Defensive Wingers Position?.

I have had a very successful season playing a 3CB-2WB-1Regista-2MC-1SS-1F9. I have this formation and the player/team instructions pretty well sussed out. However I was thinking of building a new tactic for my second season. Don't want to stray too far from the one above but I was thinking along the lines of 2 Defensive wingers to replace the WB's, this would give me basically a 3-4-3 formation but instead of the wingers/inside forwards I could have a choice of 2AMC+1SC or 1AMC and 2 Strikers. I realise that it isn't that much different from the WB one but I find that at the end of season 1 although still winning most games I was scoring less even though I was still having as many shots etc. The defensive set up in that tactic is solid having rarely conceded more than one goal in a match as well as many clean sheets. Thinking that maybe keeping that formation for away games and building a 2 x defensive winger one for home games as a more attacking version in order to maybe score more goals was a plan for season 2. Not really asking for anything other than some feedback from people who have used the defensive winger option and how it affected their tactic defensively as opposed to WB/FB's?.

I have used DW in a 343ish shape (a bit more complex - 3 x DC, DM, 2 x DW, 2 x MC, 2 x AMC, 1 x ST).

I like the role, but it does perhaps need some PI and/or PPM if you want it to provide high width. It is also quite an aggressive closing down role, so you need to think about whether that fits into your formation.

In many ways, you might find the opposite of what you think. The DW, whilst starting higher and closing down more, will likely not get into as many high positions as WB(a). It is somewhat dependent on the system overall, but watch out for that.

In my Milan save, i used player types to make the role perform very differently. I had Jordie Clasie and Giancomo Bonventura - One is a DM type who can play wide, the other an AM type who can play wide. The variety was very interesting to observe - So look at what player types you have and consider that

I use a 3-4-3 with two DWs. And I love it.

I basically have it set up so the midfield four is a flat 4 for the opposition to try and break through, with the back three mopping up and long balls over the midfield or any through balls or dribbles past them.

Then going forward the central midfielders are encouraged to counter attack or bring the ball forward to link up to the front three through intricate passing, or the defensive wingers will cross long to the target man from deep and not leave a gap behind him exposed