The Art of Man Marking

Welcome and good morning, afternoon or evening to everyone. Today we, in the class of Professor Sandwich, will learn about something somewhat peculiar for most of us.

What is Man Marking?

First of all, before we get into the game, we must know what is man marking. It’s a popular way that clubs mostly underdogs, use to make sure their opposition key player couldn’t make an impact by assigning a player to go wherever the targeted man go, and make sure they can’t take control of the ball. Mostly, the main playmaker would be target for man marking although there are times the best player of a club will be the target.

This idea was originally made famous in the 1960s during the Catenaccio era, where sweepers or defensive midfielders would be the man to do man marking duty. One of the most notable performance of man marking the playmaker was in World Cup 1982. Claudio Gentile prevented Zico and Diego Maradona from making their usual impact to the national team and Italy go on to win the World Cup.

In the modern days, one of the famous performance of man marking was the match between Girona vs FC Barcelona in 2017. Where Girona player, Pablo Maffeo gave FC Barcelona star, Lionel Messi, a hard time throughout the match. Despite Messi scored in the match, he struggled for most part of the match and we his contributions considered as somewhat lucky.

Man Marking in Football Manager Mobile

You got plenty of roles with the option to trigger man marking. The image below will show every role capable of man marking

The only role absent from the screenshot is the DM role due to not enough spot to show. There’s 11 roles to choose so don’t have such a huge dilemma.

I will show how I manage to turn my bad run of form in the VPL with a squad of relegation battle team, to finishing 2nd with the same squad. This is how it looks like before I implemented man marking:

Don’t be fooled. I may use Lazio but don’t expect players like SMS, Luis Alberto or Immobile. My star is a 17 years old Florian Wirtz. This is how my form looks like after the end of the season:

 We won against Sassuolo, Torina and Roma while managed to keep out Inter Milan and Napoli from scoring goals against us. Unbelievable right? Don’t worry I’ll teach all of you how this can be achieved.

Formation & Roles

The best formation I’d say to do this is 4-3-3 with a DM and 2 WBs pushed up like this:

It’s a good balanced formation to prepare for any kind of man marking we would need.

You don’t have to choose which player to do the duty just yet. Get into your match and quickly look at the opposition tactic. Look where their playmaker is and you know which player will have the man marking duty. I’ll explain further in the thread.

I can’t show much about my VPL performance, so we’ll be traveling to Berlin and take charge of Hertha BSC.

Before we start, you may ask why Hertha? It’s simple; Hertha Berlin got it all for a title winning underdog. Quite solid CBs with Boyata and Stark, solid midfield with Khedira, Ascasibar and Tousart and finally lethal finisher in Piatek. Lets head to the first game.

Hannover 96 (4-5-1 flat)

They lined up with a 5-4-1 formation. There’s 2 playmaker. In this kind of situation, both APs will look for the striker for a direct contribution or the winger for them to look for crosses. What you have to do is to mark either one of the playmaker.

That’ll leave them with only one man in the middle and you would have 2 men in midfield. This way, you will easily win the midfield battle.

Both of their midfield failed to do any impact in the game resulting both wingers and the lone striker also struggled throughout.

Meanwhile, our man marker, Lucas Tousart got himself a MoTM award, 5 interceptions, 3 tackles completed and 76 passes completed.

SpVgg Furth (4-3-3 2DM)

With formation like this, the main target is surely the striker.

We used our DM for the job. That will leave us with 2 man in midfield but despite that, we got a lot of chances for counter attack when they don’t have any striker to convert the chances.

They managed to score but despite that, the striker couldn’t manage to do anything with only 1 shot attempted. Their defensive solidity really saved the day for them.

Ascasibar did very well with about 96% pass completion, 3 interceptions and 2 tackles completed.

Eintracht Braunschweig (5-3-2)

A very solid formation and one of the hard one to counter. They rely on only one playmaker so he’s the guy we will get rid of.

