tmesisCoppells Lost Coattmesis These days they are incredibly few true wingers left anywhere. You certainly struggle to find ones who can beat a man with skill rather than just pace, and very few can put in a decent cross while running.
The days of a genuine wide man like Glen Little, able to turn the fullback to get half a yard of space to put a cross in, or even a Michael Gilkes who, while mainly about speed, could be relied on to arc a ball to the far post with regularity, are gone.
Agree. Only through trends in formation though. When 442 becomes trendy again we'll see decent wide players.
Also much easier to put a CF with pace out on the wing to suit what the manager wants than bringing in a new player.
The problem is that doing that, in itself, won't work. The way we've put pace on a pedestal in this country means that we've now got loads of very quick wide midfielders favoured for their ability to run past a defender, not for their ability to put a decent cross in, let alone a cross while running.
They've also lost the ability to beat a player with skill, so the moment they come up against a team defending deep they are next to useless, as there's no space behind them to run into. The art of making space by wrong-footing the fullback has almost gone.
Some of it might be down to how free kicks are given for any contact in the modern game. Players no longer need to be able to evade challenges, as getting a free kick is often seen as more desirable than actually getting past the man.
Must admit I'm not seeing this at all. If anything, I think our obsession with copying Spain and Germany means we increasing produce a lot of very technical attacking midfield types and fewer genuine wingers. Look at the World Cup squad for example - only one winger and he ended up playing as a striker.
There's now generally much less emphasis on pace and slinging it into the big man, and much more emphasis on finding and exploiting space, tactical use of the ball, and looking for the killer pass. This is the era of Alli and Lingard, not Walcott and Agbonlahor. Or in our own youth system, the U23 wingers are a Josh Barrett, who makes Caskey look like Kebe, and Tyler Frost, who is like a technically gifted Andy Hughes.
So sure, wingers don't spend as much time lobbing crosses in any more (Leicester are the big exception, and Albrighton and Gray are excellent traditional wingers), but that's because of emphasising technicality and tactical intelligence, not fetishising pace.
