Developing soccer skills: marking

Moritz Kossmann defines the act of marking as "the act of tracking the movements of an opponent player and looking to close them down in a 1v1 situation or to intercept the ball as they are receiving or are about to receive the ball".

Moritz - DStv Diski Challenge coach and head of youth at Cape Town City - speaks to SCW about what marking looks like for different positions, the decision-making process, the physicality required and how players learn about marking over the course of their development...

SCW: Is marking important for all positions? When might different positions be required to mark?

MK: It is quite common that centre forwards aren’t marking opponent players. It’s definitely something commonly seen in midfield and it is definitely something that defenders often have to do. It might be, situationally, something that forwards have to do when defending a corner.

However, whether we are attacking or whether we are defending, the references on the field are almost always the same - our position on the field, the position of the ball, the position of our team-mates and the position of our opponents.

What becomes very crucial is the order in which we assess this as a team. If our first reference is the ball and our team-mates, then we might be shifting collectively towards the ball and might have less of a reference to the opponent player, who might be our third point of reference.

We still have to see their position because we might be wanting to close them down as they receive, intercept relative to them or get into an overlapping defensive position.

Some teams would have the position of the ball as the first reference, the position of the opponent as the second reference and the position of the team-mate as a third reference. 

That is a very important distinction, which one is your first reference.

But for any team, both the position of team-mates and of opponents are important references. The difference comes with which one you prioritize - but both are crucial pieces of information that you need to use.

"Being diagonally behind a player allows you an angle to steal the ball as it is played..."

SCW: What goes into the decision-making process around marking tight or at a distance? Do they differ for different situations and areas of the pitch?

MK: It is different according to where you are on the pitch. For example, if I am a midfielder marking an opposition midfielder, and we are pressing them during their build-up in their own half, maybe my intention is to win the ball from that player. 

But, in order for me to win the ball, the opposition first needs to actually pass the ball to that player. 

If I am closing them down very tightly in this high press, I’m probably discouraging the opponent from passing to them, because it would be a very bad decision to pass to a team-mate who is already marked tightly.

I almost would want to ’bait’ the pass if I am marking higher up the pitch. Then I might want to get into an overlapping position compared to the opponent I’m dealing with. 

An overlapping position means you are not straight behind their back relative to the opponent with the ball. [Instead] you are diagonally behind the player, affording you a clearer sighting of the ball and allowing you an angle to come in front of the opponent and try to steal the ball as it is played.

[Former FC Bayern head coach] Julian Nagelsmann has a principle that a viable passing distance is equal to about half the passing distance. So I can close down an opponent I’m five metres from if the pass is [over] 10 metres.

Higher up the pitch, even in midfield, I might want to employ this. I might want to bait passes to try to intercept and do the work while the ball is traveling to that player. 

As I get towards my own half, particularly marking in the box where there is a high danger of conceding goals, my intention as a defensive player will be completely different. Now, I don’t want to bait a pass to an opponent. I can’t afford to take that risk.

I have to make sure that an opponent in the box is closed down so they don’t have even the smallest possible window to shoot at my goal from a relatively short distance. 

That means I will be quite close quite quickly so I’m not taking an undue risk of not being there as they receive the ball. 

Nevertheless, even when marking in the box, there is such a thing as getting too close. If I’m getting too close, I’m allowing the opponent to create separation by initiating physical contact and perhaps shoving me away, in a legal sense, because referees aren’t immediately going to blow for any physical contact that happens.

An arm’s-length distance, even in a very tight marking situation, is a good way to go.