Clem

I've been testing tactics with Arsenal as they have a good set of players to be able to create a number of different tactics and playing styles.

I have created a few good home tactics using attacking mentality, short passing , high width, high closing down and I change the tempo depending on the situation.

Having read the manual and from what I can see from watching football matches in real life is that when teams play away from home very often they play on the counter attack. I think arsenal do this very frequently and to great effect. The way this is achieved is that the team mentality is defensive, the defensive line drops deep there is hardly any closing down, the tempo is high and the passing style according to the manual should be direct to get the ball forward as quickly as possible.
However, when I try direct passing my team seems to give away possession very easily. I am also unsure as to what width I should play as I want to be wide when I have the ball so that my wingers have space and I want to close up and play narrow when im not in possession to deny the opposition space. It states in the manual that the width slider mainly comes into play when my team is in possession so im thinking that I should play wide.

I've tried lots of different ways of trying to create a counter attacking tactic and it doesnt seem to work very well with a deep defensive line whether I have a DM infront of the defence or not. There must be a style of play that can involve using a deep defensive line else they wouldnt include it in the game. For example Chelseas defence aren't exactly quick but have solid defenders so they should be able to play with a deep defensive line and have a DM to cover the space in between the defense and midfield.

I've seen teams play on the counter with a standard 4-4-2 or sometimes they substitute a striker for an extra midfielder. I can create an away tactic similar to my home one that works but I feel that this is not what happens in real life and it will probably struggle against better opposition. I just want to be able to create a 4-4-2 or 4-1-4-1 formtion that plays on the counter like arsenal in real life.

I have everyone on:

Team Mentality - Defensive
Creative freedom - low (occasionally tried Fabregas on high)
Passing style - Direct
Tempo - Quick
Width - Wide
Closing down - Rarely (I've tried having the midfield and defence on closing down 1 and just having the DM Close down on often)
Defensive line - Deep
Focus passing - Both flanks
Tight marking for the defenders
Counter attack ticked
Wingers or Aml/Amr farrows

Any ideas?