoroughly mixed and showcased in the multinational English Premier League. Nations and individuals inspiring each other and creating new and better results. A good example is Guardiola and his thesis (tiki-taka), anti-thesis (high-intensity German pressing) and synthesis (a Spanish-German hybrid full of innovative tactics and increased unpredictability compared to Guardiola’s own Braca). The narrative really works terrifically. In the epilogue, Cox even goes a bit poetic about how distinct national characteristics are still present and are still important. Happily, in this day and age, European nations only clash for 90 (or 120) minutes at a time. The rest of the time, football is about inspiring and being inspired across national borders. The author even wonders if the lack of English football innovation stems from the fact that English footballers are relatively more reluctant to move abroad in search of new opportunities compared to their Spanish, French and German counterparts. Maybe that is why the Premier League has not been won by an English coach since Leeds in 1991-92 (when it was called First Division)? It’s an interesting point that the “birthplace of football” has had the least marked influence on the rest of Europe, while it now incorporates players and coaches from all over the continent, providing the perhaps most thrilling league of them all. Made me personally think of broader cultural and political parallels to Brexit, but that’s a different story of course. I also enjoyed that the book goes beyond “European” and beyond “modern” football. All of the chapters are anchored in the historic traditions/achievements/disappointments of the nation in question, going back half a century or more at times. This provided me with even more insight about eras of which I have only superficial knowledge. Likewise, influences from Latin America and Africa are included where appropriate, allowing certain chapters to have a flair of e.g. Brazil or Argentina – without losing focus. I thoroughly enjoyed Cox’s previous book, The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines, which focused on 25 years of Premier League history. However, in my opinion, Zonal Marking – the Making of European Football is an even better book and an even bigger must-read for any football fan. It provides analyses and showcases patterns but without sacrificing drama and memorable moments. It is thoughtful but never dry. My only slight gripe is the lack of illustrations (of formations or tactics – such as in Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics) or photos (of particularly memorable moments or teams). They would have added something extra and helped illustrate some of the tactical points – just as Cox usually does on his website, zonalmarking.net. It’s a minor thing, however, and it does not stop this from being an exhilarating, well-researched, thought-provoking page-turner! Perfect for a summer without football – or at any other time, of course!

Fantástico libro sobre la evolución del juego moderno. Simon Cox escribe (y describe) de una manera clara, concisa y amena todos los cambios de paradigma del fútbol europeo desde el año 1992.

Enjoyed reading about all the old players/game styles i grew up with