We often hear coaches shout from the sidelines push up on your man, play side by side, play in front. Every coach has their preferred method for defenders to defend. But can they all be right?

If we coach forwards , we tell them to vary their runs, we try to encourage them to be unpredictable in the way they get free. Is defending the same? Should we encourage our defenders to be unpredictable when they are marking a man? Maybe not?

But one thing is for sure, it is impossible to mark every forward in the same way. But an even more important point is, when you discover the best way to mark a particular player, this does not mean that it is always the best way.

When the ball is not within kicking distance, you should have a way to mark. When the ballis within kicking distance, you should have a way to mark, when the ball is within fist pass distance you should have a way to mark, when your opponent makes a run off the shoulder, you should have a way to mark ,etc ,etc

We could talk about this all day, but the main point is that there is more than 1 way that each player needs to be marked, and it depends on whats happening with the ball. The best players intuitively know this, and the best coaches intuitively coach this.