---
product_id: 126698987
title: "Zonal Marking: From Ajax to Zidane, the Making of Modern Soccer"
price: "179 Lei"
currency: RON
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.ro/products/126698987-zonal-marking-from-ajax-to-zidane-the-making-of-modern
store_origin: RO
region: Romania
---

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

**Price:** 179 Lei
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## Description

Zonal Marking: From Ajax to Zidane, the Making of Modern Soccer [Cox, Michael W.] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Zonal Marking: From Ajax to Zidane, the Making of Modern Soccer

Review: A fantastic football book that's well worth it for any football fan - 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.
Review: A great overview of modern tactics - 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.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #582,403 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #78 in Soccer (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,411) |
| Dimensions  | 5.45 x 1.4 x 8.2 inches |
| ISBN-10  | 1568589336 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1568589336 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 448 pages |
| Publication date  | August 13, 2019 |
| Publisher  | Bold Type Books |

## Images

![Zonal Marking: From Ajax to Zidane, the Making of Modern Soccer - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81meFAW-DxL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A fantastic football book that's well worth it for any football fan
*by S***N on August 26, 2019*

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.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A great overview of modern tactics
*by R***Y on August 27, 2019*

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.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good Book on contemporary tactics
*by D***L on July 11, 2020*

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.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Zonal Marking: From Ajax to Zidane, the Making of Modern Soccer
- The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines
- Inverting The Pyramid

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*Product available on Desertcart Romania*
*Store origin: RO*
*Last updated: 2026-02-25*