Are wide midfielders a waste of time?

So... I was going through a period where I was playing mostly with 4-4-2 - with two centre midfielders, wide midfielders on the wings (RM and LM), rigid structure, direct passing, and two fairly decent strikers, one deep in support, one advanced attacking.

I was playing a team in the Blue Square North (Droyslden) for three seasons - but I was constantly underachieving doing this. I had decent players and the odds usually favoured me going into games, but for some reason I was getting really poor results. I was creating chances in front of goal, from through balls and breaks, but not converting them well.

I started another save - this time I decided I would play 4-5-1, with three centre midfielders (two playing DM), two wingers, and a central striker. I've also been playing with normal philosophy instead of rigid - and I have been overachieving. I don't think it's just my players, although I did have some handy ones available to me (it was a Uruguay Second League team, forgot the name).

I was getting far more crosses in, both from my fullbacks pushing up the sidelines, and of course my wingers. A lot of those were getting converted into goals, as a result I was scoring heavily, and winning a lot of games I was expected to draw. Goals were well distributed around my strikers, wingers, and midfielders (I had a defender who was rather good at heading in corners, too ).

From all this, I've come to a couple of conclusions:

1) If you're playing with a standard 4-man defensive line, don't go rigid, because you want your fullbacks to push up the wings to make your attacks more dynamic. Standard philosophy is far better, and you don't really lose a lot of structure doing this.

2) Wide midfielders don't offer as much as a winger. A winger will generate crosses, which means goals in FM2011. Wide midfielders don't seem to get forward enough.

Am I thinking about this the right way?

Sounds about right to me. Wide midfielders are quite useful if you have one on 'cut inside' for wide play. But if you want width and crosses you want a winger. And like you say, crosses mean goals in FM11.

My thinking is Wingers should have high pace, acceleration, dribbling and crossing.

Wide Midfielders are more technically advanced than physically. Better suited in a short passing game as they wont be bombing forward down the wing. They are more inclined to look for the pass inside. Much better passers, more creative and will look for the pass instead of taking men on. Wingers better in a wide system, Wide Mids in a narrow system.

IMO Nani starts right wing and is considered a winger, Luka Modric starts right wing and he is a wide midfielder.

i have always scored goals from crosses on a regular basis on fm11 and they also score plenty for me as well. kapo scored 12 for me in the league by new year in 1 save. assume its my tactics that are helping me achieve this

I play a 4411 with Liverpool. I have a left winger and a wide right midfielder. It's either kuyt of Rodriguez on the right and they both chip in with a decent amount of goals.

Yes, it works best with 1 striker and 2 fast wingers. The float crosses come from one winger to the far post for the other winger to basically tap in with his foot or head. The striker serves as distraction but also sometimes goes wide when he breaks the offside and crosses in for a winger to score, which is much more likely than the striker himself scoring one-on-one against the goalkeeper.