fm13. zonal and man marking question.

[Dgirth]

Hello

Been struggling with Fm13, in my second season and my third job lol, I have been playing in English league 2.

Anyhow, I have been wondering how the two different marking systems work in this most recent addition of FM, And what attributes are needed for each system, Also should i apply tight marking and how does tight marking work for fm13.

Im holding my own in league with my new club and the tactic i made is doing well, But i fail to understand defense, I never worried about tactics that much as i use to use ones downloaded from here, I have a good eye for signing players and Mr hough tactics and always done well for me.

I have searched and read many topics on this forum, I do have a grasp on tactics and that you cant play to rigid and need more movement as a team in order to defend better but i still cant decided if i should be using zonal or man marking for my team, And how tight marking works for them,

So the question i have for my dear and much cherished forum users are these

1: Zonal marking, A break down on how it works and player attributes needed.

2: Man marking , A break down on how it works and player attributes needed.

3: tight marking, I fail to understand if this works with pressing, If my players press more then that is tight marking right ? if i use press more and tight marking then are they pressing to much ?

If any can help with this i will clean the boots of your players for the rest of the season

[llama3]

In simple terms - Zonal Marking means marking the space, so if an opponent moves into your zone, you pick him up, and you leave him to your teammates if he moves out of your zone.

Man Marking is sticking to an individual opponent. Now your defender roles will highlight the same key attributes, whether they are zonally or man marking. Zonal marking is harder to break down and pull holes in - as long as your players are intelligent enough to begin with. Good teamwork will be very useful for this. Tight Marking does what it says on the tin. Marking and Pressing are 2 different things.

[Dgirth]

So man marking should be used by those teams in the lower leagues and zonal is for you more skilled and wealthy team, Ie you will want players with high postition and decision attributes?

would you tight mark while using zonal ?

[llama3]

So man marking should be used by those teams in the lower leagues and zonal is for you more skilled and wealthy team, Ie you will want players with high postition and decision attributes?

would you tight mark while using zonal ?

Tight belongs better with Man Marking, but can work with Zonal Marking.

[Harlequin]

Tight belongs better with Man Marking, but can work with Zonal Marking.

To add to this I prefer a zonal marking system so my team retains its shape better, but often keep tight marking ticked for CB's and CM's. The idea behind this is if a player moves into their designated space I want them to pick them up, not stand off. This is particularly true for the CM's and I've found it can help them track an opposing player making a run into our box better than if tight marking is unchecked. Alternatively if I'm playing a staggered central defence, I'll leave the covering defender unchecked as I want him hovering behind the stopper as a second defender. This is pretty much standard policy every time I'm up against a fast striker; drop a central defenders mentality by 2 notches and uncheck tight marking.

Personally if you're looking to play a zonal marking system, you're going to want to ensure your players are mentally capable of doing so: I prioritise players with high attributes for Positioning, Anticipation, Concentration and Decisions. For the CM Work Rate is also important as you certainly want them tracking players running past. A lot of the times with zonal marking you'll be winning the ball via interceptions and intelligent pressure rather than direct tackling.

For a man marking system mental attributes are slightly less important versus marking, tackling. The plus point of this system is everyone has an assignment and as the manager it's easier to pick up if a players not doing his job. I personally hate having my CB's in particular man mark as it leads to some odd behaviour within the match engine e.g. CB A tracks his player across CB B then lets him go, CB B does nothing. I've tinkered with it against 1 man ST formations where I play a man marking stopper and a slightly withdrawn covering defender but overall feel zonal marking with tight marking checked achieves the behaviour I'm after slightly better. Have a play around with it and watch for yourself. It'll likely come down to personal preference.

It's certainly a good idea to use man marking in games when you're confident in your midfield's capability to outshine your opponents or where you have an extra man in the midfield area; it can result in winning 1v1's consistently or freeing up a playmaker, treq to do what they do best - find space and punish the opposition.

Tight marking can be used with a high pressing system in order to try and win the ball back faster, but do beware that you can be exploited by pace and that your players will tire towards the end of the game. It's a useful tactic though to get on top of your opponents early and then sit back with the ball once you're one or two up.

I think the overall gist of what I'm saying is there's no hard and fast rule for what's better: certain scenarios will favour one system over the other and it's always good to consider where man marking might confer an advantage for your team on the pitch. Personally I prefer zonal marking with possible man marking in the midfield areas if I feel it's likely to release a player for me further up the pitch or where I believe it'll help me win the midfield battle. I use two standard strategies, the first being a high press with high closing down (my standard strategy if you will) and the second a deep sitting strategy with low closing down where the impetus is on structure. Both are within a 4-2-3-1 formation. So you can see that swapping between the two can be useful based on a games progression. Don't get caught using only the one strategy at all times, that's where you can run into problems.

[mikcheck]

Harquelin nice post.

