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I have a current Zaragoza tactic that is working wonders atm, i still wanna test it before I post on here but if im playing narrow, direct football but with two AMC's with farrows to the winger area; fast tempo, counterattacking football with a high line.
Should I make the pitch long but make the pitch less wide?
A longer pitch would help your counter attack (more space to play balls into on the counter), however it would leave you more vulnerable to the same because of your high defensive line.
I love to play counter attack. I'm not interested in fancy one-touch passing and intricate build up; a fast flowing counter attack goal is beauty to me. I prefer to play at least normal if not deeper. (In FM06 & 07 I used one click above middle with DCs on barrows and lowest mixed closing down). This pulls the attackers further up field...given more space behind them to play into.
When the opposition switched to the "dreaded" 3-3-2-1-1 or a defensive 4-5-1 I would push up the line and set closing down for DCs to lowest often. Conventional thinking would call to switch off counter-attacking and go to slow tempo and short passing, but I found that sticking to the counter attack, quick tempo, direct passing worked. They kept giving up the ball trying to play direct to a lone striker who was swamped by the DCs and DMC and I relentlessly counter attacked. The counter success ratio dropped (harder to counter attack against an ultra defensive tactic), but I got many, many more opportunities and I only needed to be succesful once.
I haven't played enough FM08 to know if this will work with current engine, but so far it looks good.
I would also think a wide pitch would be good for counter attacking. The key is space and space is not just found behind the line, but on the flanks too. This stretches the retreating defense and creates even more space to play through balls and crosses to your hard charging STs and AMC.
Wide pitch - best for wingers and playing wide.
Narrow pitch - best use if you prefer to play through the middle or without wingers. Not really suited for playing sexy football in the middle of the park as there's not much free room.
Long pitch - DominicForza has got it spot on. Ideal for the counter attack
Short pitch - Use this if you play the short ball game and like to build play up from the back, e.g. the "Continental" style.
These are just my thoughts on the pitch size and could be wrong as I'm only an armchair football expert.
I have always thought that LONG pitch helps teams like Barca who like to build the attack gradually and need the space to do so.
In the same time SHORT pitch helps teams like Chelsea who like win space by sending long balls to Drogba and then look for options to score. It also helps with set pieces because Terry can go forward every time there is a set piece in the opponents half, which is not possible (or rather not practical) if the pitch is longer like Nou Camp...
Originally posted by bobirinis66:
i dont understand the dimensions and the way to benefit from the way of your play.Can you help me EA-mon-hello2?
This is how i take it, not sure which is right though.
Wide pitch- Good for wide settings.
Narrow pitch- good for narrow settings
Long pitch- good for very long balls.
Short pitch- good for a short, slow build up.
Pitch Width and Length 
Linear Mode
