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One of the toughest things to achieve in FM, I believe, is a water-tight back line. Only once or twice have I ever tinkered with man-marking in all my days as a virtual manager. Perhaps one of the ways I could improve the defence of my teams is by implementing an effective man-marking system?
As is always my philosophy with my threads, I could care less if man-marking simply just 'works.' I need to see the observable effects occurring in front of my eyes in the match-engine. I aim to carry out an extensive marking experiment with screenshots. If anyone has already done this, I would be most happy, and I would love to see any accompanying screenshots. I'm involved in a few other threads at the minute, so if anyone has any time, I would appreciate any volunteers/contributors.
Questions I want Answered
a. Why is man-marking available? Why have I never used it? WHAT DOES IT DO??!!!
b. What are the effects of having a CB, FB, CM, WG, and ST set to man marking?
c. What are the effects of having these fellas set to man-marking with mark tightly?
d. What are the effects of zonal marking?
e. What are the effects of having a zonal marker set to mark tightly?
I've had my CBs set to man marking once or twice, but I couldn't tell the difference between this and zonal marking. On the other hand, if you select a player to mark 'specifically' an opposing player, it is much more observable on the screen. HOWEVER, the AI will often switch a winger or a striker to a different position and your marker becomes dragged all over the place. You have to constantly be aware of the opposing formation and positions and it becomes rather frustrating and wastes a lot of time.
After watching the Man Utd v Reading match, it occurred to me just how powerful a system that man marking approach could be. Can it be successfully translated into Football Manager?...
I've never done an experiment but played my DCs on man marking (all other players on zonal) for quite a few seasons with different teams. They have defensive mentality (5) and close down rarely (4).
Things I can be sure about.
1) When I am attacking and AI ST stays up, one of my DCs is always near him and moves with him. Not sure if zonal marking would work the same way.
2) When AI is attaking slowly (not talking about breaks) one or both my DCs are always near opposition STs except when ST runs to flank somewhere between center line and area. That is, DCs don't really leave centarl zone, but swap positions with each other if necessary.
I don't know if it is coincedence, but if AI STs score against my team, 90% it's either corner, or free-kick, or stupid mistake by my player (usually not DC though). Aside from set pieces I usually allow goals from distanse or when ball is not cleared far enough and DM does not pick it up. What's important, I almost never allow goals on break as my defenders stay with STs rather than holding defensive line shape.
As irl, I think man marking system should be very effective for relatively weak teams/defenders. The reason is that zonal marking requires extremely good understanding among all defenders and GK. Man marking maybe realtively dangerous when STs are very good but at least it ensures that STs never stays free, therefore increases chances that DCs can at least make life difficult to them.
Good luck. On the back of this thread, i decided to try man marking for a few games. I went into my game against Wigan having conceeded 5 in 8 games...
My defense was suddenly awful. My keeper was in immense form, yet still conceeded 3... Luckily one was ruled offside... Or it would have finished Wigan 3-2 Arsenal...
I'm usually at my best away from home, but suddenly my team couldn't defend. Gallas got a 5.
funnily enough the best ever GA tactic ive ever had was set to team man mark in hte team instructions! so everyone was man marking. it resulted in a rediculous 0.3 GA rating for the season!
i only got to use it for 1 season as i had to reboot windows! mannn i lost a lot of great tacs there!
I've never done an experiment but played my DCs on man marking (all other players on zonal) for quite a few seasons with different teams. They have defensive mentality (5) and close down rarely (4).
Things I can be sure about.
1) When I am attacking and AI ST stays up, one of my DCs is always near him and moves with him. Not sure if zonal marking would work the same way.
2) When AI is attaking slowly (not talking about breaks) one or both my DCs are always near opposition STs except when ST runs to flank somewhere between center line and area. That is, DCs don't really leave centarl zone, but swap positions with each other if necessary.
I don't know if it is coincedence, but if AI STs score against my team, 90% it's either corner, or free-kick, or stupid mistake by my player (usually not DC though). Aside from set pieces I usually allow goals from distanse or when ball is not cleared far enough and DM does not pick it up. What's important, I almost never allow goals on break as my defenders stay with STs rather than holding defensive line shape.
As irl, I think man marking system should be very effective for relatively weak teams/defenders. The reason is that zonal marking requires extremely good understanding among all defenders and GK. Man marking maybe realtively dangerous when STs are very good but at least it ensures that STs never stays free, therefore increases chances that DCs can at least make life difficult to them.
Agreed, I was useing zonal marking for most of last season, but then towards the end of the season [march-april] I went back to using man mark for my back 4 and I keep three clean sheets - one against Man U at home, but still scored freely... 1-0, 3-0, 2-0.
Originally posted by Marseille07:
You need more samples. 3 clean sheets in a row, while impressive, are not enough to conclude anything.
No so much just keeping 'the clean sheet' but the way my defenders played, for most of the season they were letting opposing players/strikers drift in behind/between them and letting long balls through/over them - not sure weather to go after the ball or close down the opposing player/striker but since I've changed BACK to man marking on my back 4 they have either attacking the ball or their man, gone are the days were long balls aren't getting dealt with and striker making un marked run in behind the defence, if they opposing team does score it will either be a set peice, long range screamer of chasing the game in the last 10 mins - when we are 2-0 nil up.
Biggest problem I have found with Man Marking is opposition strikers running off/running in behind my CB's. IF the opposing striker does this then your CB's just seem to stand still, the opposing striker gets a 7-10 yard advantage with a clear run on goal.
It appears when you watch the game that your CB doesn't actually man mark the opposing ST. He stands in the vicinity but as I say the striker seems to burst past your CB who just stands and stares in admiration.
Whenever this has happened I immediately check stats of opposing striker and my CB to see if there are certain attributes in the striker when compared to my CB but often they have lower acceleration, less pace while both my CB's have 15+ for marking.
I don't have much confidence in using this system with CB's but I am keen to see any conclusions that you come up with.
Arteta's Marking Experiment 
Linear Mode
