Wingers - left-footers on the right and vice versa

[beloved_aunt]

I always feel that if you play both on the same side you're really predictable.

 

Eg a right footed full back who wants to overlap and cross and a right footed right winger who want to go wide and cross the you're really predictable and easy to stop.  You've only got one way of attacking down the flanks, eg go wide and cross.  

 

If you have a mix (eg Hunt goes wide and Wallace comes inside to shoot) then you've got more ways to attack and give the defence more questions to answer.

 

Of course you've got to have the right players as well but its they way most elite sides and no reason we should emulate. 

[Ash77]

Different players may work better inverted cutting in, especially if their technique is more useful than their pace.

 

However man c look good with sterling on right and sane on left, sane never plays on right but sterling plays left sometimes if sane on bench.

 

For us reach is generally worse on the right so he should play left and get some crosses in.

 

Our fbs arent a big threat in the final 3rd either so wont deliver crosses if widemen constantly cut in.

 

Aarons is pacy so should be useful on the right too, madness not to at least try it, can't be any worse than 0-0/2-2 vs bottom sides with boyd left, reach right anyway 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[McRightSide]

9 hours ago, Buxtongent said:

I can understand a player, any player  let alone a winger, much preferring one foot to the other. What i cannot understand is the inability of so many players in today's game  to be able to use BOTH feet. One will always prefer using one's 'better' foot,  but to be constantly dragging it back onto that foot, particularly when on the wing, is something I find abhorrent. With the amount of money these chaps are getting paid they shouldbe able to use both feet. 

The case of Wallace used to stick out a mile. He played on the right wing and ALWAYS had to bring the ball onto the inside , which meant that the defender had only to keep on his left hand side, and prevent him cutting in.

 

Im not sure what I find funniest

 

The fact you describe it as abhorrent or that fact you think that money can somehow override physiology 

[McRightSide]

30 minutes ago, Ash77 said:

Different players may work better inverted cutting in, especially if their technique is more useful than their pace.

 

However man c look good with sterling on right and sane on left, sane never plays on right but sterling plays left sometimes if sane on bench.

 

For us reach is generally worse on the right so he should play left and get some crosses in.

 

Our fbs arent a big threat in the final 3rd either so wont deliver crosses if widemen constantly cut in.

 

Aarons is pacy so should be useful on the right too, madness not to at least try it, can't be any worse than 0-0/2-2 vs bottom sides with boyd left, reach right anyway 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are going to play this way then you need to have fullback capable of providing decent supply.

 

Fox can deliver great balls into the box but often does so from too deep.

 

Palmer...well, we all know about his ability in the final third.

[shezzas left peg]

17 hours ago, shandypants said:

Are we the only team that tends to play left footed players at outside right/right wing and right footed players at outside left/left wing or do all teams do this? We have employed this tactic for years now but other than tucking in the wingers for a better defensive shape, I am baffled as to what it brings. 

 

Other than Chris Waddle, I can’t think of many of our players that really suited playing “on the opposite wing”. 

If I had a penny for everytime I've mentioned this, I'd have a pretty packet by now and couldn't agree more bud. 

It stops our forward momentum dead in its tracks when our winger, stops, checks back onto his preferred foot and then proceeds to swing an inswinging cross, if it's not blocked, straight into the hands of the keeper. Failing that they roll it back to our fullback to swing a ball in and by the time the ball comes in everyone is marked and the opposition are set up defencivly. 

 

This also brings us nicely to Rhodes, Fletcher and Winnall, all forwards that are great at getting on the ends of crosses, but don't score enough goals, simple for me get your wingers moving out wide and swinging outswingers into the box for them to attack on the run against a less organised defence. 

[Swiss Toni]

14 hours ago, shandypants said:

I respectfully disagree. I think we lost a lot of Wallace’s attacking threat when he had to keep checking back on his left foot. We never played him on the left which would have allowed him to get to the byline and whip the ball in. 

 

I respectfully agree with your respectful disagree.

[East Yorks Owl]

I agree with the OP that playing wingers on their weakest foot doesn’t make sense, other than allowing them to cut in for shots on their strongest foot. 

