Table of Contents
- So, what is a winger in soccer?
- What attributes does a good winger need?
- The main roles of wingers on the soccer pitch
- Do wingers in soccer need to be fast?
- Five of the best wingers in 2022
- Recap: The role of a winger in soccer
The positions on a soccer field are often transient and fluid these days, not to be strictly adhered to.
The characteristics of wingers differ from player to player, with no single player being the same as anybody else, of course. Yet one thing remains: wingers, unsurprisingly, will hug the wings.
It’s fun to watch the fast and explosive nature of wingers from the stands or from the comfort of our living rooms. Let’s find out what their role in a soccer team involves.
So, what is a winger in soccer?
In soccer, a winger is a player who is positioned in the wide attacking areas of the field.
As the name suggests, wingers tend to stay toward the touchline and are the predominant crossers of the ball within a team.
This doesn’t mean that wingers can’t come inside whatsoever, just that their primary focus of concern will be out wide.
Coaches frequently encourage their wingers to arrive late at the back post to latch onto crosses from the other side of the field.
Rarely would a team only field one winger. It’s much more common that two wingers will be fielded for a side.
What attributes does a good winger need?
Typically, wingers will be good dribblers of the ball. The ability to carry the ball forward doing the flanks can shift your side into more threatening positions.
In motion, you need wingers to deliver crosses in stride, making it another crucial attribute for wingers to have.
It’s likely that, in the modern game, wingers will be fast as well. Lightning pace can often be the difference between making it to a ball played through to you and the defender winning the race.
It’s important for the contemporary winger to have some defensive nous and help out with the defensive side of the game too. Wingers and wing-backs or full-backs can often interchange positionally to do the duties of the other.
Wingers need to be intelligent too. Their runs should be timed well and based on exploiting the body positions of their defensive counterparts.
The main roles of wingers on the soccer pitch
Like all sports, the position that you play in a soccer team comes with different roles and responsibilities. So, with that in mind, here are some of the roles that wingers are typically responsible for on the soccer pitch:
- Crossing – it’s usually the job of the wingers to whip crosses into the box for attackers to get on the end of. It’s likely that a ball delivered to strikers from out wide will have less chance of being intercepted than passes down the middle of the field.
- Dribbling – it’s not always the most effective way of retaining possession, which is why players out wide are encouraged to dribble at their opponents. It’s less likely to be detrimental should you lose the ball out wide rather than in central positions so wingers are granted more freedom to dribble.
- Tracking back – your manager will probably instruct you to drop deep when your team is under pressure so that you can help your full-backs/wing-backs. It’s crucial that your defenders don’t get overloaded with pressure and wingers can help them.
- Pressing – piling the pressure on the opposition when they have the ball can force them into mistakes and retrieve the ball for your side high up the field, providing you with good goalscoring opportunities.
- Incisive runs – with the full-backs preoccupied with some of the attacking duties, wingers can expose the space in behind. Also, it could be easy to predict the striker’s run if they’re centrally located.
Do wingers in soccer need to be fast?
It’s not exclusively the case, but a lot of wingers will be fast players.
Some wingers hone in on their technical skills instead of making quick bursts. David Beckham exemplified this; he wasn’t known for his pace, but his crossing ability was so good that he could deliver from wherever and it didn’t really matter how fast he was.
Current players like Manchester City teammates Jack Grealish and Phil Foden, who are not sluggish by any stretch but also not renowned for blistering speed, tend to use other means of beating their opponents instead of solely outpacing them.
Fancy footwork and feigning your movements are other great ways to beat your opponent out wide. Skills and tricks deceive opponents, meaning that rapid speed isn’t a necessity.
Five of the best wingers in 2022
Now that you understand the position and what attibutes a winger requires, here are some of the most talented players in this position in 2022:
- Mohamed Salah, Liverpool & Egypt – his finishing is masterful and he’s frequently top of the scoring charts in England. Salah thrives off open space and his teammates know this, so they won’t hesitate to give the Egyptian a long ball to chase because of how confident they are that he’ll reach it. Otherwise, he’ll dribble at you with pace. There’s no breathing room when you’re marking Mo.
- Vinicius Jr., Real Madrid & Brazil – the last thing you want is to be facing Vini in a one-on-one foot race. On the biggest stages versus the best opponents, Vinicius Jr. loves to arrive late into the penalty box to latch onto crosses from the other wing, as proven in Real Madrid’s Champions League final triumph last season. Regularly a thorn in the paw of his opponents.
- Son Heung-min, Tottenham Hotspur & South Korea – Son appears to be as close to the most complete winger that you can find: a great dribbler, a wonderful finisher, selfless, fast, and deceptively strong. Spurs fans adore him and for good reason.
- Neymar Jr., Paris Saint-Germain & Brazil – this proves just how blessed Brazil is with options on the wing. A true superstar of the sport, Neymar possesses scintillating footwork and technique that must be a dream for coaches. He regularly gets in on the goalscoring act too.
- Sadio Mané, Bayern Munich & Senegal – Mané is a livewire of a winger, buzzing around the attacking third of the field with seemingly endless energy. His pace and nose for goalscoring were just two of the reasons Bayern Munich were so desperate to take him from Liverpool.
Recap: The role of a winger in soccer
The way the very best wingers in the game operate inspire youngsters to mimic their moves.
Whether it’s Salah, Neymar, or Son, the best wingers in the game have much more to their game than just pace. They can be the decisive factor in a game through their vision, creativity, and clinical finishing.