In modern football, the terms winger or wide player refer to a non-defender who plays on the left or right sides of the pitch. These terms can apply to left or right
forwards. Traditionally, wingers were purely attacking players and were not expected to track back and defend. This began to change in the 1960s. In the
1966 World Cup,
England manager Alf Ramsey did not select wingers from the quarter-final onwards. This team was known as the "Wingless Wonders" and led to the modern 4–4–2 formation. This has led to most modern wide players having a more demanding role in the sense that they are expected to provide defensive cover for their full-backs and track back to repossess the ball, as well as provide skillful crosses for centre forwards and strikers. As the role of winger can be classed as a forward or a midfielder, this role instead blurs the divide between defender and midfielder. Italian manager
Antonio Conte has been known to use wide midfielders or wingers who act as wing-backs in his trademark
3–5–2 and
3–4–3 formations, for example; these players are expected both to push up and provide width in attack as well as track back and assist their team defensively. On occasion, the role of a winger can also be occupied by a different type of player. For example, certain managers have been known to use a "wide target man" on the wing, namely a large and physical player who usually plays as a centre-forward, and who will attempt to win aerial challenges and hold up the ball on the flank, or drag full-backs out of position;
Romelu Lukaku, for example, has been used in this role on occasion. Today, a winger is usually an attacking midfielder who is stationed in a wide position near the touchlines. Wingers such as
Stanley Matthews or
Jimmy Johnstone used to be classified as outside forwards in traditional W-shaped formations, and were formally known as "
Outside Right" or "
Outside Left", but as tactics evolved through the last 40 years, wingers have dropped to deeper field positions and are now usually classified as part of the midfield, usually in 4–4–2 or 4–5–1 formations (but while the team is on the attack, they tend to resemble 4–2–4/2–4–4 and 4–3–3 formations respectively). The responsibilities of the winger include: • Providing a "wide presence" as a passing option on the flank. • To beat the opposing full-back either with skill or with speed. • To read passes from the midfield that give them a clear crossing opportunity, when going wide, or that give them a clear scoring opportunity, when cutting inside towards the goal. • To double up on the opposition winger, particularly when they are being "double-marked" by both the team's full back and winger. The prototypical winger is fast, tricky, and enjoys 'hugging' the touchline, that is, running downfield close to the touchline and delivering crosses. However, players with different attributes can thrive on the wing as well. Some wingers prefer to cut
infield (as opposed to staying wide) and pose a threat as playmakers by playing diagonal passes to forwards or taking a shot at goal. Even players who are not considered quick have been successfully fielded as wingers at the club and international level for their ability to create play from the flank. Occasionally, wingers are given a free role to roam across the front line and are relieved of defensive responsibilities.
Johann Cruijff frequently exhibited this prowess, as a true model of Total Football, an ultimate "master-style" of play, in its earliest form believed to originate with the
Hungary national football team - and nearly perfected - in the late 40s and early 50s. The typical abilities of wingers include: • Technical skill to beat a full-back in a one-to-one situation. • Pace, to beat the full-back one-on-one. • Crossing ability when out wide. • Good off-the-ball ability when judging a pass from the midfield or from fellow attackers. • Good passing ability and composure, to retain possession while in opposition territory. • The modern winger should also be comfortable on either wing to adapt to the quick tactical changes required by the coach. Although wingers are a familiar part of football, the use of wingers is by no means universal. Many successful football teams operate without wingers. A famous example is
Carlo Ancelotti's late 2000s
Milan, who typically plays in a narrow midfield diamond formation or in a Christmas tree formation (4–3–2–1), relying on full-backs to provide the necessary width down the wings.
Wide midfielder was lauded for his range of passing, vision,
crossing ability and
bending free-kicks, which enabled him to score goals or create chances for teammates. Left and right midfielders have a role balanced between attack and defence, while they play a lot of crosses in the box for forwards. They are positioned closer to the
touchlines of the
pitch. They may be asked to
cross the ball into the opponent's penalty area to create scoring chances for their teammates, and when defending, they may put pressure on opponents who are trying to cross. Common modern formations that include left and right midfielders are the
4−4−2, the
4−4−1−1, the
4–2–3–1 and the
4−5−1 formations.
