Wingers

One of the most exciting positions in the game is the winger. Think of Lionel Messi when he first burst onto the scene, or Mohammed Salah and Sergio Mane at Liverpool, or Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery at Bayern Munich. These guys all have and had speed, courage, a willingness to take players on, and…did I mention speed?

Positionally, they’re known as 11, Left Winger, and 7, Right Winger. They hug the touchlines and push high and wide to create space for the midfielders to receive the ball and turn. Without the depth and width of the wingers, it would take a midfielder who is great in tight spaces without a lot of time. With the space created from the wingers, it gives the midfielders what they like: space and time to create.

Different philosophies have different roles for wingers. The most common tends to be beating the defender down the line and crossing the ball into the box. This is coached into kids from a young age. It’s essentially what an outside midfielder does in a 4-4-2 formation in the attacking third. 

As football grows in technology, some of the “staples of the game” erode and lose credibility. A stat given in 2010 of the Champions League tournament, filled with arguably the greatest teams in the world, showed that crosses played in from wide areas succeeded .01% of the time. This means for every cross into the box where a goal is scored, a team loses possession from their crosses 73 times! Crazy. For a full article on this statistic, see https://www.developingthefuture.club/post/2019/10/25/winging-it

In American soccer, you’ll often see left-footed wingers playing on the left and right-footed wingers playing on the right. Not in our system. You’ll see the opposite. More on this in a moment. We want our wingers to push high and wide during the buildup play (goal kicks, free kicks, or transitioning from our third of the field). The opposition defenders will need to stay with the wingers, the left and right backs, and the center back(s) will need to keep an eye on them as well. This means their line has to push back, rather than pressing forward and locking us in our own half. 

As we cross our half, we’ll still have the wingers high. Now, the winger becomes even more dangerous because of the run behind the defenders. If there is a through ball that happens, the winger has an opportunity to beat all four defenders in a matter of 10-20 yards of space without even touching the ball. Now our winger is 1 on 1 with the goal keeper. 

Since we have the opposing defenders pushing the line back, a large gap is created between the opposition defenders and their midfielders. When an attacking midfielder (or wingback) receives the ball with time, you’ll see them attack the space forward towards the defensive line. This action elicits a response. The man with the ball in this case is Threat Number 1. A defensive line cannot let a quick, creative player run full speed at them. It’s a recipe for disaster (Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Leo Messi when playing a False 9, N’Golo Kante, and Ronaldinho are/were very good at this). 

A defender needs to step to the ball. The best case scenario is they steal the ball and counter. A good scenario is they push them away from goal and into a helping teammate. A neutral scenario is the ball is passed linearly across (perpendicular) and still in front of helping teammates. A less ideal situation is the ball carrying midfielder passes the ball behind the defender. And the worst scenario is the ball carrier beats the defender and is still going towards goal at top speed. 

When a defender is drawn out, this means there are less defenders focusing on the attacking wingers and striker. A 3 vs 4 situation can quickly turn into a 4 vs 3 in front of the net. And I love those numbers. 

Our wingers are left footed on the right side and right footed on the left. This is a principle but not a hard and fast rule. A player on the right has to be good with his left foot also. When they get the ball in the attacking third, they’re not interested in going towards their corner flag and crossing the ball in. Instead, we beat the defender at a 45 degree angle towards goal and keep going. We shoot or pass to an open man for a shot. We’re not interested in the mercurial header goal. Instead, let’s direct the ball with our foot into the net. 

Thierry Henry, the incredible Arsenal forward and Barcelona winger, talks about what it was like going from Arsenal to Barcelona under Pep, “It was like relearning how to play the game at 30...It was more a style of play that I had to adapt: staying on the line to make sure that you can free Andres (Iniesta) to make the run in behind knowing that 9 times or 8 times out of ten, you would not get that ball. But if you don’t make the run, Andres doesn’t get the ball.” 

He then goes on to explain more tactics as a Left Winger playing for Barcelona: “My first move when Abidal (Left Back) had the ball and he’s about to control it, I always had to ask for the ball in behind. Every single time. It’s a dummy run. Now Andres (Left Attacking Midfielder) gets the ball, Sam now (Samuel Eto’o, Striker) makes a run for Andres so Andres can play him there (top of the box on the left half-space), Andres can play me, I came back from an offside position, or if not, third choice, Andres skills you.” This quote is from the movie Take the Ball Pass the Ball and can be found on Amazon here.

Defensively, wingers press. They press high and hard. There’s not much to lose when we’re in our opponent’s third and there’s still eight players defending behind us. This doesn’t mean we’re reckless in pressing. It’s coordinated, diminishing space from our opposition and squeezing them into numerically, positionally, and technically disadvantageous situations. 

Without the high press, the opposing team can buildup into the middle third and is much closer to our goal. High stress situations cause people to make mistakes, in soccer and in life. We want to create constant high pressure against other teams so we can dispossess them. 

Wingers help this happen not only in the attacking third, but in the middle and even defensive third. Look at Raheem Sterling at Manchester City. Two weeks ago I saw him track a player down to his defensive goal line and dispossess the opposition of the ball. He constantly comes back to help his team win the ball. And when his team does, he’s right back up top, staying high and threatening the through ball. 

Wingers are dynamic, speedy, creative, and can place the ball where they want it, whether that’s on a teammates foot or more importantly, in the net. They are brilliant goal scorers and create highlight reels for their club and country. 

Daily Skill Drills this week - 15 minutes
Rollover, Touch (sideways) - 5 minutes

Outside, Outside, Inside - 5 minutes

Wall Pass Turn - 5 minutes

See you tonight.