What exactly is the use of 'Specific Marking'?

I use two CBs, and they both are quite different in terms of Strength, Jumping Ability etc, so obviously when I am up against a team playing two forwards, one strong in the air and the other quick, I want my CBs to mark the respective forwards who they should do well against (quick defender with quick forward etc, you get the idea).

Start of the game, everything is dandy. I place my CB in the correct position to counter the respective forward they are to defend against, and to make doubly sure I get them to specifically man mark them. Now, when the AI sneakily exchanges the positions of the forwards few minutes into the game, I expect my CBs to still man-mark who I assigned them to right? Wrong. My slow defender marks the quick one, and my quick defender marks the guy who now wins every header. Worse is the only time I get to notice this is when the quick forward has run past my slow defender and had a good chance to score while my quick defender is off marking the other forward. I go to the tactics screen and lo and behold, my defenders are no longer marking who I assigned them to. Its like the AI has switched who my CBs should be marking for me, which is ridiculous.

Anybody else frustrated by this and what is your workaround this issue (besides getting two similar superhuman CBs who can do everything but fly)?

Yeah the specific marking marks a position, not a player name. Silly isn't it...

Yeah the specific marking marks a position, not a player name. Silly isn't it...

Yes it is, because if I wanted to mark a position, I'd just use 'Man' marking wouldn't I?

Hopefully something can be done about this...

I use two CBs, and they both are quite different in terms of Strength, Jumping Ability etc, so obviously when I am up against a team playing two forwards, one strong in the air and the other quick, I want my CBs to mark the respective forwards who they should do well against (quick defender with quick forward etc, you get the idea).

Start of the game, everything is dandy. I place my CB in the correct position to counter the respective forward they are to defend against, and to make doubly sure I get them to specifically man mark them. Now, when the AI sneakily exchanges the positions of the forwards few minutes into the game, I expect my CBs to still man-mark who I assigned them to right? Wrong. My slow defender marks the quick one, and my quick defender marks the guy who now wins every header. Worse is the only time I get to notice this is when the quick forward has run past my slow defender and had a good chance to score while my quick defender is off marking the other forward. I go to the tactics screen and lo and behold, my defenders are no longer marking who I assigned them to. Its like the AI has switched who my CBs should be marking for me, which is ridiculous.

Anybody else frustrated by this and what is your workaround this issue (besides getting two similar superhuman CBs who can do everything but fly)?

It is a bit annoying, especially when you haven't got two 'super centre backs'. On FM08 I would have thrown somebody out of a room for what I'm about to suggest to you, but so far for my Oldham team (FM09) its worked a treat. Have your both your centre halves on zonal marking and tick the tight marking box. For added security do the same as for your full backs. So far, from what I've seen anyway, the centre halves tend to stay close (tight marking) to the relevent forward, without actually being on top of them (man marking) because their instructions are to mark space and not people. I have Sean Gregan (old, slow but a daddy in the air and the tackle) and Ruben Hazell (younger, reasonably pacey and average in the air) and it works for me just fine.

Personally i still dont think man marking (specific or otherwise) is working properly.

I know old versions of FM had problems with it, and some it was virtual suicide to select man marking.

I often notice that i set my DCs to man mark, and my DC have very high marking/positioning and concentration so in theory they should always be there or there abouts near to their opposite number, but many many times they will both attempt to win the same header or tackle the same player completely ignoring there marking command which imo should overide all other defensive duties.

If Fergie told Ferdinand to mark Drogba he would not be impressed if Ferdinand ran half way across the pitch to tackle Joe Cole down the wing leaving Drogba unmarked.

A lot of missed interceptions too, especially by centre halves.

I set my MC to man mark Leon Osman as he was playing behind the striker. It worked great at first, but in the 2nd half Everton switched to a 442-formation and scored immediately. What was weird though was that I seemed to be playing with three strikers when they scored. I checked the tactics and my MC was now marking their right back. Very annoying.