I know one thing with absolute certainty and that’s if you’re playing as a forward the thing you want most is a first time cross. There’s nothing worse than seeing a winger stopping to get the ball on his strongest foot. The oppositions defenders are all back in position and the forward is waiting around like a statue.  It’s then miles harder to get a powerful header on goal from any cross as the whole forward momentum has been lost.

We’ve got forwards in our squad who have height and can head a ball, so why not play our wingers on their strongest side?  As other posters have already said, why not have periods when you swap the wingers from one flank to the other. Any winger worth his salt would fancy trying his luck against a different full back.

[shandypants]

18 hours ago, beloved_aunt said:

I always feel that if you play both on the same side you're really predictable.

 

Eg a right footed full back who wants to overlap and cross and a right footed right winger who want to go wide and cross the you're really predictable and easy to stop.  You've only got one way of attacking down the flanks, eg go wide and cross.  

 

If you have a mix (eg Hunt goes wide and Wallace comes inside to shoot) then you've got more ways to attack and give the defence more questions to answer.

 

Of course you've got to have the right players as well but its they way most elite sides and no reason we should emulate. 

I’m sorry but I can’t agree. Having played football weekly for over 40 years (11-a-side and 5-a-side until my 30s but just 5-a-side now), I believe that I can say with some authority that there’s no easier way to stall an attack than to “show” the player with the ball onto his weak foot - it’s one of the “fundamentals” of the game. On the occasions that I played right back, I knew that I could show any right-footed left winger the outside thus keeping him on his weaker foot, however, it was more difficult playing against a left-footed left winger because if I pushed him onto his wrong foot, I’d be showing him the inside and possibly into the channel, potentially giving him a chance to score or assist, and definitely leading to me getting a dressing down from my centre-half partner. Every player knows and employs this tactic - from your youngster starting out to your professional playing for his country. 

[beloved_aunt]

3 hours ago, shandypants said:

I’m sorry but I can’t agree. Having played football weekly for over 40 years (11-a-side and 5-a-side until my 30s but just 5-a-side now), I believe that I can say with some authority that there’s no easier way to stall an attack than to “show” the player with the ball onto his weak foot - it’s one of the “fundamentals” of the game. On the occasions that I played right back, I knew that I could show any right-footed left winger the outside thus keeping him on his weaker foot, however, it was more difficult playing against a left-footed left winger because if I pushed him onto his wrong foot, I’d be showing him the inside and possibly into the channel, potentially giving him a chance to score or assist, and definitely leading to me getting a dressing down from my centre-half partner. Every player knows and employs this tactic - from your youngster starting out to your professional playing for his country. 

 

 

Ok, so why does every almost elite side of the last 10 years play that way? 

[mrgund]

On 16/02/2019 at 08:44, S72 Owl said:

Think pretty much 90% of teams do this these days.

 

Exactly, it's just modern football. 

 

It's very rare to see a right footed winger bomb down the right. The wrong footed opposite side players, if that can be a term, are more like old style inside forwards.

[shandypants]

12 hours ago, beloved_aunt said:

 

 

Ok, so why does every almost elite side of the last 10 years play that way? 

I’m not sure that they do. 

[shandypants]

12 hours ago, beloved_aunt said:

 

 

Ok, so why does every almost elite side of the last 10 years play that way? 

I’m not sure that they do. Some do but not almost every as you state. 

12 hours ago, mrgund said:

 

Exactly, it's just modern football. 

 

It's very rare to see a right footed winger bomb down the right. The wrong footed opposite side players, if that can be a term, are more like old style inside forwards.

I think they play players on their natural foot but narrower as inside lefts and rights which gives them licence of pull out wider if needed. 

[Dutch McLovin]

On ‎16‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 03:46, pazowl55 said:

If we had amazing attacking full backs we would really see the benefits of this as that's what it is designed to do. get them in space.  But we don't as neither Palmer or Fox or even Hunt or Pudil were that great at doing the job of an attacking full back. 

 

Strange.

 

We should just let Reach and Aarons attack there own sided flanks.

Exactly this.

