The role and position of the winger in football

Mondo Sports Updated on 2024-02-15

In the past 20 years, the role and position of the football winger have been divided into two phases according to the point in time: before 2005 and from 2005 to the present.

As for the position and role of the football winger, it is divided into two aspects.

One, offense

For the arrangement and role of wingers on the offensive end, there are two representative people: famous coachesJose Mourinhoand playersRobben

Robben wants to cut inside, which is something that the defenders know, but they just can't prevent it. Arjen Robben, who is a backfoot winger and cuts inside, is undoubtedly an iconic figure in modern football.

And the man who carried forward the tactic of cutting inside with a backfoot winger and has influenced it to this day is Mourinho.

Before 2005, the positioning of wingers in football on the offensive side was mainly to cross and assist. So the positions are all right-footed players on the right winger and left-footed players on the left winger.

After Jose Mourinho took charge of Chelsea in June 2004, he built Chelsea Football Club into a top European club with his extreme defense, and in those years he was also the only team that could make the six-time champion Barcelona suffer enough.

In Mourinho's anti-counter-attack tactical system, based on tactical needs, in order to achieve efficient scoring efficiency in counterattacks, Mourinho's definition of a winger is no longer limited to under-crossing and crossing, but requires being able to actively participate in shooting in the attack to complete the score. Thanks to this arrangement of cutting to the wingers, Chelsea's performance has also been successful and has achieved very good results.

Before Chelsea during Jose Mourinho's time, there were teams that occasionally arranged wingers to cut inside, but due to tactical limitations, most teams still put more emphasis on midfield control, and the wingers mainly used the width of the pitch to pass the ball down.

The tactical arrangement of arranging the backfoot winger to cut inside has gradually been imitated by other teams.

When Mourinho went to Real Madrid, the BBC combination was on the left side of Ronaldo and on the right side of Bale, and under this tactical arrangement, the scoring ability of the two was even more terrifying, and it also helped Real Madrid win the league championship from the peak Barcelona for many years.

Other teams have also found instructions for the backfoot winger to cut inside from Real Madrid.

So far, the inward cutting of the backfoot winger has become the mainstream of football and has influenced it to this day.

And Robben's in-cutting at Bayern belongs to completely carrying forward this style of play and establishing the tactical position of winger in-cutting.

As a result of this tactical change, wingers often appear in the middle to pass or shoot.

Maybe some old fans will mention Henry and Shevchenko, these two also like to take the ball from the side to attack, but the two of them are positioned as center forwards in the tactical system, and it is only because of the technical characteristics that the coach arranges the position in this way, so these two people do not belong to wingers in the strict sense.

Second, defense

Let's talk about the role and position of the winger on the defensive end.

There are three key figures in it, Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp.

In the early days of Real Madrid, most teams faced the Cosmos Barcelona were chosen to defend in the first half of the field, after the initial defeat, Mourinho studied the high pressing style of restraining Barcelona, in this style of play, the winger is no longer a fixed position at the defensive end, area defense, but has become the team's first line of defense, directly in front of the opponent's penalty area to ask the winger to press, this style of play has been very effective, and also won the game with Barcelona.

Other teams have also begun to imitate this tactic in the face of Barcelona and have achieved good results.

And it was Klopp during the Liverpool period who established the position of the football world with the high-pressing tactics, so that the opponent lost the ball by letting the wingers participate in the high-pressing with the center forwards, so as to score goals.

It was through this tactic that Liverpool won the Premier League championship and the Champions League under the leadership of Klopp, and Klopp also became the meritorious coach of Liverpool FC.

Faced with an unsolvable high press tactic, FIFA had to change the rules: allowing the catch to start from inside the penalty area.

When Guardiola created the Barcelona dynasty, the requirement for wingers at the defensive end was to rebound on the spot after losing the ball, and this tactical arrangement solved the defensive problem when the attacking team lost the ball.

If Mourinho is concerned, Jurgen Klopp has provided wingers with a defensive team, and Pep Guardiola has provided a winger with a winger manual for attacking teams.

To sum up, the role and position of the winger was marked by 2005. Before 2005, the role of the winger was mainly reflected in the bottom cross, and the completion of the assist can complete the coach's tactical arrangement, and the corresponding position is also arranged to arrange the player.

Since 2005The role and position of the winger have changed, the winger is no longer limited to crosses, and the mainstream style of play is to arrange the backfoot winger to cut inside more to assist and score, and the simple bottom cross assists have decreased. It also requires to become the team's first line of defense at the defensive end, giving continuous pressure to the opposing defenders in the front court, and conceding the ball requires the first time to counter on the spot.

This is what modern football requires for the role and position of the winger.

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