At the time of writing, Palmeiras hold third place in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, trailing the leaders Fortaleza, who have played one fewer match, by only four points.
Additionally, they are three points behind the second-place team, Botafogo, which makes the race for the title highly competitive.
On the offensive front, their statistics are good.
They have the third-strongest attack in the league, scoring 36 goals, which places them behind Botafogo and Flamengo, who have scored 41 and 38 goals, respectively.
Defensively, their performance is even more impressive.
They have the second-best defence in the league, conceding only 19 goals, which is just one more than Internacional, who have the strongest defence but have played four fewer matches.
One factor contributing to their defensive success is their effectiveness in defending set-pieces, especially corner kicks.
Notably, they are the only team in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A that has yet to concede a goal from a corner kick.
In this tactical analysis, we will explain their defensive system and the tactics they employ to defend against corner kicks.
We will also highlight potential weaknesses and provide suggestions for overcoming this defensive strategy.
Palmeiras Defensive Formation
Starting with defining their main general defence scheme, they follow the hybrid defence system, combining zonal marking and man marking, taking advantage of each system’s advantages.
As shown in the photo below, they use six zonal defenders in the six-yard area to protect it as the most valuable area while also giving the first one a special duty to stand in a different body shape to track any attacker who runs to the area before the near post to flick the ball, as we will see later.
After that, they have three man markers to mark the best three players of the opponent and a player, in green, to stand on the edge of the box for the rebound.
Against predicted out-swinging crosses, the zonal defenders push high to be more outside due to the predicted ball flight, as shown below.
Finally, we should mention the vital role of protecting the six-yard line, preventing the ball from getting to the central area and the far post through the six-yard line.
You can notice that especially against the out-swinging crosses where he starts a bit forward, as in the two photos below.
Palmeiras Strengths
As we have mentioned, the advantage of this defending scheme is that he puts the opponent against two challenges if the opponent wants to target one of the best three attackers:
1- The zonal defenders
2- The man markers
In the photo below, the blue attacker moves behind the zonal line, but he will be tracked by the first zonal defender, who has a special duty to open his body shape to chase possible flicks.
On the other hand, we see three attackers against three defenders around the penalty spot.
These three players attack the middle, as shown below; focus on this area and notice how crowded it is!
Yes, you are right.
These three attackers are now against six defenders as they get near the six-yard box, three zonal defenders and their three man markers.
Moreover, the goalkeeper has the freedom to chase any possible cross through the six-yard box, solving the problem from the beginning.
Therefore, you can realise now how tough this defending scheme is!
Now, let’s see what would happen if the opponent could target a free player from the three markers.
In the case below, the targeted player is free from man marking and trying to stick behind his mate, who runs forward to drag this marker with him while leaving this attacker free there.
As shown below, the first part of the plan works, but they target a far area to be far away from the zonal defenders, which makes it harder for the targeted player to score a goal from such a far area, especially since the zonal defender in yellow steps out to chase him after clocking the landing point of the cross.
As shown below, the zonal defender can’t get the ball, but this heading from such a far point is difficult to be a goal.
Fake Flicks
Coming to the other part, we will try to find out their potential weaknesses that opponents can exploit.
The first one is the gap formed between the first zonal defender and the rest of the line when he goes forward to chase the first touch, which is usually a flick, as shown below.
Opponents can exploit that by faking a movement forward to drag the first zonal defender and then target the gap he left.
At the same time, the white attacker runs in a curved way through the six-yard to come from the blind side of the zonal defenders on the far post.
During that, he uses his mate in the six-yard to block his marker, freeing him.
This is called a screen.
The plan works, as shown below.
We should also mention that the first zonal defender may rush forward earlier than it should when a player comes from his blind side, faking a move forward, and then stops to target the gap this defender left, as shown in the two following photos.
Shifting
You may now think about asking someone to fill this gap, and you are right.
The zonal defender behind him may follow any attacker who goes in front of him to this area, which fills that gap but creates a more critical gap on the near post itself by the attacker who started on the goal line behind the zonal line.
In the photo below, it is clear that the gap was shifted more inside, reaching the near post.
The issue of shifting does not stop at that problem alone; each zonal defender can be pulled to cover behind his teammate, which could lead to the entire defensive line being displaced and leave the goalmouth unprotected.
You can see below the large gap between the last two zonal defenders.
In the case below, the opponent tries to exploit this point, and I want you to focus on how organised the zonal line is first.
All of the players move to the near post and the area before it, which creates a large gap between the last two zonal defenders, which a coming player can exploit, as shown below.
The goalkeeper brilliantly saves the situation, filling any possible gaps, but it would be a problem if anyone tried to attract the goalkeeper’s attention to the other side or cause traffic behind him to limit his movement and distract him from the real targeted area.
We also suggest that Palmeiras make the defender on the near post the one responsible for filling this gap after making sure that the ball won’t go directly to his initial position on the near post itself.
He can move forward to fill this gap as Liverpool does in the two photos below.
In the end, you can see that the line is still organised without gaps, without any needed lateral movements or shifting.
Short And Rebound Zones
We have some concerns about their ability to defend short corners or face an opponent who tries to target the short and rebound areas properly.
As we have mentioned, they have only one player to stay on the edge of the box for the rebound, but the problem comes when the opponent offers a short-option attacker, which forces this rebound defender to go to be a short-option attacker.
They don’t have certain roles to deal with that, so sometimes they dispense of the rebound defender to keep using three man markers, not two, and ask one of them to go forward to cover this area.
In the first photo below, this edge-of-the-box defender is attracted to the short area, leaving the central rebound area empty.
In contrast, the three man markers are busy with their assigned attackers, leaving the rebound area empty, as in the second and third photos.
In the fourth photo, the rebounded ball finds any defender until it reaches the opponent’s player who kicked it into a great chance.
Regarding this point, we think the best choice, as an opponent, is to start without short-option attackers, as Newcastle United did in the case below.
In the first photo, the first attacker on the edge of the box quickly receives the pass and only touches it back again to the taker, only to drag the short-option defender with him, knowing that the blue rebound defender acts as a man marker dragged into the box.
In the second photo, the taker passes the ball to the empty rebound zone while all of the necessary blocks are done, as in the third and fourth photos.
The end is a dangerous chance.
Conclusion
In this analysis, we have elaborated how Palmeiras were excellent at defending corners, showing their defending scheme, which enabled them to be the only team who didn’t concede any goals from corners in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A so far.
In this set-piece analysis, we have also shown the potential weaknesses, suggesting how teams may penetrate this tough defending scheme to threaten the goal.
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