Jonathan Wilson describes the development of the 4−4−2 formation: "…the winger became a wide midfielder, a shuttler, somebody who might be expected to cross a ball but was also meant to put in a defensive shift." Two notable examples of wide midfielders are
David Beckham and
Ryan Giggs. In Italian football, the role of the wide midfielder is known as
tornante di centrocampo or simply
tornante ("returning"); it originated from the role of an
outside forward, and came to be known as such as it often required players in this position to track back and assist the back-line with defensive duties, in addition to aiding the midfield and attacking.
Wing-half The historic position of wing-half (not to be confused with
mezzala) was given to midfielders (half-backs) who played near the side of the pitch. It became obsolete as wide players with defensive duties have tended to become more a part of the defence as
full-backs.
Inverted winger and raumdeuter (left) has been deployed as an inverted winger throughout her career. An inverted winger is a modern tactical development of the traditional winger position. Most wingers are assigned to either side of the field based on their
footedness, with right-footed players on the right and left-footed players on the left. This assumes that assigning a player to their natural side ensures a more powerful cross as well as greater ball protection along the
touch-lines. However, when the position is inverted, and a winger instead plays inside-out on the opposite flank (i.e., a right-footed player as a left inverted winger), they effectively become supporting strikers and primarily assume a role in the attack. As opposed to traditionally pulling the opponent's
full-back out and down the flanks before crossing the ball in near the
by-line, positioning a winger on the opposite side of the field allows the player to cut-in around the
18-yard box, either threading passes between defenders or shooting on goal using the dominant foot. This offensive tactic has found popularity in the modern game due to the fact that it gives traditional wingers increased mobility as playmakers and goalscorers, such as the left-footed right winger
Domenico Berardi of
Sassuolo who achieved 30 career goals faster than any player in the past half-century of
Serie A football. Not only are inverted wingers able to push full-backs onto their weak sides, but they are also able to spread and force the other team to defend deeper as forwards and
wing-backs route towards the goal, ultimately creating more scoring opportunities. (left, 11) has often been deployed as an inverted winger on the right flank throughout his career, which allows him to cut inside and shoot on goal with his stronger foot. Other midfielders within this tactical archetype include
Lionel Messi and
Eden Hazard, as well as
Megan Rapinoe of the
USWNT. Clubs such as
Real Madrid often choose to play their wingers on the "wrong" flank for this reason; former Real Madrid coach
José Mourinho often played
Ángel Di María on the right and
Cristiano Ronaldo on the left. Former
Bayern Munich manager
Jupp Heynckes often played the left-footed
Arjen Robben on the right and the right-footed
Franck Ribéry on the left. One of the foremost practitioners of playing from either flank was German winger
Jürgen Grabowski, whose flexibility helped Germany to third place in the
1970 World Cup, and the world title in
1974. A description that has been used in the media to label a variation upon the inverted winger position is that of an "attacking", "false", or "goalscoring winger", as exemplified by Cristiano Ronaldo's role on the left flank during his time at Real Madrid in particular. This label has been used to describe an offensive-minded inverted winger, who will seemingly operate out wide on paper, but who instead will be given the freedom to make unmarked runs into more advanced central areas inside the penalty area to get on the end of passes and crosses and score goals, effectively functioning as a
striker. This role is somewhat comparable to what is known as the
raumdeuter role in German football jargon (literally "space interpreter"), as exemplified by
Thomas Müller, as well as
Dele Alli and
Tim Cahill, namely an attacking-minded wide player, who will move into effective central attacking areas to find spaces from which they can receive passes and score or assist goals, while other teammates create space for their runs by drawing opponents away from them.
False winger The "false winger" or "seven-and-a-half" is a label which has been used to describe a type of player who normally plays centrally, but who instead is deployed out wide on paper; during the course of a match, however, they will move inside and operate in the centre of the pitch to drag defenders out of position, congest the midfield and give their team a numerical advantage in this area, so that they can dominate possession in the middle of the pitch and create chances for the forwards; this position also leaves space for full-backs to make overlapping attacking runs up the flank.
Samir Nasri, who has been deployed in this role, once described it as that of a "non-axial playmaker". ==See also==