bean feast

Another one of those questions in where it seems pretty obvious but it's not.

It seems to me that there is no noticeable difference between man and zonal marking UNLESS...unless you pick a specific opponent to mark. For example, if you play two in the middle of the park against say Savage and Reid and you set up as zonal marking, your middle two will stand off the marks a bit. The exact same thing happens though if you select your middle two on man marking (without selecting a specific opponent).

However, if you do actually select your middle two to mark Savage and Reid specifically and respectively, then they attempt to stick to the opponents like glue. Then, when you do select to mark specifically, the AI makes them switch positions to confuse the hell out of your blobs. What to do? Has anyone any clear observations regarding this?

Cheers.

Justified

Well IMO there are quite a few diffrent ways of marking.

Zonal W/O Tight = He'll have his zone and if anyone enters his zone he'll be "aware" of that player. However if 2 players enter's his zone he'll pick one.

Zonal with Tight = Once a player enters his zone he'll be on him like glue and ignore anyone else who enters his zone.

Man-Marking W/O Tight = He'll pick up the opposite player (so if he's a central defender he'll pick his nearest striker) and have his eye solely on him.

Man-Marking with Tight = He'll pick up his opposite and be on him like glue.

Cleon

Pretty much how I see marking too

Scally Of The Wag

if you want an example of real life Zonal marking just watch the Liverpool back four when they play then you will get a good example of the pros and cos of it

faeron

IRL you easily spot a zonal marking team by the following: A player is more aware of where his teammates have positioned themselves than to where the opposition players have positioned themselves.

Zonal marking is more systematized than man marking. The team marks in a system with designated zones for each players. This is the reason why players are often looking to their teammates, to check if they have picked the right position and marking the correct zone.

If you have defenders that are good in duels one on ones(tackling etc.), then they could just as well use a man marking system. If your defenders aren`t like the typical italian centreback(good duelplayers) then you should maximise tactical training and use a zonal marking system. With tactically skilled defenders and using zonal marking you can cover up the lack of classy defenders to a certain degreee.

This was how the zonal marking system was to come in use as well. Lesser skilful football nations started to use it to even out the odds against better football nations.

BocaJ

And is there a correspondence with how well your team plays with either marking system and the prefered marking style of your defense coach?

faeron

Just to be sure I always tries to use both tactical and defending coaches whom prefers to mark and close down the way my team plays.