beccalennon80

People I don't understand when I should use narrow or wide width.Does it depends from passing? I'll be very glad if you help me.

retired_plasticfawn

hi, from what i have read with forums, i use wide width when at home to stretch teams and play narrow width away from home to compact teams, if that helps.

retired_fanito

For me it's what the scout report says. If the opposition plays possesion football, which means narrow width usually, then I'll play wide, doesn't matter if it's home or away.

retired_e_fores

I find width goes with passing, since unless you have some very good passers, it's hard to play with short passing and all the players are widely spaced out.

It depends on balancing possession with stretching the opposition. Playing very wide will stretch the opposition, but it's harder to keep possession. Playing narrow will make defending easier for the opposition but you should keep a lot of the ball, and when you don't, you will crowd the midfield area.

retired_provrb7

I would say that is pretty spot on tbh. I would almost go as far as to say narrow against better teams away as you could get away with normal/wide away from home against equal or poorer teams.

retired_gab72184

For me, if you have very good wingers with good dribbling and crosses you can play very narrow. I see it as to limit the movement of the opposition.
Plus setting passes to down the flanks can help as wingers can have more space to move and cross the ball in.
I play man utd with very narrow and passing down the flanks to ronaldo and messi who have very good dribbling and crossing abilities.
This should result in more crosses being made and i had 13 clean sheets... :cool:

beccalennon80

If I would have have stars like ronaldo and messi I would be extremely happy! But I have good wingers and tried your idea you know it works.I won 4 matches in row and my wingers are my goalscorersq because my strikers have poor heading.

retired_ktb118

i used to always play narrow than i changed teams and i noticed that my left midfielder is very fast and has great dribbling, crossing ect. so i went to a more width play. So if you have great wingers, use width!

retired_jemar1959

Hmmm...conflicting advice there!

If it helps, from my experience of the last couple of FM games (inc my current 15 day career game...) and various threads in this forum, my philosophy towards this is -

Home: Generally wide (at the moment the first notch of 'Wide' on the slider) but keep my passing relative to that width (at the moment the last notch of 'Mixed' as you move the passing slider to the left). This is based on the theory that if you spread your team out too wide and have their passing too short they will struggle to pass too each other. This is particularly relevant in lower leagues or with poorer teams. The pace of your passing is related to this as well, and your defensive line as well, but that can be researched in the Tactics Bible. I am obviously more offensive at home and try to stretch teams who come to sit in, but of course this is adjustable depending on the quality of your team and that of your opponent.

Away: Again dependant on the respective qualities of the teams involved, but I generally play narrower away from home (2 - 4 notches left on the width slider) with comparable mentality and CF, less closing down and play counter-attack down both flanks. My passing is generally more direct and at a higher tempo which links to the counter-attacking style.

I'm in 2020 and now a fairly high-rated Man Utd side and I'm finding that away from home I have to be more positive and play wider possession-type football rather than hitting on the break, as (smaller) teams are less inclined to try and attack...

retired_kathylc2000

I prefer a wide formation, it seems to function better, and play spreads out faster