You sgtay with your man unless you've passed him on to another defender

I suppose if you want to be precise about it the best system (in my view) is a combination of zonal and man to man marking because yes if a man runs off into another part of the pitch miles away then you pass him on to another player to mark so the team keeps its shape but you make sure that is being done before you stop marking him.

What I have seen our players do a few times in recent seasons is literally appear to be covering zones of grass and then stop as soon as the player leaves that area regardless of whether someone else has picked him up. Our favourite escape goat Martin does this all the time - just stands still and points at someone else who can't get back in time.

We also did it really noticeably at spurs away under Hughton. Players literally not prepared to move outside what appeared to have been "zones" they had been allocated meaning spurs just ran around them and no tackles were being put in.

Posted By: Jim, Sep 22, 10:52:10