Soccer Width in Defense

Too much width in your defense is bad. The wider your defense is, the more spread out & the easier it is to penetrate. Your defenders should stay close enough together to support each other, but not too close (if they are too close, they lose effectiveness & can't cover enough space). Your defense should be just wide enough to slow down the attack (i.e., just wide enough that the attackers can't easily go around you) & should "shift & sag" so there are multiple layers of defenders between the ball & the goal. As your team gets older & plays better teams, the attackers will start to "switch fields" and use a wide attack as a way to get around your defense & to loosen it up. (See "Support", "Cover", "Support Distance & Relative Position", "Spread The Field", "Creating Space" & "Stretched Defense").