@geeeeee: I used to not even mind changing that setting but lately I've been trying just one bar and it definitely suits my style.
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An interesting bit about PES2. If later on we had the A, B, C Back Line setting, here you have to manually define the depth of your defensive line...and unlike on subsequent editions, you can use half of the entire pitch to tweak your defensive's positioning!
I was Aragon (Man Utd) vs. Lombardia (Milan) and both Blanc and Silvestre were suspended, so I had to improvise a back-4 with Gary Neville and Wes Brown as CBs, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt as SBs. Given they're all a bit short/much faster than they are competent on the aerial game, I took the opportunity to play a suicidal backline:
We only conceded three goals, so it was a success.
Anyway, perhaps because back then football teams used to defend much lower on the pitch, even with the highest possible backline shown above, the players still have a tendency to drop further back, more than I wished them to.
Now a couple of amazing goals. Here's a fantastic Roy Keane strike:
...and a wonderful Rosicky free kick scored by the CPU:
That last goal was part of yet another instant classic on PES2 - been having loads of them:
Loads of fouls - and many more than just weren't called, some of them really obvious ones; even the refs had
player ref individuality back then.
The plasticity of classic-PES' gameplay still surprises me almost twenty years later: on a 3-game session you might have a PES5-like match with loads of fouls and few shots on goal, on the next you'll have a breathtaking counter-attacking galore with many goals scored, and on the next you win 5-0 against a much better team than the previous one who beat you 3-0 - all of this while controlling the same side.