for mentaly you only have to look for your and your opponents Quality. normal is good in this case because Teams are equal. when he Plays 3-2dml/r-2-2amc-1, he has a balanced Formation with 7 Players which will defend and the Opponent has 6 Players for attack. zonal marking will Close "all" your spaces where is set no Player.
by the way, with 3 dc you can defend better.
but of course 4-4-1-1 will be effective too, there are 3 central Players in middlefield. when there are 2 MC and 1 AMC, the 2 MC will defend more then attack, because u have an AMC for attacking.

what i want to explain is, that the 4-4-1-1 Formation will defend with 8 Players against 6 Players from the Opponent. so you dont have to Play defensive.