How Graham Westley Used Tony Adams' Man-Marking Ability to Improve His Teams' Set-Piece Performance
Key Highlights :
Former EFL manager Graham Westley has spoken about how he used the experience of being man-marked by Arsenal legend Tony Adams to inspire unorthodox impromptu marking exercises around the training ground. Westley, 55, admits Adams was the best man-marker he ever came across and says he used to 'man-mark' his players before and after training in the hope that, come matchday, they'd find it easier to evade defenders during set-pieces.
Westley, who faced Adams as a teenager while playing for QPR's U18s side, said: "We all know what it's like to be well man-marked. So I would come in [to training] and say [to one of the players], 'Morning, how you doing?' and I'd man-mark him. And he would look at me and go, 'What are you doing?', and I'd go, 'I'm man-marking you - break free from me, go on'.
"Sometimes I'd do it the other way around," he added, "and I'd go, 'I am going in my office, stop me'. So all through the week every time I see a player I'd man-mark him or I'd make him man-mark me. If you add that up, every time a player broke free from my man-marking I used to think to myself we've got a little bit more of a chance at the weekend of him breaking free from his marker at a set-play."
Westley, who managed Preston and Peterborough, insists his bonkers methods worked too, claiming his teams always had good records when it came to set-pieces. He said: "Over the course of time, my teams' record at scoring from set-plays and defending set-plays were very very good. Maybe all that man-marking made a bit of a difference."
The former coach, who retired in 1994 aged 26 after dropping into non-league football, believes Adams' man-marking ability was the key to his success. He said: "The best man-marker who ever marked me was Tony Adams. I've never been man-marked like I was man-marked by Tony Adams. He stuck to me like a rash when we played each other."
Westley's unique approach to man-marking is a testament to the influence Adams had on his career. His methods may have been unorthodox, but they certainly paid off, with Westley's teams enjoying success from set-pieces. It just goes to show that, sometimes, the best way to improve is to learn from the best.
