It has not been a great week for Premier League teams in the Champions League.
Just two of the six teams that made it into the last 16 are in the quarter-finals, with the other four losing their ties by a combined 28-11 on aggregate.
Newcastle United’s 8-3 loss to Barcelona and Chelsea’s 8-2 reverse to Paris Saint-Germain will especially sting given both Premier League teams matched their opponents for a sizeable part of the games.
The quality and experience Barcelona and PSG have in their ranks were one reason for the heavy scorelines, but the ease with which both teams pulled their opponents apart is a wake-up call for the Premier League’s pivot towards man-marking.
At its most basic, a man-marking system assigns players to track specific opponents when defending, as opposed to a system in which defenders are assigned spaces or zones of the pitch to defend.
Consequently, the upside comes in maximising individual quality. Man-marking helps limit the influence of the opposition’s best players in the same way a direct attacking style creates one-on-one situations for a team’s best players. It simultaneously helps create quick counter-attacking opportunities from turnovers too.
While not every team follows that tactic in every game, it is much more prevalent in the Premier League than in the Bundesliga or Ligue 1, where it tends to be only Bayern Munich and PSG who use it to good effect — and largely because they have a considerable talent advantage.
But it is not an infallible approach, and Newcastle and Chelsea can now attest that when that system gets pulled apart, things can get ugly.
There was evidence of the man-to-man system’s limitations in Anthony Gordon’s goal when those two sides met in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge last Saturday.
As Malick Thiaw brings the ball forward, Tino Livramento inverts into midfield with Jacob Murphy dropping to right-back, dragging his marker Marc Cucurella forward. Alejandro Garnacho, who is supposed to track Livramento, is unsure of which passing lane to block off and stays passive, allowing Thiaw to find his right-back.
Enzo Fernandez’s reluctance to leave his assignment — Jacob Ramsey — means Livramento can sprint through the midfield. Up the pitch, Joe Willock and Nick Woltemade have joined the front line, forcing their markers Reece James and Moises Caicedo to drop deeper.
James loses Willock, which allows Livramento to feed a pass in behind to him. A static Caicedo and Wesley Fofana are undecided on who should track Gordon, allowing him to run in behind unopposed and score from Willock’s pass.
PSG’s strategy to pull Chelsea’s man-to-man system apart in Paris last week was different, relying on players initially staying in proximity to each other before fanning out, along with smooth rotations across the field.
In the example below, all three PSG midfielders are close to each other on the edge of the box from a goal kick.
From here, Ousmane Dembele drops from centre-forward, dragging Fofana with him. Dembele then begins a run in behind Fofana, which sends the Chelsea centre-back backwards, but quickly shifts direction again to receive a pass from the retreating Bradley Barcola.
While that interchange takes place, Vitinha’s run drags Fernandez away. That gives Dembele time and space to find Warren Zaire-Emery, who has moved forward, capitalising on Pedro Neto failing to realise that he needed to switch assignments.
Neto eventually sprints to make up that ground, but his momentum carries him forward as Zaire-Emery turns. Zaire-Emery finds an open Achraf Hakimi, Neto’s initial assignment, with Cucurella reluctant to push up as Desire Doue (not in frame) is lurking on the right wing.
The move relies on recognising and filling up spaces as a team to break out of individual locks.
Later in the same move, we see two more examples of the freedom in PSG’s structure. First, as Dembele drops deep again, Fofana points for one of his midfielders to lock on to him, but has other concerns as Doue duly fills up the space his attacking partner vacated.
Moments later, we see Dembele, Doue and Barcola all on the left wing, creating an overload on that side. Chelsea’s back line remains in position, wary that if they follow a man-to-man approach in this instance, they will be dragged across the pitch, but that still doesn’t stop PSG, with this move ending in Filip Jorgensen’s fingertips keeping Dembele out following his run in behind.
Barcelona used a similar strategy against Newcastle on Wednesday.
In the fifth minute, Pedri drops between the centre-backs, prompting Gordon to ask Ramsey to press him. Further up the pitch, Fermin Lopez has dropped on to the right wing with Raphinha, while Lamine Yamal has shifted over to the left wing.
Sandro Tonali, tasked with marking Lopez, signals for a team-mate to pick up Raphinha, but the space Yamal is in warrants greater attention. Yamal collects Pedri’s pass and spins Thiaw, who slips. Raphinha then forces a slip from Lewis Hall by feigning a run inside and then running outside him, leaving Tonali isolated against two Barcelona players.
He tries to close down Lopez, who tees up Raphinha to score.
Barcelona’s fourth goal was another example of how a man-marking system can be manipulated by constant movement and clever rotations.
Pedri dropping back forces Ramsey to move up the pitch, while Joao Cancelo’s run drags Anthony Elanga back, giving Gerard Martin time on the ball. Lopez runs towards Martin, and Tonali, who is wary of a pass between the lines, follows him. Robert Lewandowski pulls Dan Burn with him, with Raphinha filling up that space.
As Martin brings the ball forward, Lopez shifts from a jog towards his own goal to a sprint in the other direction, while Burn continues to follow Lewandowski. Behind him, Thiaw stays deep, wary of a ball over the top to Raphinha.
That allows Martin to find Raphinha in space and he turns the ball around the corner to Lopez, who has a head start on Tonali and scores.
Barcelona’s sixth goal provided more evidence of the chaos their movement caused. As Martin assesses his options, Lewandowski has dropped deep again, this time with Thiaw switching on to him. Yamal, who is offside, calls for the ball, attracting Burn’s attention.
He starts a pretend run in behind that sends Burn one way but turns back towards Martin, as Lewandowski does his signature ‘point’ for a pass into Yamal. The Spain international receives from Martin, turns Burn and feeds Lewandowski, who scores.
Chelsea and Newcastle are not alone among the Premier League’s top sides to struggle in this fashion.
PSG similarly pulled apart Arsenal, who use an effective mix of man- and zonal marking and are arguably the Premier League’s best out-of-possession team, in the first leg of the 2024-25 Champions League semi-finals.
Chelsea themselves did that to Mikel Arteta’s side this season in a 1-1 draw in November under Enzo Maresca. They used Fofana as a right-back in possession with James and Malo Gusto alternating positions to create gaps in Arsenal’s press.
In the example below, Declan Rice is unsure whether to press Caicedo or James, opening a free pass.
Eberechi Eze then rushes to press James, which leaves Gusto open to receive between the lines and carry the ball unopposed.
As with bypassing man-marking systems, defending with them requires bravery and coordination in selection and practice. Passing over marking assignments to team-mates on the fly when sides attempt to drag players across the pitch is a difficult task but, when executed well, can prove incredibly effective in shutting down the opposition.
Take the example of Bayern’s 2-1 league-phase win in Paris in the Champions League. Vincent Kompany’s side matched the reigning champions’ attacking fluidity with daring defensive rotations. It was a high-risk move that placed players in unfamiliar positions but proved effective even after Luis Diaz’s dismissal in first-half added time.
The Premier League’s shift towards physicality and pace makes man-marking a productive solution on the weekends. But the technical quality among Europe’s elite sides means it is a dangerous strategy in the Champions League when not executed with near-perfection.