Defensive Width

[wazzaflow10]

Does anyone utilise the 'force opposition inside' setting on defensive width? Under what scenarios do you use it? Maybe I'm too risk averse/rigid but I don't see the benefit in letting the opposition have free runs in at goal - particularly with the amount of 4-2-3-1's with IW/IF.

[LHurlz]

I think it's definitely a situational TI. If you're playing against a side with aerial threats upfront and good crossers of the ball you may well want to engage them wide and try stop those crosses, particularly if your CBs aren't great at dealing with them.

[Mike_Cardinal]

It can make sense where you feel you have the numbers to win the ball back in the middle, but don't want to encourage the opposition to exploit your weaknesses on the flanks. For example, if you're playing with a 4-3-1-2 or another narrow shape with only one player on each flank, but you aren't confident in your ability to deal with crosses into the box.

[Louisking1992]

Personally I've never liked playing with my back 4/5 spread further apart as I noticed the opposition were able to thread through balls a lot easier as the gaps were bigger. You VERY rarely if at all see a back 4 spread out irl, even when using 1 or 2 DMs, the defence is most of the time more compact, minimising the space between one another.