Specific man marking has been working fine for me recently. I usually man mark specifically opponent's ML/MR with my fullbacks and DL/DR with my wingers. Why?

Because overlapping of AI fullbacks in attack is so dangerous in 9.1.0 that it is imposible to defend it without non-specific man marking.

Specific man marking has been working fine for me recently. I usually man mark specifically opponent's ML/MR with my fullbacks and DL/DR with my wingers. Why?

Because overlapping of AI fullbacks in attack is so dangerous in 9.1.0 that it is imposible to defend it without non-specific man marking.

It works, sure, but only in the beginning provided no major changes are made to the opponent's formation. I think the most affected by this are the CBs, followed by the DMs, where they are likely to get assigned another player besides who they were initially picked to mark whenever there is a tactic change.

This happens all the time. The human players are quite simply dumb imo when it comes to man marking. If they had atleast a part of the 'I' the AI has, with the given SPECIFIC MAN MARKING, they'll surely change their position when the opponent strikers change theirs.

It works, sure, but only in the beginning provided no major changes are made to the opponent's formation. I think the most affected by this are the CBs, followed by the DMs, where they are likely to get assigned another player besides who they were initially picked to mark whenever there is a tactic change.

I use Specific marking quite often, works for me, especially against the big teams. Can mark fabregas outa the game quite often with a good mc/dm.

I use Specific marking quite often, works for me, especially against the big teams. Can mark fabregas outa the game quite often with a good mc/dm.

nope, haven't lost to arsenal in 5 games I've played in current game. Won 1 drawn 4.

nope, haven't lost to arsenal in 5 games I've played in current game. Won 1 drawn 4.

Since I have been using specific man marking I have won 6 matches in row with 2 draws before shame that Arsenal was mye last match without specific man marking.

Specific man marking is extremely effective untill the opposition starts to swap players around, then the system just becomes totally bugged with your players either defaulting to man marking or worst case sticking with their assignment who is now in a totally different position (I had micah richards man marking Peter Crouch 1st game of the season and Pompey changed formation to 4-5-1 pulling Crouch back to DC - Richards was still trying to tight man mark him!)

I should be able to tell my DC's "you mark the bigger guy, you mark the quicker guy" but oh no I have to stop the game in a panic to tell my DC not to race 50 yards up pitch to try and close the opposition DC down.

I dont think it will ever get changed though, it has been reported as buggy ever since FM2005. Same as requests to carry over player instructions when swapping player positions has never been implemented - I bet when the ai swaps its Target man/fast striker it also swaps their instructions.

One thing you can do if you want to match up your DC's with a specific striker and the ai is swapping them, is to put swap position on your DC's. When I have done this ai seems to give up swapping them and you get the match up you want 50% of the time instead of never

Specific man marking is extremely effective untill the opposition starts to swap players around, then the system just becomes totally bugged with your players either defaulting to man marking or worst case sticking with their assignment who is now in a totally different position (I had micah richards man marking Peter Crouch 1st game of the season and Pompey changed formation to 4-5-1 pulling Crouch back to DC - Richards was still trying to tight man mark him!)

I should be able to tell my DC's "you mark the bigger guy, you mark the quicker guy" but oh no I have to stop the game in a panic to tell my DC not to race 50 yards up pitch to try and close the opposition DC down.

I dont think it will ever get changed though, it has been reported as buggy ever since FM2005. Same as requests to carry over player instructions when swapping player positions has never been implemented - I bet when the ai swaps its Target man/fast striker it also swaps their instructions.

One thing you can do if you want to match up your DC's with a specific striker and the ai is swapping them, is to put swap position on your DC's. When I have done this ai seems to give up swapping them and you get the match up you want 50% of the time instead of never

The fact that so many opposition instructions are forgotten if changes are made annoys me a lot!

When I change my tactic during a match, all instructions are gone.

When the opposition changes positions, all is gone.

Why?