How Rangers have changed their approach to defending corners

"​The first goal we had first contact - the ball stayed in the area which was unlucky," said the Dutchman post-match. "The second one, yeah, we need to defend stronger and make sure that we have the first contact."

Rangers' approach to defending corners has changed under van Bronckhorst this season and only time will determine its effectiveness. 

Whereas Steven Gerrard leaned towards a man-orientated approach when defending corners, van Bronckhorst introduced a more hybrid model in the months following his appointment, fusing elements of both zonal and man-marking defending.

Rangers continued to match their opponents on the edge of the penalty area from corners last season, although the Dutchman was keen to gain greater coverage of the six-yard area from a defensive perspective as the season progressed.

The Ibrox club were undone from a corner in the 1-1 draw with Dundee United at Tannadice in February – which proved fatal to Rangers’ hopes of retaining the league title – in a sequence that underlined the flaws within van Bronckhorst’s approach.

The Light Blues are assembled with four players going man-for-man with Dundee United’s attackers on the edge of the penalty area. Meanwhile, Ryan Kent has pushed out to discourage a short corner, while the five remaining players are defending the width of the six-yard area around goalkeeper Allan McGregor.

As the corner is delivered, Filip Helander is tasked with tracking United’s biggest aerial threat, Charlie Mulgrew.

However, Mulgrew pushes off the back of Ross Graham, preventing Helander from tracking his movement while simultaneously allowing the Swede to be pinned aggressively by Graham.

Helander struggles to regain his balance and he is eventually overpowered by Graham, allowing the Dundee United central defender to rise above him and power a header into the bottom corner from a central position on the edge of the six-yard box.

Rangers also suffered a late goal to level their Europa League quarter-final tie on aggregate with Braga at Ibrox last season from a similar scenario.

As the Portuguese side deliver an inswinging corner, Rangers have three players defending the width of the six-yard box while the remainder are engaged in individual battles with Braga attackers.

However, a situation develops at the far post. Connor Goldson is preoccupied by Braga’s No.74 (highlighted in white) at the back of the pack, where Calvin Bassey is only tentatively shuffling across to mark from his zonal responsibility in the six-yard box.

This allows Goldson’s man, eventual scorer and Braga’s chief aerial threat David Carmo, to break free and attack the space diagonally between Kemar Roofe and Joe Aribo at the front post in the zonal structure.

Goldson signals for Roofe to disengage from his zonal remit, but the forward is naturally tracking the flight of the delivery. Carmo ghosts in ahead of the Jamaican international and glances his header into the bottom corner from inside the six-yard area.

It’s important to note that both posts are unoccupied in this instance as the Braga defender plants his header into the bottom corner.

READ MORE: Rangers' zonal marking explained: How PSV claimed aerial ascendancy at Ibrox

Meanwhile, having enjoyed the luxury of his first full pre-season as Rangers boss, van Bronckhorst has moved his side further along the zonal marking spectrum when defending corners. The Ibrox club now have a higher concentration of players defending the space between the penalty spot and the six-yard area than they did in the example against Braga.

Indeed, a study conducted across 606 corner attempts during the 2018 World Cup found that corners delivered towards the back post from the right (facing the goal) and corners delivered towards the front post area from the left (facing the goal) were the most common type. In many ways, this zonal approach to defending with corner takers increasingly looking to pick out space with their deliveries as opposed to players.

The downside to this newfound approach from Rangers reared its head in the 2-2 first leg draw with PSV, with the greater space afforded around the edge of the penalty area allowing opposition players to gather momentum with their attacking runs.

Additionally, although Rangers were able to overturn their first leg deficit against Union Saint-Gilloise in the previous qualifying round, they survived an early scare from a corner.

Van Bronckhorst men’s have six players around Jon McLaughlin in the six-yard area with Antonio Colak defending the front post.

Unchecked, three Union players begin their movement towards goal.

Siebe Van der Heyden continues his run for Union, drifting into the small gap between Goldson and Lundstram at the front post.

The momentum that the Union attacker gathers allows him to leap high above Goldson and make first contact from the corner, only narrowly glancing his header wide.

Allowing first contact at corners is an inherently risky strategy, but there is an upside to zonal marking that can often limit the threat of conceding headers close to goal. As can be highlighted from the above example, a zonal system allows two players to seamlessly transition onto the goalline to defend both posts.

Indeed, even if the Union defender glances his header towards the far bottom corner, Rangers have the width of the goal covered by Barisic’s occupation of the back post.

It was only seven days earlier in Belgium where Rangers had their blushes spared in injury time by having coverage on the posts. Again, a blanket could be thrown around the cluster of Rangers players defending the space around the edge of the six-yard area.

As the corner is delivered into the area of bodies, both Tavernier and Ridvan Yilmaz retreat back in line with the posts.

Union win the header, directing it on target towards the bottom corner.

However, Tavernier is positioned perfectly to clear the ball on the goal line.

By allowing space to dictate your defensive set-up, as opposed to the movement of opposition players, zonal marking systems allow teams to protect their goalkeeper from dangerous in-swinging corners.

A big weakness among Rangers’ defensive structure at corners last season was the increasing regularity in which opponents exploited Allan McGregor’s reluctance to claim crosses. Teams often looked to deliver in-swingers that would facilitate their biggest aerial threats to contest headers from close-range, as highlighted with the aforementioned Carmo goal for Braga last term.

READ MORE: How James Sands' 'very clever' defending propped up positive PSV possession

The contradiction, however, is that McGregor has been relegated to second choice by van Bronckhorst this summer. McLaughlin has assumed the No.1 jersey and the former Sunderland stopper is more comfortable leaving his goal line to alleviate aerial pressure from set-pieces. A more zonal-orientated defensive system from corners would make more sense if the plan from van Bronckhorst was to continue with McGregor as the first-choice.

Indeed, there were early teething problems in pre-season when Rangers conceded to Sunderland from a corner with McLaughlin between the sticks.

As the ball is delivered, Rangers have two men on the posts and the remainder defending zonally.

The ball travels towards the far post as McLaughlin makes the decision to leave his goalline to claim the delivery.

However, he gets caught in the traffic around him, clattering into Nikola Katic.

This allows Sunderland to score at the back post with McLaughlin scrambling to recover.

The same study from the 2018 World Cup discovered that, of the 600 corners recorded, teams conceded more goals using a zonal marking set-up (6%) than a mixed defensive strategy (3.7%).

Elite teams have increasingly found the sweet spot in their defensive strategy from corners, ensuring that they are not completely reduced to individual battles in dangerous areas inside the penalty box.

Van Bronckhorst was correct in identifying the cracks in Rangers’ defensive scheme at set-pieces last season, but there is a slight paradox within the decision to change starting goalkeepers.

Time typically proves the greatest healer and it is certainly a difficult transition as a defender to cede the responsibility of marking a player to instead defend an area of the pitch.

The Rangers boss endeared himself to the Ibrox crowd last season with an aggressive man-marking approach in open play en route to the Europa League. In many ways, his approach to defending corners this season is at odds with that.

Rangers will surely improve with time on the training pitch, but van Bronckhorst doesn't need reminding that time is usually of the essence at Ibrox.