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Width and stretching

STRETCH

Pull the opponent apart with wide players so gaps open inside their back line.

Go to the lab ↓or read the 2-minute lesson first

When you have the ball, the other team wants to stay tight. Your job is to pull them apart. The main tool you have is width: how close to the touchlines your wingers and full-backs stand. Every metre they move outward is a metre a defender has to follow, or leave empty.

Try itAttacking width · one slider
10.6 m13452861011971345211867910
Very narrow

Gap on your right

10.6 m

The gap between their left-back and left centre-back. Red is their team.

Who follows your wingers

Picture your 4-3-3 with the ball in the middle of the pitch, against a 4-4-2 that reacts to where your attackers stand. Push your wingers wide and their full-backs go with them. Their centre-backs do not. In the lab, the two centre-backs stay 14.1 m apart whatever width you choose.

So width does not split the centre-backs. It opens the channel between a full-back and the centre-back next to them. On your right, that is the gap between their left-back, #3, and their left centre-back, #4. In this example it measures 10.6 m when you attack very narrow.

Diagram4-3-3 vs 4-4-2
13452861011971345211867910
A very narrow attack: 10.6 m between their left-back and left centre-back.

Ask for a very wide attack and the same gap grows to 18.6 m. That is a channel a midfielder can run into, or where your striker can drift to receive between two defenders. Keep a standard width but tell your wingers to stay wider, and in the lab it reaches 19.4 m.

Diagram4-3-3 vs 4-4-2
13452861011971345211867910
A very wide attack: their left-back follows your winger and the gap opens to 18.6 m.

The block slides back

The ball does not stay in the middle. Move it to your right and the defending block slides towards it. In the lab, at standard width, the gap on the ball side shrinks to 11.2 m while the gap on the far side opens to 18.0 m. The space is still there, only on the side where the ball is not.

That leaves you two answers. Switch play quickly, before the block can slide back. Or keep the ball side stretched: with a wide attack and your wingers staying wider, the ball-side gap in this example holds at 18.0 m. The price is distance. A winger hugging the touchline is further from goal, and a cross or cut-back takes longer to arrive.

In the lab below, you will set your attacking width and your wingers' positions, then watch which gaps in their back line open and which close.

Live lab

Lab

Only the instructions that matter for width and stretching are here. Solve the challenges, then explore.

How the lab measures Player positions, distances, and how fast your players can reach each part of the pitch. It doesn't model the ball, marking, body shape or decisions, so treat the numbers as a way to see the idea, not as a verdict on a real match.

Challenge 1 of 2

Open a gap of 17 m or more between their left-back and left centre-back, on your right side.

  • Gap on your right
    14.6 mtarget ≥ 17 m
    Not met yet.
PresetsCustom
Live lab4-3-3 · Custom setup
14.6 m13452861011971345211867910

Drag your blue players to move them. Tap one for player instructions.

Team instructions

Player instructions

Challenge 1 / 2

  • Gap on your right 14.6 m

Saturday checklist

Watch for it this weekend

  • When a team attacks, check whether their wingers stand on the touchline or drift inside.
  • Watch the defending full-back: do they follow the winger out, or stay next to their centre-back?
  • Look for a run into the gap that opens between full-back and centre-back.
Next: Overloads →