Is it Possible to Play Wide?

[SUCK IT]

We see countless formations, of narrow 4-3-3's such as Mr Houghs and CircusCarnie's 3-3-1-3, which works very well. These formations all seem to be potent and very good at attacking and defending for the majority of the time.

My question is, Is It Possible to Play Wide?

Countless formations I have tried, whilst other members on the forum have also tried their own too. The majority however find it hard to be successful with these formations. I believe that the most exciting formations are the ones where wingers are involved. It would be a shame if such formations could not be used with the current ME, there are many players I would like in my team who are wingers.

I therefore propose the question to you, Can You Play Wide?

Any Experience from past and present saves will be much appreciated

Regards Alex

[heliu5]

Every formation I use is both with wingers and wide in team-settings. 4-4-2 with AMR/AML, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1 Deep, Zona Mista etc.

[SirCliveWolfe]

Interesting question...

I actually use wingers in most of my formations, but they play narrow as 'inside-forwards' rather than actual wingers, but I do like to use rampaging full backs to creat space, pull defenders away from the middle and play in crosses. I do, however, tend to ask my players to play down the middle with a deep-playmaker so I guess its really a narrow tactic?

[TacticalGenius]

I've not used a single narrow formation, even on the old patches that really did penalise wide tactics...

[pcmac1980]

I use a 4231 assymetric with the AML as an inside forward. I´m currently Galatasaray and won the double in season 2011/2012 (after a quick spell at Kalamata). Perhaps the turkish first division isn´t the most competitive but winning the double is something regardless the country you play. For most matches I use overload as starting strategy, so I tend to play very wide. I only tell players to play through the middle but it´s because of my pitch width and because I´m using 3 midfielders (dmc, mc, amc) so I guess you could achieve some sucess playing wide.

[Jenko_EFC]

I think to play wide, it takes more planning then playing narrow, easy enough to overload the centre with playmakers, poachers and anything else you can think of whilst playing wide is different, you cannot just put a few players out wide and watch them score goals and the most important thing is that, theoretically ofcourse, you cannot score from the corner flag, you need to be able to cross the ball.

How would you do that? Many appoaches are possible and it's about planning them, do you want crosses coming into a Cahill-esque CM with a normal mentality before making a RFD? Do you want them onto a Peter Crouch-esque target man with a high mentality knocking the ball down for a poacher/inside forward(s)? It's about combining Mentality + RFD for the player you want it to go to. For the widemen, do you want Aaron Lennon style dribbling to the byline before getting a cross in, beating his man for pace? RWB, CrB Byline style player. Or a Beckham who comes deep because of his low mentality and crosses from deep with his cross from deep instruction? Many choices and I'd pick the best possible for the players at my disposal. Hope that made sense.

[gregt or smokey]

In short it is very possible to play wide. Ive always used wingers and always will

[Falahk]

plain and simple, yes its very possible, I think it puts much higher demands on having the right players for it to work, and the players needed for it are a tad harder to buy, but that it should be worse or a weeker option then overloading the center is *** to be honest, way more research need to be made on wide formations tho, and im sure that if we work on it we will find working tactics

myslef im currently playing around with 3 tactics on full width, two of them with wingers, and one with wing backs

theorticaly good wide play should be just a lethal as anything else, and indeed, the two hardest teams to beat ingame (Real & Barca) thrive on good wide play

that the ME does have some problems with marking "half positions" coming from playing 3 mc's, 3 strikers, etc does indeed seam to still be the case.....but that dont have anything to do with width setings or wide play from wingers and a wide formation using wingers will and can indeed work if set up well

[nike_oo7]

on all the previous version of fm i used to always play with wide players but this one i prefer playing through the middle not sure why

[crouchaldinho]

Of course it is possible.

[AcidBurn]

I played a wide 4-2-3-1 with Everton and won the league in the second season, with the right settings it is possible although as you have pointed out the most successful tactics seem to play very narrow. I found it hard to get defensive stability with a wide formation but attacking was no problem at all, Cahill at AMC with little creative freedom, run from deep often benefited massively from the wingers.

[likeabawss]

Yes, it is very possible. I'm currently in season 2 of my Newcastle save playing with a 4-4-2 formation, with the left winger set as winger attack (but given instructions to act as inside forward since Rosicky/Jonas is playing there) and the right winger set as a traditional winger (I have Bentley). If playing with wingers, you for sure need the target man/poacher (maybe AF too) up front.

Also playing with a wide 4-2-3-1 Deep formation as Bayern Munich and it has been brilliant. The goals have come from everywhere, and it's a very defensively sound tactic that plays entertaining forward. 1 inside forward (Robben) and one advanced playmaker (Ribery) means that most of my attacks come from the flanks, whether that is Robben cutting inside and hitting a beautiful shot, or Ribery cutting inside and playing a defense splitting pass

[aderow]

In my experience it is possible to play wide....up to a point.

After tweaking my tactic, I finally settled on using the first notch of wide on the slider. Any wider and my tactic became less effective. But that's just me.

[charlstonbigspuds]

i like to play with wingers but i also like to play with DLF in the hope that my team can be deadly in that they can go wide and cross for adv.for/poacher,or play thru the DLF to play little balls for his strike partner now this is something im having problems with my play just goes wide constantly.

I also seem to struggle against the big teams who play narrow formations such as Man City and Chelsea.

Anyone who has cracked this advice would be much appreciated.