How To Coach Man-Marking And Zonal Marking – Tactical Theory

With football tactics constantly evolving and defensive systems becoming increasingly structured and organised, any football fan needs to understand the basics of football defending.

Defending is applying pressure, both as a player and as a whole team, on the opponent to prevent him from progressing forward to your own goal.

A team can mark and press every player, but there will be no room for error, as when the marker gets passed, the team is immediately outnumbered.

Then, you can defend zonally, but you cant let the opposition have all the time they want on the ball, either.

So, depending on the current circumstances, any team can apply many defensive strategies for any particular match.

Football teams in the modern era defend as a unit, and every player has a particular defensive task in every game.

It is the coachs job to convey to the players his message about how to defend as a team and as a player alone.

Generally speaking, there are two types of marking opposition players in football: man-marking and zonal marking.

In this tactical analysis, I will compare them to some of the most well-known variations used by teams in the past and modern football.

Moreover, I will look into some mixed systems that can use both man and zonal-marking when defending.

What Is Man-marking?

Strict man-marking is the most basic way of defending when every player gets his marker and is tasked to control and track his movements during the game.

This method of defending was wildly popular from the beginning of association football until the second half of the twentieth century.

It can still be applied on corners and generally on set-pieces, plus in certain situations when a player or a group of players are man-marking the opposition, not a team.

Defending by strictly man-marking every player has its advantages.

For example, it is very easy for a coach to communicate this idea to his players, and it is a simple task for players to execute compared to other defensive systems, where you have to control a handful of other variables.

However, this system shows its flaws when the opposing team tries to exploit it through simple positional rotations.

It creates havoc in the whole defensive system because the player whose marker left the position faces the dilemma of whether or not to follow his marker.

If he does, then he will leave a gap in the defensive line in which he is playing.

The opposition team gets one free man to pass to and intensify their attack if he doesnt.

The basic examples include the number 9 dropping into the midfield and wingers cutting inside to drag the opposition full-backs with them, thus allowing their full-backs to exploit the space.

Flexible man-marki