I have never seen a situation where Hard Attacking works. Of course, ideally, when you say Hard Attacking, you are meant to see your players surge forward every time they get the ball and shoot from distance and all but it never works here. Players will run with the ball, pass sideways, and even pass back when in clear sight of goal. As far as I am concerned, the options don't really matter. Your team will play as they always play.

One a couple of occassions though, I have beaten much stronger opposition when I had set my team to Hard Defensive. And it worked without Counter Attacking or Long balls. Make of that what you will.

Personally, I feel that most of these options don't really work. There are just placed there to make us feel like we have some control over how the team plays.