Ascasibar in the DM were once again chosen for the man marking job. 5-3-2 is something I would say almost a direct counter to 4-3-3. Our main man will have to be at his top form to hold on to this.

We managed to win a narrow 2-1 win. They scored a lucky free kick which shown how solid our defence are. Their playmaker struggled and keep doing sideway passes which is why he had a somewhat good 29 passes completed.

Ascasibar had a decent game. He didn’t have much trouble keeping up with the playmaker resulting only 1 tackle completed and 1 interception.

Werder Bremen (5-3-2)

Another 5-3-2 but this time we’re facing a roaming playmaker at the LCM spot.

We tasked our LCM, Lucas Tousart to counter Eggestein the roaming playmaker for Werder Bremen.

They couldn’t create any chances until Eggestein got subbed out with Mohwald. He struggled and Mbom took his role for the playmaking role. He struggled too.

Tousart didn’t perform a single tackle the whole game. He calmly passed the ball to his teammates with ease.

Eintracht Frankfurt (5-2-1-2)

A solid formation but very easy to counter with man marking.

Ascasibar will do the task again since they’re playing with an AM in the middle.

The whole team played badly. Their AM didn’t make any impact so the manager subbed in a new guy in the 2nd half, he touched the ball only twice the whole much. Total dominance from our team.

Another relaxing match for our man marker. The targeted man couldn’t cope having someone keep following him all the time.

FC Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1)

Something I’m sure everyone is waiting for. We’re going to go against the league leader, Bayern Munich.

A strong team they had lined up. We will need a serious luck to not lose this.

We put our usual lineup with Ascasibar again as man marking lad.

We may had conceded 2 goals but look at the stats. Lewandowski and Musiala made a total of 2 completed passes! 2! They were lucky enough to score 2 goals from set pieces and Muller was the main taker for everything.

Ascasibar had a tough job time but he did very well and hardly put his foot wrong.

That’s the end of our lesson today students. I hope you can understand what I had taught all of you.

Have a question? Don’t be shy and drop them all in the comments below. Good bye!

 

[hhooo]

Nice examples and write up, but my biggest question regarding MM is how do you choose which opposition player they mark? For example, many teams the AI sets out play 3 central defenders, wingbacks, 1 forward, and 4 playmakers, similar to your Werner tactic. Are there any formations or number of play makers where you specifically choose not to MM? 

[broodje kip]

32 minutes ago, hhooo said:

Nice examples and write up, but my biggest question regarding MM is how do you choose which opposition player they mark? For example, many teams the AI sets out play 3 central defenders, wingbacks, 1 forward, and 4 playmakers, similar to your Werner tactic. Are there any formations or number of play makers where you specifically choose not to MM? 

When they have many playmakers like in my Werner tactic, the main guy we must target is the striker like how I set up against SpVgg Furth where they have many supporting roles and it focuses on the striker. 😁

Thanks for the review 

[hhooo]

20 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

When they have many playmakers like in my Werner tactic, the main guy we must target is the striker like how I set up against SpVgg Furth where they have many supporting roles and it focuses on the striker. 😁

Thanks for the review 

I feel like my experience playing midday be quite different, as most goals against my teams come from midfielders, I rarely concede to strikers. 

 

But I still want to know how you manage to specifically mark a single player. For example, if you want to MM a center forward, do you need to map one CD into the middle position for it to work? Or if there are two AMs, do you need to move your DM to one side? 

[broodje kip]

20 minutes ago, hhooo said:

I feel like my experience playing midday be quite different, as most goals against my teams come from midfielders, I rarely concede to strikers. 

 

But I still want to know how you manage to specifically mark a single player. For example, if you want to MM a center forward, do you need to map one CD into the middle position for it to work? Or if there are two AMs, do you need to move your DM to one side? 

Not sure about midfielder thing. I keep conceding from strikers.

