[quote author=Brendan link=topic=39720.msg1084512#msg1084512 date=1270719828]
There's been lots of chat and debate about wingers being something of an anachronism in the modern game, largely due to great players like Ronaldo creating a kind of "wide attacking striking" hybrid type of role, and versatility being the "must-have" attribute.
But let's take a look at the reality. Certainly Robben's display last night was a wonderful exhibition of attacking play from a wide position, and he seems to be as traditional a winger as you could hope for. Ribery is also a winger.
But the vanquished Mancs' two stand-out players last night were also wingers, Nani on the left and Valencia on the right.
Spurs' best player is Lennon. A winger.
Villa's is Young. A winger.
Johnson and Malouda have bothe been very good this season for their respective clubs. Both wingers.
Have we written off the modern-day winger too soon? Maybe.
Certainly I'd love to see a fast, tricky, skilful, goal-scoring attacking threat beating his man and skipping down the flanks at Liverpool.
And I don't much care what he's called.
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Good post.
Interesting conversation the winger one.
Wingers have one of the toughest tasks in the game really. Along with strikers, they see the ball as little as any other position on the pitch. Yet they're not afforded the same leeway as a striker. They have to do something with it, create something, go past someone, or stretch things greatly in order to have an impact. Look at a defensive midfielder; if they hold the opposing attacking midfielder, and keep their own ball-use simple - that's job done. Central defenders; stop the forward from scoring, job done. Wingers are nearly always the first player replaced when it comes to substitutions, and if they don't fit into one of two categories; (1) fast, (2) skillful - then they're deemed no good.
There's a reason why we haven't had a good one since Barnes or McManaman; there aren't that many good ones out there. We've been linked to Simao for years, and even he's not all that. When David Bentley goes for 18M, you can see straight away the dearth of talent out there in that area. I don't even think Lennon's that fucking hot, but he's quick, and Capello loves him.
The Valencia example's a good one. He's not particularly skillful (certainly not like Nani), but he's direct, burtally quick, and has a pretty good cross. There was a great article from Richard Williams in the Guardian a month or two back comparing him to Stanley Matthews with his direct byline-approach tactic.
He's a rarity though. I can think of very few similar right-wingers. And he's fortunate to have Sir Alex's penchant for wingers there to relax him of the need to defend too. There's a reason the more solid Neville has been preferred of late than the youthful, exhuberant, and largely better Rafael.
I think he's rare though, because he goes on the outside. Given the formation of tactics these days, with attacking full-backs en vogue, a solid midfielder-cum-winger (Dirk for example) has been the preferred approach to negate the marauding runs from full-back. The next step has been to deply wingers on their non-prefeered (or non-natural side) - like Messi, Robben, Ribery, or closer to home - Babel.
Attacking that 10-15 yard traingular space in between centre-back, full-back and defensive midfielder has serious merit. Especially if you have midfielder runners arriving late, and an overlapping full-back as options. It beocmes even more dangerous if you have an attacking midfielder prepared to move completely out of the way, thus dragging the defensive midfielder with him. Like Aquilani did against Portsmouth. Or Park did for United at home to Milan.
I'm not really that bothered whether any (hopefully) incoming winger we might get is right or left footed, or prefers either side. I think with Masher, Lucas, Aqui, Dirk, Gerrard etc, we can compensate for someone quick and inconsistent. I like how Dirk's pushed across into a midfield three recently to free up Babel, but really Babel's not good enough in the long term. If we had a better version of him - a Di Maria or someone - then we'd be really flying.
But then, if you look at Rafa's history with wingers - Nunez, Kewell, Riera, Simao, Dirk, Aurelio, the lad at Bolton - I worry it might continue to be more of the same unfortunately.
