2022-06-03, 09:37 PM - Word count:
This article will be an addendum to my last one where I discussed wingers. In this one I'm going to talk about Wingbacks,fullbacks, and inverted wingbacks.
These are a smaller selection of players than greater archetypes of "wingers" but still represent wide players in general.
Now to give some background the inspiration of this comes from a recent talk in SSL gen chat where someone posted about two players they had and needed to commit to one of them for their starter.
Now personally my favorite thing to do in FM is to retrain defensive mids into inverted wingbacks. Inverted wingbacks at their core are basically midfielders that end up going wide in defense. The topic I wanted to go on about is the fact that the opposite can't really happen, barring a superstar that transcends positions on the field. Now I realize I'm going to have to go on a midfielder arc with my articles but at its core the center of the park is more size physical while the wide parts of the field are more speed physical. You can have a player on the inside that has 11 pace without flinching at the highest levels of the game. While a 14 pace winger would need a strong look at what else they can do to justify their spot. A wingback however can make do with little strength or tackling ability as they need to worry about disrupting crossing attempts and impeding runs into the box before a second defender can come on by to finish the press/pick up the 50/50 ball.
Now a wingback vs a fullback is pretty simple, a wingback is better than a fullback. The ability to decide when to employ wingbacks vs fullbacks is the bit that separates good managers and poor managers. Hollywoood used this to do the double when they brandished their trident and importantly used fullbacks on support instead of even fullbacks on attack, the common substitution when you have no other wing presence. At the very end of the day every player on your team needs to be able to do something. Wide defenders must be able to defend the wide places, everything else is secondary to this. If a player needs to be a fullback beacuse they lack the workrate or pace to track back in time to not get constantly burned by pacy wingers they need to be fullbacks to do their job. Now players in the WB spot on the field instead of the DL/DR spot on the field are only viable if you have 3 center defenders (3 centerbacks vs 2 centerbacks and a half back) Even then they need that level of workrate/pace to justify their spot. Superstars again transcend this and can be used as complete wingbacks at the wingback spot on the role.
These are a smaller selection of players than greater archetypes of "wingers" but still represent wide players in general.
Now to give some background the inspiration of this comes from a recent talk in SSL gen chat where someone posted about two players they had and needed to commit to one of them for their starter.
Now personally my favorite thing to do in FM is to retrain defensive mids into inverted wingbacks. Inverted wingbacks at their core are basically midfielders that end up going wide in defense. The topic I wanted to go on about is the fact that the opposite can't really happen, barring a superstar that transcends positions on the field. Now I realize I'm going to have to go on a midfielder arc with my articles but at its core the center of the park is more size physical while the wide parts of the field are more speed physical. You can have a player on the inside that has 11 pace without flinching at the highest levels of the game. While a 14 pace winger would need a strong look at what else they can do to justify their spot. A wingback however can make do with little strength or tackling ability as they need to worry about disrupting crossing attempts and impeding runs into the box before a second defender can come on by to finish the press/pick up the 50/50 ball.
Now a wingback vs a fullback is pretty simple, a wingback is better than a fullback. The ability to decide when to employ wingbacks vs fullbacks is the bit that separates good managers and poor managers. Hollywoood used this to do the double when they brandished their trident and importantly used fullbacks on support instead of even fullbacks on attack, the common substitution when you have no other wing presence. At the very end of the day every player on your team needs to be able to do something. Wide defenders must be able to defend the wide places, everything else is secondary to this. If a player needs to be a fullback beacuse they lack the workrate or pace to track back in time to not get constantly burned by pacy wingers they need to be fullbacks to do their job. Now players in the WB spot on the field instead of the DL/DR spot on the field are only viable if you have 3 center defenders (3 centerbacks vs 2 centerbacks and a half back) Even then they need that level of workrate/pace to justify their spot. Superstars again transcend this and can be used as complete wingbacks at the wingback spot on the role.
