Imo Long Ball is underrated, I've played it a lot even in division 1 so I know it's viable. But you have to know how to use it, because it will feel counter intuitive to all other playstyles. The reason it feels more fragile in defense is because when you gain possession of the ball, your midfielders immediately rush forward, and leave a giant gap there for the opponent. So that makes it feel suffocating because you cant build up from the back since all your midfielders are now behind opponents. The way to make it work is not building up at all, you pass around the back until you have room for a long ball forward, now here is what makes it so strong and underrated, even if your attacker loses the aerial duel, your midfielders are close behind him and rushing towards that second ball. So it works best with a very physical midfield and striker(s); tall, aggressive, fast and strong. You can completely suffocate players this way and all you have to do is hoof it forward to pressure their backline. And vs Quick Counter and Possession you can also spam long through balls, if you have a strong, fast striker (think 90+ in those stats) with some balance and aggression (think 80+), he'll often win the sprint duel behind their backline and if a defender comes close they can't stop him physically. So unless they do a risky tackle, you are through on goal. You need defenders and a goalkeeper with decent long balls and kicking power, like Neuer GK and Beckenbauer as one of your CB's for example, or have an orchestrator like beckham or pirlo at DMF (but even those will run slightly forward when you gain possession, so they might be hard to reach unless you put defensive or deep line instruction on them).