Thread by @CamH___

THREAD:

Man marking vs zonal marking, a combination of both, and when they are used.

CC: @TacticalPad

In short, man marking has a player that sticks very tight to an opponent, while zonal marking has a player that covers the space around their position, loosely moving their position based on their opponent's movements.

Man marking used to be the norm before football evolved to the level of defending it's at now. These days, we see mostly zonal marking with hints of man marking.

Man marking of old was very chaotic and led to very open, direct games.

Here is how it used to look.

If a defending team marks every single attacker, following their movements closely, the attackers can take advantage of this by moving from their positions and creating space to attack.

We do see some instances of man marking in 2021, albeit rare.

It should be used sparingly as teams and players these days are smart. They can solve this problem.

By marking one player specifically, an attacking team will be more reluctant to avoid using them while attacking. It can force the attackers to go backwards or sideways; anywhere but forward is great.

Man marking is not without it's cons, as I've said.

As a matter of fact, at the highest level of football, players are smart enough to realize when they're being marked and will play around it.

Here's how that might look.

When you mark a player specifically, they can lead you out of position, depending on how closely you mark them, thus creating gaps that the attackers can exploit.

So, these days we often see a larger emphasis on zonal marking, and at times, a mix of both.

I'll separate zonal marking into two sub-categories:
1) Player oriented
2) Ball oriented

All this means is that the defending team uses these as reference points for when to press.

Player oriented zonal marking just means that the defending team will press when a specific player gets the ball.

Once the defenders know where the ball is going, they'll mark the passing options that the player has while pressing the player in possession.

Here's how that might look. Player oriented zonal pressing is often used by teams that are comfortable pressing.

Defenders will look for pressing triggers to decide when to press and how hard to press.

Ball oriented zonal marking is similar, however, teams will use the ball as a reference point, rather than a player.

The defenders follow the ball and aim to keep spaces between the lines narrow and the defending structure compact.

This is often used by teams that don't like to press as aggressively. If you press, you risk leaving space behind you. So, teams using ball oriented zonal marking try to avoid that.

It isn't pretty, but it works.

Finally, let's take a look at how a combination of both man marking & zonal marking might look.

A defending team may want to mark a specific player but not compromise their structure.

So, to do this, defenders will "take turns" marking an attacker, depending on their movement.

This type of marking requires defenders to pay attention to their opponent's movement off the ball.

It isn't easy, especially if we consider that an attacking team may have more than just one player given freedom to move where they want while attacking.

Defending is hard.

END OF THREAD:

Final thought:

I'll admit that this is pretty surface level. The concepts are easy to understand, but the depth we could go to when discussing a team's defending strategies would keep us here for ages.

If you'd like to see in-depth football content, I make threads like these every Sunday.

I also write weekly match analysis articles for @pythaginboots with other excellent analysts. Threads, scouting reports, podcasts & more.

Here's a link to the site: pythagorasinboots.com

At the end of these threads I like to share other people's work, but not this week.

This week, I'd like to share my chess podcast with you: "Back Rank Mates"

It's a podcast where me and my friend Brendan talk all things chess. I haven't told him I'm doing this. It will be funny to see if a spike in traffic or emails surprises him:

open.spotify.com/show/5qwU4ljCT…