Are "mark tighter" and "aggressive" tackling a must for a solid defensive setup?

[goku4]

I always wondered whether the "mark tighter" instruction (team or individual) is good or not. Looking into the most tactics from the upload section, it seems like opinion among FM players vary a lot. Some have tighter marking some not. But there is one clear opinion about tackling. Every single tactic has either "get stuck in" in team instructions or aggressive tackling in individual PI. I have my full backs on "easy" tackling as I don't want them to overcommit and be overrun by opposition wingers. Also I have only tighter marking on my 3 central midfielders. However, I have often observed that my full backs are passive and just invite the opposition wingers for pressure and the cross to the far post. I know that bravery, decision making, tackling stats matter a lot, but I can't afford to have full backs with 15+ in all areas... What is your opinion on both tactical instructions? Also if I want my wingers to close down very early during the build-up play of the opponent, should I give them "tighter" marking or not? If I take away the "mark tighter" from my central mids, will they close down opposition wingers on the flank so that I can double up the wingers with my own wingers and central mids?

[enigmatic]

I've always done fine without hard tackling.

Occasionally tun it on if I'm struggling and the opposition have a lot of possession, but I'm not convinced collecting cards and giving away free kicks is actually a good idea

'Easy' tackling for a fullback is an invitation to let the opposition cross though.

 

Never quite made my mind up about tighter marking, but I doubt it makes much difference to centre mids closing down wide players. Turning up pressing or if you really need the support giving them roaming defensive roles like BWM or Carrilero much more likely to help

[goku4]

14 minutes ago, enigmatic said:

I've always done fine without hard tackling.

Occasionally tun it on if I'm struggling and the opposition have a lot of possession, but I'm not convinced collecting cards and giving away free kicks is actually a good idea

'Easy' tackling for a fullback is an invitation to let the opposition cross though.

 

Never quite made my mind up about tighter marking, but I doubt it makes much difference to centre mids closing down wide players. Turning up pressing or if you really need the support giving them roaming defensive roles like BWM or Carrilero much more likely to help

How about the case where the opposition winger has the ball on the flanks and my fullback just runs back towards my own penalty box instead of attacking the winger? Is it better to give him tighter marking so that the tracks the winger instead of filling gap or running back?

[nick1408]

Short answer is no.

 

I use both options independently. If I have tighter marking on I won't be tackling harder and vice-versa. My theory being if I am aggressively marking I don't also need to be aggressively tackling and it is essentially putting my own players under pressure by asking them to do two tasks that will bring referee  scrutiny. 

 

 

[Impacto]

Nope. Thight marking is useful when you have phisically strong players who will stick close to their opponents and 'bully' them with their physique. They need to have good marking and concentration in addition to that. I've never really found great use of it, but it can be good in some certain tactical set ups.

Get stuck in is a big no-no in my tactics. Not only does it rapidly increase the chances for red cards, it can cause injuries to your own players, tires them out more and also good team can exploit it, especially in the wide areas. If your full back commits to a tackle and is unsuccesful, he easily gets beaten and now the opposite winger has an a ton of space to work with. Not to mention how many stupid, unnecessary red cards you're going to get in the process. 

Every single tactic I have played in FM for the last 10 years has been better without "Get stuck in". I just leave it unticked and don't bother. And you know what the result is? 1 to 2 red cards a season. I see so many content creators leaving it on and they wonder, "why is my striker two footing somebody for no reason?!" Get stuck plays a major part in that. Aggression and decisions play a part of course, but the biggest part is played by this little option.

Don't use it, even in PI, it does more damage than good. (in my opinion of course)

 

 

[Enzo_Francescoli]

In my opinion, if one's not going with high lines and crazy pressing, adding get stuck in and at least one aggressive ball-winner role to the tactics helps to somewhat mitigate the enormous handicap this set-up otherwise means in the current version of the game.

Tight marking as a TI I've found completely useless. Your players do stand a little closer to their opponent, only to let them separate moments later, irrespective of their marking skills. I'd say this TI will get results when your pressing is extremely urgent (surprise) which encourages your team to win the ball as quickly as possible, so the players don't have to, you know, actually mark tight for a very long time. Soaking up pressure and forcing the opposition into mistakes with disciplined marking? Not in this game. Now, as an opposition instruction, it can work, but you have to be selective and not use it on too many players. For example it's useful to reduce the effectiveness of, say, a deep lying pivot.

[XuluBak]

Definitely not. As already suggested, don't know that the two go together very well, and almost certainly not as TIs. 

I mostly use mark tightly as a PI, on certain players, for certain opposition players. I mostly only use aggressive tackling as a TI, when I'm trying to get my team back in a match.

[goku4]

thank you very much for your replies. was very helpful. gonna try to tick both off. also if you want to build up the game from defence, and you already have dlp  on the dmc spot, who would you your keeper want to pass? to the dlp, cb, fb or cb and fb? I had them on fb because in that one link you sent posted here, the guy with the 72 unbeatable games also had the gk delivery to the full backs. but I noticed that when the AI plays 4231 and marks my GK tends to just send it forward in nowhere's land

 

[XuluBak]

Depends entirely on my goalkeeper, team tactics, etc. My current keeper has fantastic distribution (across the board), so I give him the freedom to decide. I think I've every option at some point or another, except CB or FB. If I wanted the former, would just have them roll it out. If I wanted the latter, I'd have them distribute wide. 

[Impacto]

On 15/08/2020 at 20:42, goku4 said:

thank you very much for your replies. was very helpful. gonna try to tick both off. also if you want to build up the game from defence, and you already have dlp  on the dmc spot, who would you your keeper want to pass? to the dlp, cb, fb or cb and fb? I had them on fb because in that one link you sent posted here, the guy with the 72 unbeatable games also had the gk delivery to the full backs. but I noticed that when the AI plays 4231 and marks my GK tends to just send it forward in nowhere's land

 

I personally prefer passing it to the CBs. Then they can make a decision how to proceed. I've used passing to the FBs and it worked before on previous games but it's not very realistic with the new rule about players in their own box. You can choose to pass to the DLP too and he will drop deeper to get the ball, but I think passing to the centre backs is just better. Then they can still find the DLP and if they do, chances are he will have a lot more space to do his thing. 

[Rashidi]

Mark tighter and hard tackling can work but I am careful with applying it as a TI because not everyone in my team has good marking or good acceleration and some of my players can be more aggressive. If you are going to use it as a TI have a substitution strategy for your key positions in case they pick up cards.

It can work well (TI and hard tackling) especially with some compact block systems and can be a solid way to do counters, just pay attention to your players. Identifying where you want to win the ball and then applying PIs to those positions is a bit more effective imho.