I found players will mark the closest player in their position. Lets say a DM in the middle will mark an AMC if there’s one. If there’s two, he will mark the striker instead because that’s the closest. It’s the same thing happened in the match against Barunschweig where my DM marked the AP in CM position because it’s the closest to him. FMM don’t have man marking system like in the PC version where we can set to mark a specific position so that’s all we can do. We may only move players to the required position.

[hhooo]

16 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Not sure about midfielder thing. I keep conceding from strikers.

I found players will mark the closest player in their position. Lets say a DM in the middle will mark an AMC if there’s one. If there’s two, he will mark the striker instead because that’s the closest. It’s the same thing happened in the match against Barunschweig where my DM marked the AP in CM position because it’s the closest to him. FMM don’t have man marking system like in the PC version where we can set to mark a specific position so that’s all we can do. We may only move players to the required position.

Okay, the DM moving back to cover the striker is interesting. Good to know. Thanks!

[Chelseaplchamps2022]

Lol, I was about to make a guide/experiment about man-marking! Fantastic write up though mate!

[Schwantz34]

Cracking write-up this!

Fantastic stuff 👏

Edited March 1, 2021 by Schwantz34

[broodje kip]

34 minutes ago, Chelseaplchamps2021 said:

Lol, I was about to make a guide/experiment about man-marking! Fantastic write up though mate!

I’m sorry mate didn’t know that. Maybe we can collaborate on an article in the future 😉

[Cziffra]

I wonder if man marking still works in a 2-man midfield?

 

[broodje kip]

1 minute ago, Cziffra said:

I wonder if man marking still works in a 2-man midfield?

 

Yes but risky. You may cover the man marker with positions like WM or IWB to make sure you don’t get outnumbered in the middle.

[geordiekrispy]

Nice guide @broodje kip I might have to try and put this into practice a bit.

 

I do wonder why your CDM was man-marking the striker, rather than the AMC for the Bayern game. If you want the striker marked, should you not use a CD?

[Schwantz34]

A man marker is something I've been toying with in my 4-1-2-2-1 that's in the tactic thread on here, to go with adding Skhiri to my squad who looks perfect for it.

Looking at this guide I may try moving which player does it, depending on the shape we play against. I've been leaving it on the DM after a slight tweak to my system. Your ideas here might make it even better.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Schwantz34

[broodje kip]

8 hours ago, geordiekrispy said:

Nice guide @broodje kip I might have to try and put this into practice a bit.

 

I do wonder why your CDM was man-marking the striker, rather than the AMC for the Bayern game. If you want the striker marked, should you not use a CD?

He’s man marking Muller but the strikers, Lewandowski and Musiala got the most effect because of nobody is supporting them. They’re playing as a poacher that game therefore without the AMC, they do close to nothing

Edited March 1, 2021 by broodje kip

[Stuttgartsteve]

I’m a long time lurker on this site but never made an account before because I hadn’t seen much point considering I find some of the careers and scores in events quite cheaty. I felt I had to make an account though just to thank you for this article as it’s very interesting and has given me a lot to think about in my own careers.

[broodje kip]

1 hour ago, Stuttgartsteve said:

I’m a long time lurker on this site but never made an account before because I hadn’t seen much point considering I find some of the careers and scores in events quite cheaty. I felt I had to make an account though just to thank you for this article as it’s very interesting and has given me a lot to think about in my own careers.

Thanks mate though I think it’s unfair to say our careers and events as “cheaty”. We do as hard as we can to push the game to its limit so all the outrageous numbers are pretty much doable. It’s how the game works. What can I say? 🤷

[Stuttgartsteve]

9 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Thanks mate though I think it’s unfair to say our careers and events as “cheaty”. We do as hard as we can to push the game to its limit so all the outrageous numbers are pretty much doable. It’s how the game works. What can I say? 🤷

you are wrong some numbers are doable and some are not.

