Southampton: Brighton expose Saints’ zonal marking in crucial victory

Southampton put in a performance that was far too casual against Brighton on Sunday and paid the price with a 2-1 loss.

Although the score was 1-1 at half-time after Che Adams cancelled out Lewis Dunk’s opening goal, Leandro Trossard’s second-half strike saw the Seagulls take a precious three points back along the South Coast.

Whilst Saints can be criticised for not making enough of an impression on the match, Brighton can be praised for subtle tactical victories throughout the 90 minutes – one crucial one in particular putting them 1-0 up early on.

As Lewis Dunk’s header from a corner beat a slow-looking Fraser Forster, it seemed a soft goal for the hosts to concede. In actual fact, it was a clever set-piece from Brighton.

Brighton take advantage of Southampton’s zonal marking

Saints use zonal marking. The best headers of a ball stand on the six-yard line and get ready to attack the incoming delivery, whilst others try to block to runs and halt the momentum of the best headers from the opposition.

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Brighton had clearly looked at how they could score from corners in this match and their set up truly paid dividends.

Looking at the image above (from the BBC’s coverage of this game), Jannik Vestergaard – the man who is often seen making headed clearances for Saints – cannot move from his central position because Dan Burn is standing in his way.

Jan Bednarek is also blocked and breaks free too late, leaving Lewis Dunk free to compete with Ryan Bertrand to meet Pascal Gross’ cross. The delivery is to an unusual, unexpected position really and Dunk vs Bertrand proves a mismatch and sees the centre-back plant his header inside the near post.

Fraser Forster appears slow to get down to make his save, but this may have been due to the ball coming from behind the crowd of players in front of him.

Overall, this is a perfectly executed set-piece but provides something significant for Saints to look out for in coming games.

League meetings with Burnley and West Brom – both teams who will try and use set-pieces to their advantage – come in April and both Sean Dyche and Sam Allardyce will see opportunities to steal a goal from a corner too following Brighton’s breakthrough.