About Strikers and defensive line (high or deep)

[Davey Boy]

Hi,

I was wondering (while im sure it differs with players and teams) do defensive lines suit deep/lying forwards, false 9's or is it the other way around? defending with a deep line perhaps suits you're team using an advanced forward or poacher?

I would love some advice on the whole defensive line and type of forwards suit best.

 

Thanks

[tmason122]

Just a question, are you asking this from the point of view as someone trying to set up their defence to negate the oppositions attack? Or as you are asking it as a player trying to exploit how the oppositions defence is setup?

Either way it is a little narrow-scoped to just consider the defensive line (of team A) against the striker role (of team B). For example you need to consider the other players in both team A and team B and how they all contribute to defence (of team A) and attack (of team B). Furthermore you also need to consider your tactics and how it might be affected by changing your defensive line, for example a deeper defensive line suits counter-attacking football quite well, but a high-defensive line can suit a high-pressing fluid style of football.

I regularly shift my defensive line around, from either a deeper line to a higher line and have two tactical setups to reflect that. For me the key question I would ask is related to possession, rather than the opposition striker role. If I expect to have high possession I play high up the pitch with a fluid and high-pressing style of football, safe in the knowledge that if a ball comes over the top I have pacey defenders who can get back and a sweeper keeper to rush out with. Opposingly, if I expect to have less possession I pull my defensive line deeper to prevent space for the opposition to run into and play a DM in front of the defence to pick up opposition runners from deep. Also by shifting my entire team back it opens up space for my wingers and forward further up the pitch to exploit on the counter. 

I do make minor adjustments on the above depending on how the opposition setup and which players I have available, but this is just my (personal) basic ruling.