[Albion] Plan B (Wingers)

[Super Sub]

I understand why most teams have adopted the current trend of “Inverted Wingers“ but I genuinely believe that the traditional methods very much still have a place too.

All of our Wing players like to cut in when they can and invariably will try and position themselves for a shot. I get it and feel it has its place.
The problem with this though is that it’s very predictable and causes congestion in the middle of the park… It’s also making things more difficult for the player when they do go on the outside as they want to try and use their preferred foot as they go past and thus it’s a longer way around.

Our wingers are very quick and each of them has a cultured left or right foot. Why don’t we mix it up sometimes? Why don’t we have them switch wings sometimes? it would make it easier to go on the outside. It would leave more space for the central players to do their thing and it would mean that we could hit the bylines with crosses coming in from a more threatening angle, away from the goalkeeper.
I’m not saying we should adopt this full time but it didn’t work out too badly for the likes of Beckham, Giggs, Barnes and Figo etc.
Why not have this as a plan B to mix things up?

 

[trueblue]

Absolutely this. It utterly baffles me in games like yesterday that we don’t keep the front line as wide as possible and try to either cross or cut the ball back from the byline. If the winger is unchallenged and runs in along the byline to cut the ball back, you have a strong chance of a corner at worst and a fair chance of a tap-in or own goal.,

We have brilliant dribblers and agile forwards to do this with but instead lobbed endless deep floaty crosses on to the heads of Everton’s massive defenders. You’ve got to get the lumbering lumps facing their own goal - then anything can happen. It was hit and hope stuff yesterday. Really poor.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Depends. Mitoma and Minteh should, in theory, be good enough to either cut inside late and shoot or get the bye line and just set it back (Mitoma regularly does this with the outside of his right). Gruda, on the other hand, slows it down by coming inside early. Every. Single. Time.

Frustrating yesterday that we moved to a back three and Lamptey and Veltman swapped sides, breaking up the wide partnerships, yet at no point did we try swapping wingers for a bit.

 

[Super Sub]

IMHO, it certainly helps the overlapping fullbacks too if they are playing on the side of the pitch that they are footed.
Bruno in his prime and Pervis before his injury were both brilliant at this.

 

[Blues Guitarist]

Tarkowski did well yesterday covering behind O'Brien. Whenever Mitoma went down the line and beat the first man, Tarkowski was on him immediately. In this situation it makes sense to come inside. An overlapping full back can help build an overload down the wing.

 

[Jeremiah]

Absolutely this. It utterly baffles me in games like yesterday that we don’t keep the front line as wide as possible and try to either cross or cut the ball back from the byline. If the winger is unchallenged and runs in along the byline to cut the ball back, you have a strong chance of a corner at worst and a fair chance of a tap-in or own goal.,

We have brilliant dribblers and agile forwards to do this with but instead lobbed endless deep floaty crosses on to the heads of Everton’s massive defenders. You’ve got to get the lumbering lumps facing their own goal - then anything can happen. It was hit and hope stuff yesterday. Really poor.

But you've got to trust in the process

 

[tstanbur]

Tarkowski did well yesterday covering behind O'Brien. Whenever Mitoma went down the line and beat the first man, Tarkowski was on him immediately. In this situation it makes sense to come inside. An overlapping full back can help build an overload down the wing.

Was really impressed with O’Brien yesterday.

Never heard of him so looked him up. Age 23 - Interesting career, signed from Lyon.

 

[Super Sub]

Likewise… he looks a very good prospect for them.

 

[Swimboy64]

I understand why most teams have adopted the current trend of “Inverted Wingers“ but I genuinely believe that the traditional methods very much still have a place too.

All of our Wing players like to cut in when they can and invariably will try and position themselves for a shot. I get it and feel it has its place.
The problem with this though is that it’s very predictable and causes congestion in the middle of the park… It’s also making things more difficult for the player when they do go on the outside as they want to try and use their preferred foot as they go past and thus it’s a longer way around.

Our wingers are very quick and each of them has a cultured left or right foot. Why don’t we mix it up sometimes? Why don’t we have them switch wings sometimes? it would make it easier to go on the outside. It would leave more space for the central players to do their thing and it would mean that we could hit the bylines with crosses coming in from a more threatening angle, away from the goalkeeper.
I’m not saying we should adopt this full time but it didn’t work out too badly for the likes of Beckham, Giggs, Barnes and Figo etc.
Why not have this as a plan B to mix things up?

Or maybe even play them so they can get round the full back and be on their strongest footed play on left right footed on right
Hey presto

 

[ac gull]

In our CH days, wingers would regularly swop sides, seems to be something PL managers don't agree with or allow

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

The issue isn’t the wingers being inverted, it’s how you structure the rest of the side to get the best out of those inverted players making the movements they make. A large part of our issue this year is that a) our wingers aren’t actually that high or that narrow, and b) there’s no one going on the outside of them unless Lamptey is playing. In fact, we’ve spent most to the year playing inverted wingers, Estupinan, Ferdi or Hinsh at LB as inverted full backs, and Veltman who gets a nose bleed once he passes the half way line.

None of these factors make it possible to maximise the potential of an inverted winger.