too many yellow cards

How do I stop my team from collecting so many yellow cards? I have tackling set to cautious and they play almost all of every game with the stand-off shout in effect. I use man marking. Would zonal marking get fewer cards?

I play zonal marking with cautious tackling for most defensive players and consistently place first or near there in the fair play rankings. Give it a go.

What are they getting yellow cards for?

Its possible that standing off is making it worse as your players are further from the opposition giving them more time and leading to mistimed or late challenges.

Do you use your assman's individual instructions? They tend to go for leg-break tackling which over-rides your sensible settings.

I only use man marking if I have a defensive player in the anchor-man position. I'd definitely recommend you switch to zonal if this isn't the case for you (The only case where I wouldn't necessarily do this is if I'm playing a much weaker team that poses little offensive threat to me).

Proliferation of cards usually down to your team being uncomfortable with your tactical approach imo. Does it leave your players out of position a lot? Are they unable to keep possession, leading to desperate tackles etc?

i set everybody to easy tackling other than my best 'defensive' central midfielder who i leave on normal and i normally have one of if not the lowest amount of cards in the league

Edit: Mainly use zonal marking too

If your formation doesn't "line up" well with the opposition you will get more cards, from my experience. If they play 4-4-2 and you play 4-4-2 (with normal tackling, etc.) then you will tend not to get as many cards. If they play 4-5-1 and you play 4-4-2 (box) you will get your fair share of cards. It has to do with the distance your players have to cover in this case, and by the time they get to the player he is at full pace and approaching a dangerous position.