[thatmonstak]

Thank you so much for this revelation of a post. Never knew man marking could be so important. Amidst the whole throng of posts claiming to be the best formation ever, this post has got to be the most useful one. I went about setting up man marking for individual games and man , the difference was stark. I won the ECC final with BVB and completely dominated Juventus and negated their attackers (Dybala and CR7). Just so you know OP, I created an account just to thank you for this!

Edited April 14, 2021 by thatmonstak
Adding an image

[broodje kip]

5 hours ago, thatmonstak said:

Thank you so much for this revelation of a post. Never knew man marking could be so important. Amidst the whole throng of posts claiming to be the best formation ever, this post has got to be the most useful one. I went about setting up man marking for individual games and man , the difference was stark. I won the ECC final with BVB and completely dominated Juventus and negated their attackers (Dybala and CR7). Just so you know OP, I created an account just to thank you for this!

Glad to hear that. Looks like your man really pocketed Kulusevski that he struggled to provide something for Dybala and Ronaldo

[thatmonstak]

But how do I manmark if their playmaker is a AMR? Do I use my LB or the LCB?

[broodje kip]

1 minute ago, thatmonstak said:

But how do I manmark if their playmaker is a AMR? Do I use my LB or the LCB?

I often use my LB/LWB to man mark wide playmakers like Neymar or Messi

[thatmonstak]

Thanks for the tip! I did try using my LCB and my backline got dragged around and they lost their defensive shape because my Hummels was trying to follow Messi!

[geordiekrispy]

I've actually been using inverted wingbacks and a CM on man marking all times. And I "think" it's limiting the goals that have been scored against me, I think the playmakers have generally been restricted.

[broodje kip]

40 minutes ago, thatmonstak said:

Thanks for the tip! I did try using my LCB and my backline got dragged around and they lost their defensive shape because my Hummels was trying to follow Messi!

I prefer not to use CDs as man markers unless playing in 3atb formation 

[un4givenn]

I think there are some points that ı did not understand. For example G.Fürth-Hertha match. When you BWM player Ascacibar marking striker. And Tousart match with RP Seguin. But what is opponents BWM doing? Didnt he do something? BWM Jaeckel must mark Khedira or Ascacibar. Or what is AP Stach was doing? I think there is some points that you did not tell us or missing some parts. Because you have BWM to mark opponents Ap or Striker thats okay. But you opponent's BWM and CM doing same thing. What will you do when your opponent putting central midfield AP and CM and behind them to DM position BWM? This trio will mark you too. Please explain all player matches and the part that how your team is winning.

[broodje kip]

52 minutes ago, un4givenn said:

I think there are some points that ı did not understand. For example G.Fürth-Hertha match. When you BWM player Ascacibar marking striker. And Tousart match with RP Seguin. But what is opponents BWM doing? Didnt he do something? BWM Jaeckel must mark Khedira or Ascacibar. Or what is AP Stach was doing? I think there is some points that you did not tell us or missing some parts. Because you have BWM to mark opponents Ap or Striker thats okay. But you opponent's BWM and CM doing same thing. What will you do when your opponent putting central midfield AP and CM and behind them to DM position BWM? This trio will mark you too. Please explain all player matches and the part that how your team is winning.

I guess you didn’t know this but the AI doesn’t use man marking as far as I know so you don’t have to worry with your players being man marked.

[Muhamad Wirawan Adityo]

How to mark specific opposition player? I don't find option to do that

[Nedim Vatansever]

I want to try this. How do I tell my own player which guy to mark?

[Nedim Vatansever]

Although I did not make enough transfers, there is a graph that has gone very well so far.

[broodje kip]

On 21/08/2021 at 12:56, Muhamad Wirawan Adityo said:

How to mark specific opposition player? I don't find option to do that

 

12 hours ago, Nedim Vatansever said:

I want to try this. How do I tell my own player which guy to mark?

You can’t tell which man to mark unfortunately. The player will decide itself to mark closest player