 

In CC first year Hunt and particularly Pudil played like wingers which meant Wallace and Bannan could come inside and in Pudils case we cad quality out there still (Hunt for all his running and effort lacked in quality).

 

Since this tho we struggle to get a full back to cross the half way line so it doesn't work. Bruce mentioned something like this as to why he played Bannan out wide v Milwall the other day, and he was right in what he wanted he just didn't have the players around him or tactics to suit.

[beloved_aunt]

On 18/02/2019 at 00:31, shandypants said:

I’m not sure that they do. Some do but not almost every as you state. 

I think they play players on their natural foot but narrower as inside lefts and rights which gives them licence of pull out wider if needed. 

 

If you play two right footers on the right and two left footers on the left, then you're making it quite clear that your main strategy for scoring a goal is crossing into the box as this is the instinct of all four of your wide players.

 

However, in the modern game this is a really inefficient way of scoring a goal.  Studies of the PL have indicated that only one in every 92 crosses produces a goal. They're very easy to defend against and predictable.  Read more here: https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/whats-point-crossing

 

There are far more efficient ways of scoring goals such as through balls, long shot etc.  So if you have someone cutting in from the flank and another providing width you are giving yourself these other options and a better chance of scoring and ultimately winning.

 

English football's antiquated obsession with crossing is one of the main reasons our "golden generation" totally bombed.  We didn't utilise the attacking instincts of our brilliant centre mids because the ball always had to go wide for Beckham to swing it in.  Also the weird assumption that our left winger had to be left footed resulted in years of waste trying the likes of Guppy, Thompson et al on the flank.  If we'd abandoned the 4-4-2 and gone for a modern formation and modern style (oh for someone like Southgate to have been manager back then) we'd have done much better.

[beloved_aunt]

On 18/02/2019 at 00:18, shandypants said:

I’m not sure that they do. 

 

Champions league final last year: Bale/Ronaldo cutting in with Carvajal/Marcelo overlapping vs Salah/Mane cutting in with Robertson/Arnold overlapping.

 

Other great recent sides:

Barca: Messi/Neymar cutting in, Alba/Alaves overlapping.

Bayern: Robben and Ribery with Kimmich and Alaba

 

etc and so on.  There is a reason for this.

[dorian gray]

On 16/02/2019 at 10:00, SallyCinnamon said:

 

Wallace’s best performance in an Owls shirt was 45 second half minutes against Bristol in 2016 playing on the left. We came from 2 goals down to win 3-2. Bizarrely he never played wide left again.

 

I think people get carried away with the screamers Wallace and Reach have scored for us cutting in from the right. Overall we’d look far threatening if we played wingers on their natural side. 

it could, and should be worked both ways.

[dorian gray]

On 16/02/2019 at 10:26, Buxtongent said:

I can understand a player, any player  let alone a winger, much preferring one foot to the other. What i cannot understand is the inability of so many players in today's game  to be able to use BOTH feet. One will always prefer using one's 'better' foot,  but to be constantly dragging it back onto that foot, particularly when on the wing, is something I find abhorrent. With the amount of money these chaps are getting paid they shouldbe able to use both feet. 

The case of Wallace used to stick out a mile. He played on the right wing and ALWAYS had to bring the ball onto the inside , which meant that the defender had only to keep on his left hand side, and prevent him cutting in.

the idea seems to be by cutting inside he's on the defenders 'weaker' foot, IF the defender does cover to the attackers right, he leaves the flank wide open to an overlap.

[Hawkowl]

On 16/02/2019 at 10:10, Sham67 said:

 

Most teams do this.  The idea is they can cut in and shoot with their strongest foot.  Nowadays, it's the full backs job to get to the byline and cross/cut it back.

 

What if our fullbacks have 2 left feet?

 

 

FFS.

[agentwalker]

This tactic has been done to death now over the last few years and teams have learnt to cope.

 

The pigs are on to a winner at the moment with their tactics of just overloading the wings and getting in low dangerous crosses. None of this cutting inside and trying a screamer every time, just get the man in behind down the wing on his good foot and put in a low cross. Simple but effective.