I'm playing 4-2-3-1 with 2 DMC's but i never know how i should set them up with the marking

[llama3]

Harquelin nice post.

I'm playing 4-2-3-1 with 2 DMC's but i never know how i should set them up with the marking

set them up as the tactics creator defaults - it tends to work very nicely

[mikcheck]

Thank you for the advice

[Telemachos]

Tight marking is basically how close your defender stands to his opponent when he does mark. Tigher, the less ground and time the opponent has to operate or create goals. It is ideal to have less technical players to have more time on the ball in hopes that they make a mistake to benefit your team- in lieu of allowing a skillfull player all the time in the world to score.

When playing DMC's, you can also assign them to mark specific players that are causing you grief. Generally I run a 4-1-3-2 or a 4-1-2-1-2 and when I find that a striker or a midfielder is doing too well, even though I use zonal marking, I assign my DMC to mark that player.

I kind of disagree though on zonal marking needing higher degree of mental ability because either a player can mark or not mark; and if they can't mark, then it is best to set their marking more loose. At lower leagues, where there is disparity between the level of talent- I personally feel that zonal marking is king and because most lower level teams don't have the players with the creativity and flair to support a fluid formation which man marking does require the ability to lose it's shape.

Additionally, if you are playing more fluid of a formation by being less rigid, then you might consider man marking over zonal for the same reason.

My opinion is to make sure your marking is correct and that you aren't expecting too much from a player with low marking ability. If the opponent is agile with good acceleration and pace- he will burn past defenders who try to tightly mark him. Additionally, opponent tempo does play a factor since they won't be sitting on the ball as much.

In 4-2-3-1, which a really defensive formation- in my opinion, you shouldn't have to go beyond zonal marking other than assigning your DMC's specific marks. My guess is you are using some sort of DLP as your playmaker and that you are generally playing a counter game. If that is the case- you want your DMC to be in his position for when your team gets a chance for a counter attack. Man marking will reduce the success of those opportunities since he will deviate more from his position.

No matter what- even if your person is doing a bad job at marking- it's better to mark certain players than to allow them to have all the ground they need to create goals.

[mikcheck]

Telemachos thanks for the reply. Actually i play a deep 4-2-3-1 because i think is more stable defensively. When we dont have the ball, i like to keep possession.

[lam]

I tend to setup with zonal marking across the board and then adapt it where neccessary to take people out of the game.

You may have noticed with the new ME that MC's now sit deeper and defend far better, however the down side to this is that they are to deep to put constant pressure on opposition MC's that do not make forward runs. If these MC's start causing to many problems, you can ask your own MC's (I play with a 41221 (DM.MC.MC)) to MAN MARK the opposition MC's thus taking them out of the game a little more. You might need to be careful how you use this. It works nicely for me as I still have a DM to sit in the hole, however if you don't if might leave you a little open.

I find that tight marking is a good way to break down a team that is passing the ball around a lot and especially if they are passing to feet a alot (this can be recognized by lots of passing but little forward movement). When this happens I will try to MAN MARK TIGHT the key player who keeps the ball on the move. This is normally DM OR an MC. Put a man on him and even if he isn't that good at marking you disturb their passing patter and force them into passes that they don't really want to play which might be more forward passes or long range cross field passes.

The only thing that can make this a tough decisions is whether or not I actually want to break their midfield dominance. What is very clear in this current ME is that possession does NOT equal a win, also lots of midfield passing does not equal a win. In one game I saw it happening and moved immediately to break it down, they then started making far more direct passing and ended up causing me more problems than they did before. Once I then recognised this< I removed the marking and they went back to simply passing the ball around whilst I watched them..... I then lowered closing down and just sat there watching them....... nicked the ball, caught them on the break a few times and won the game.

I tend to use TIGHT MARKING when I just want to interfere with their game. For instance, if I see the opposition FBL/R getting forwards a lot, I will ask my AML/R to TIGHT MAN MARK them. Most wingers can't mark for toffee, BUT it means they remain close enough to be damned annoying AND in most cases (not all) wingers are faster than fullbacks. So, if they get wrong sided, they should be able to catch up. Just watch for low concentration/marking wingers near the end of a game.

I don't know why I think this way as it doesn;t really make much sense, but I feel that MAN MARKING is more defensive and I only really utilise it when I want a defensive measure taken, beit across the team or on a specific player.

I'm not sure this version or others work this way, but zonal or man marking makes a massive difference to your tactical fluidity with the team. You can see this by changing a zonal marking tactic to a man marking one. Thus I tend to train an idential BUT ALTERNATE tactic, where I try and replicate some shouts I might use, thus this tacitc is a man marking, wide playing, short passing, attacking tactic. No idea if it works that way, but if i want to start the game with one of those things, then my team already 'get it'.

Regards

LAM

[mikcheck]

Thanks a lot lam. Really nice post