Don't think of defensive line as something to counter the pace of the other teams striker. Sure, you could play a little deeper against pacy striker (I'd rather use fast defenders and a sweeping goal keeper), but it's not the whole point about defensive line. Really, the defensive line determines your whole team tactic.
Two different examples:
* A possession oriented team should always push up. They will prefer to keep the other team on their own half, and therefore defend high in the field. When possession is lost all attacking players becomes defenders and close down their opponents to win back the ball. In general you defend as far away from your own goal as possible. Think of Liverpool under Rafa. Many people might not understand this, and is annoyed because Crouch and Kuyt is told by Rafa to work hard and not only concentrate on their attacking tasks. This is because Liverpool want to keep the ball, and when they don't every player on the team is responsible to win it back as fast as possible - and it starts with the forwards (i.e. if you want to play possession oriented at least 5 of your attacking players should have very high closing down to stress their opponents).
* A team that is counter attack oriented, will defend deeper and let their opponents play the ball. When attacking more players will remain behind the ball, but the attacking players also have more freedom from defensive tasks to concentrate their energy on the few counter attacking occassions - because they might only attack with 3-4 players, sometimes more, the attackers need to focus on their attacking abilities. Often it's a long ball to a pacy striker or strong target man, with only a couple midfield players joining in.
The defensive line is all about how you want your team to play, not to counter the pace of you opponent. You can't defend deep, and still think you'll be able to dominate possession and control the game. There will be too much gap between your defence and attack, and a passing game would therefor be more difficult. I always thrive for a possession orient style of play, but during matches, if I see that I won't dominante possession, I go deep and play more counter attacking because I know it's more effective as long as I can't dominate possession. It's the same if I start with a counter attacking tactic, and see that my opponent is not interested in dominate the game, then I switch to a possesion oriented tactic because there's really no point in trying to counter attack an opponent that defend deep and is not interested in having the ball.
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