May 8 1983: the 30th anniversary of Liedholm’s zonal marking system

It wasn’t only Roma’s second Scudetto, 41 years after their first title in 1941/42. It was a lot more than that. The Giallorossi’s 1982/83 triumph under the tutelage of Nils Liedholm represented a turning point for Italian football. Here was definitive proof that teams could be successful by playing a different brand of football – free-flowing and balanced. It became known as “zonal marking”.