ZABALETA ADMITS TO CITY'S DEFENSIVE WOES

Pablo Zabaleta has revealed Manchester City are struggling to adapt to Manuel Pellegrini’s demands for man-marking at set pieces, having become accustomed to defending zonally under predecessor Roberto Mancini.
City were caught out from two corners in the 3-2 defeat by Cardiff on Sunday, with the Argentina right back particularly culpable for losing Fraizer Campbell as he scored a brace of headed goals.
Central defenders Javi Garcia and Joleon Lescott experienced a chastening match at the hands of Cardiff’s attack, but manager Pellegrini pinpointed the slack performance at the two corners as decisive.

With Mancini at the helm, City had the best defensive record in the league for the past two seasons and employed zonal marking at dead-ball situations. Players would occupy a certain space in the box and be expected to cope with any action coming their way.
Pellegrini wants those scenarios to be dealt with man-to-man instead, with each City player assigned an opposition member to look after. The team’s inability to adjust to the change is at the heart of the mistakes against Cardiff and is, according to Zabaleta, one which must be rectified quickly.
‘Two goals from set pieces for us is hard,’ said the 28-year-old. ‘It has changed for us as last season we were marking zonally and now it is individual marking and sometimes it is hard.
‘But Campbell was very strong in the air. They did well defensively and closed the space well and didn’t give us the chance to create many opportunities. We didn’t defend well at set pieces and it cost us the game.

‘We had control of the ball but we were a bit static in the first half. We were the better team but the only difference was we didn’t defend well from the set pieces and conceded silly goals.’
Aron Gunnarsson, the scorer of Cardiff’s first goal, pointed out that much of the home side’s strength lies in their dead-ball prowess. ‘We scored 51 per cent of our goals from set pieces last year,’ he said.
Zabaleta, who last week signed a four-year deal at City after  winning the club’s player of the year award, is aware that other teams will try the same tactic. He knows any further slip-ups will undermine City’s status as title challengers.