Zonal VS Man marking?

[OsmosisJones]

I can't stop thinking about that question too, read TT&F 10 about it, read almost every topic about it...
Generally this is what I came up to:
In order to apply man-marking your defenders and defensive midfielders must be good at marking and also good in all defensive attributes. They must be able to stop the attacker in 1v1 situation, otherwise it causes very significant problems in your defense. What I understood is that man-marking means that the defender follows the attacker who enters his zone even after attacker leaves the zone and thus leaving it undefended against other enemy players stepping in the zone. For me it means that man-marking is unacceptable against highly mobile and technically gifted teams such as Barcelona and Arsenal, because a player like Messi will just drag your defenders out of their zone while his teammates tear you apart(Messi is at the Right Inside Fwd position, drags your left defender with him to the middle and passes to Dani Alves, who is free to do whatever he wants, because your left defender is gone). Man-marking seems most suitable against mirror formations(4-4-2 vs 4-4-2) and mirror encounters overall(tall slow defender vs tall slow attacker etc). Man-marking is also more suitable if your team has a lot of defending units and the formation is very defensive minded so that even one of your defenders gets beaten there is always someone nearby for backup.
Overall, Zonal marking seems to work best for me especially versus 4-5-1 formations. Whenever I want to stop a key enemy player who is very good with the ball in his feet - then I tight mark him from the enemy instructions. Tight marking as I read means that your defender will be marking the attacker tighly(charging him for first ball or not letting him have much time to think what to do with the ball) when he is in his zone but will defend his zone when the attacker leaves the zone. Of course zonal marking doesn't require as high marking attr as man-marking, but it requires a decent teamwork from all defensive units and an anchorman or defensive minded midfielder.
Correct me if I am in mistake

 

[n.cahill]

Interesting Topic. I find Zonal marking & Man Marking rather confusing in FM. I am managing Manutd in FM 11 adopting the Man Marking, playing a 4-4-2 formation, and recently I lost 4-0 to Bolton. Yes, Bolton So I make a couple of changes, and now I have conceded only 2 goals in 12 games. I changed my team's formation to 4-5-1(Barcelona's style) and put the team on Zonal marking with the exception of Vidic. Vidic is my Stopper and i put him to man marking, while Rio Ferdinand is Cover(Zonal Tight Marking = NO). This improved alot. Thought you guys might wanna try it.

 

[Thanasis7]

Realistically zonal marking is much better. No one uses man marking anymore.

 

[Spewn]

I get a mix of those. Playing 4 - 4 - 2 and the four in the midfield are set to man marking with closing down up to the max so they chase down the opposite a lot, also my strikers are set this way. The four defenders are set on zonal marking with closing down up to the middle, when someone gets through the midfield respectively there are my defenders waiting. It's working well for me. Not the best tho.

 

[spaldyboy]

Zonal all the way bar my central defenders ... i play one as a stopper on man mark and the other on cover with zonal ... one attacks the oncoming threat the other sweeps up any mess ... just make sure your marking defender is a man mountain **** brick house and your covering must have pace ... works a treat for me and i build my teams around this tactic with alot of success

 

[Vroteier9]

I do zonal, but I always check to see if any of my opponents important attacking players are slow, if their is one, I'll usually have someone man mark them.

 

[papamogl]

I guess there is a lot of confusion around here about man marking and zonal. True, in real life man marking has practically died out and is only used in special situations. So, understandably most of the brokensjnf8ewhce8.com want to play zonal marking as most of the higher league teams irl do. But, and this is truly counterintuitive, man marking in FM is some kind of zonal marking really, at least according to TT&F 10. When set to man marking, your player is still defending a zone, not following one opponents player all over the pitch. If you want to do this you have to set specific man marking in the tactics screen just before the game starts. The difference between man marking and zonal marking, again according to TT&F, is that when set to zonal marking your player will defend his zone more aggressively. Which means he is stepping out of his position earlier to press an opponent player instead of hangig back.
So, if you believe this admittedly counterintuitive TT&F theory, when setting up man marking you'll actually still be playing zonal marking, but in a more aggressive heavier pressing way. According to this it wouldn't be wise to set up your CBs to man marking, because they are probably the only players (except of course for the keeper) you wouldn't wanna have pressing the opponent. So I usually set my CBs to tight zonal marking and my midfielders to loose man marking and this is working well for me.

 

[josh0093]

mixed - The only positions that man marks are CB and my defensive midfielder.