Poll - Man or Zonal Marking for Centre back

The title says it all

The title says it all

Man

One man, one zonal.

The zonal one stays in the middle, the man closes down.

Zonal with a DM in front to fill in that space. Exceptions made if opposition do something out of the ordinary.

Queen of the Stevenage - you mean the zonal one is set to lower closing down then the man one.

djhdjh - I suppose the DM is set to zonal?

Man marking.

Sometimes play with 3 CBKs so the 2 outside ones man mark and the central one goes zonal to clean up after them.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by C®ouch:

Queen of the Stevenage - you mean the zonal one is set to lower closing down then the man one. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah. That way he's not left exposed then the man-marker charges off to get his man

I play 4-4-2 diamond.

Firstly I look at the opposition midfielders and attackers. Any player who averages one goal or assist (combined) every 4 games is a target. I set show on foot to his weakest foot (unless he is at least strong in both).

I then man mark him. If he is two points faster in pace + accelation than the defender I'll just man mark him. If he's around the same speed or slower, I man mark him tightly.

The exception is central midfielders, who'll I'll only show on foot unless they're an inspiration in that position then I'll set tight marking on them in the opposition instructions.

Defensive midfielders and wing backs I treat as defenders.

So there you go. >_>

both man mark and tight marking, very low closing down.

IMO if you do man-marking you should lower the closing down. otherwise, if you select man-marking AND high closing down, you are giving your player a completely different order:

1) I want you to stay close to player A (man-marking)

2) and I want you to charge down any player which enter the half/whole pitch (high closing down)

so much to say, so i'll just put this down. it depends on a lot of factors.

Zonal for me most of the time, but against a single-striker formation, its one explicit-man on him, and the other zonal.

I also set the "Closing Down" to very low values so that they "stay home".

Depends on the opposition.

Man mark players like Viduka and Carew (strong/arial threat).

Stand off players like Torres and Anelka (fast/clever/sneaky/dribblers).

Like most aspects of FM08 there are too many factors to have one answer.

So, when the opposition have a mega dribbler like Palacio I should set my DCs to close down rarely? Maybe that would lower the amount of times he ran through my defense...

If you have defenders with good pace and decisions, then have them always close down. The thinking is that is if they run, your defender will be able to match them!

That's how I play anyway!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Queen of the Stevenage:

If you have defenders with good pace and decisions, then have them always close down. The thinking is that is if they run, your defender will be able to match them!

That's how I play anyway! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

And because there is no edit function, DON'T put instructions on both centre backs, just put on the opposition instructions 'Always close down'

Plus if he has low bravery stats 'Always tackle hard'

tried and tested both! man for me hands down

I always stick to man but i might give zonal a chance to see what happens.

i tend to man mark when facing two forwards and zonal when facing anything else.

ST/FC=zonal

MR/ML/AMC=zonal

DM=zonal

All others Man

WING BACKS and fullbacks on man mark as well? wat bout against fast wingers? isnt tat a bit too dangerous?

zonal all the way

At all times back 4 are Zonal, close down top of own area, defensive mentality.

I've never really trusted man-marking for the last few versions of FM - i've had some appalling results from it, although that is no doubt partly because of the instructions that go with it.

I've zonal marked most of this season, but had forgotten last night that I put my Fiorentina DCs onto man marking a couple of matches previously just to try it out. We faced Roma at home with that setup and they were playing one lone striker. He absolutely annhilated our defence, netting 4 in the first half before I looked and realised I had man-marking on. Then I switched to one man specific marking him and the other zonal marking. Hard to say if it worked though since Roma just strode through the second half with their work done anyway.

I'm hopeless with defensive instructions in general though - this Fiorentina team are the worst defensive team I've ever seen for a team at their level. We have the 2nd highest goals scored in the division, but only two teams in Serie A have conceded more goals than us! I'll probably try some different instructions again tonight and see if I can get man-marking to work better. Kevin Nolan did a good job as a DMC man-marking Kaka out of the game in the San Siro so mebee I can get my DCs to do a little better than the Roma debacle!

I HAVE ALL OPPOSITE WINGERS/FULLBACK ON 'CLOSING DOWN & SHOW ONTO WEAKER FOOT

AMC'S ON HARD TACKLING AND CLOSING DOWN (MAINLY BECAUSE THESE ARE THE FLAIR PLAYERS SO I LIKE TO GIVE THEM A GOOD KICKING

IF IM AGAINST A TM ILL MAN MARK AND HARD TACKLING

FAST STRIKERS ILL CLOSE DOWN / WEAK FOOT

I HAVE 2 ATTACKING DMCS IN MY FORMATION BUT I HAVE THEM SET TO ALWAYS CLOSING DOWN AND HARD TACKLING

I BASICALLY USE KIMZ V1 & V2 TACTICS AND USE THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT ARE SET FOR THEM

PS SORRY FOR THE CAPS, MY SHIFT KEYS STUCK DOWN

I find that if I use man marking a good team will pull my defenders out of position and leave me exposed at the back. That's why I now stick with tight, zonal marking. I see it as the defenders getting tight on any player that enters their 'zone', while at the same time the team keeps a good shape.

It works well for me anyway.

tried both. definately man for me. only use zonal when the opposition plays 4-1-2-1-2. with the CF's having farrows to FR and FL position. just so i dont leave space for the AMC.

I use a back four so.....

For single opposing striker = zonal marking.

For two opposing strikers = man marking.

I should add that if they use an AMC, then I always place a DMC as well to man mark him.