Retraining; Wingers to Wingbacks

[jusinho9]

I am playing with wingbacks and no wingers. Since there are a lot of winger-regens and a lot less of wingback- regens, I am wondering if it makes sense to retrain wingers.

Currently I am retraining a central midfielder to a wingback, but with that i dont see a big risk, since he already has reasonable values (for his age: 15) in the three vital defensive wingbacks attributes: Marking (9), Positioning (8), Tackling (8).

Alaba is a great wingback and has 10, 10, 13 in these attributes. So they dont have to be that high. However, the regen winger often have really awful stats in these three attributes.

Thus, my question: Is it worth a try wo retrain winger with that low key attributes for wingbacks (f.e. 4,5,6)? Is it maybe even easier to make progress in these attributes for wingers, since the starting values are so low?

Thanks.

[lemeuresnew]

its not a bad idea. i usually try it if they dont have any attributes that stand out that wouldnt be useful, and keep an eye on there natural physical stats. for instance, stamina and natural fitness are a must for a wing back you want to do everything, and if these are too low to start with i wont bother

if it doesnt work, the worst that can happen is you get a more balanced winger  . i find midfielders are easier to change, as they generally have more balanced attributes already if that makes sense? 

[enigmatic]

Ultimately, it depends if you want your wingback to mark (often not that important) and win the ball back through good defensive positioning rather than being able to chase down his opposite number when they have the ball. Lots of decent actual fullbacks aren't great in those areas.

Still tough to be a wingback without any tackling ability, though a quick wingback with a tackling of 9 will win the ball back often enough provided you don't mind him getting skinned by better opponents)

I think your idea of retraining central midfielders (or regular fullbacks) is probably better, but there are wide midfielders who can tackle.

[ryan045]

I've trained a few regen wingers to wingbacks. If you dominate the ball and want your wingbacks to have high dribbling, touch, crossing it's probably a good idea.

[ryan045]

Here's an example of one of my wingers turned into a wingback.

 

[socceroos]

3 hours ago, ryan045 said:

Here's an example of one of my wingers turned into a wingback.

 

Looks to me as if he's been trained to play as a right back, not a wingback?

Also - which skin are you using there?

[Thunder88]

When I was Inter I was playing a 4-3-1-2 so obviously I had no wingers..

Antonio Candreva is a superb winger and I wanted him in my team because of his great attributes,so I trained him as a FB and a WB..he became a very consistent player and became first choice for Italy in those positions too...eventually sold him to Real Madrid where they also played him there along with Carvajal..

I always train wingers into FB and WB as it always gives you another option.

[jusinho9]

19 hours ago, lemeuresnew said:

natural fitness

that is actually a concern with the few talented wingbacks they are: they tend to have too low natural fitness. I signed a very promising wingback, but he has only 8 in natural fitness (15 in stanima). I dont mind rotating him. Hopefully, the natural fitness doesnt refrain his development. He will join in three years.

-

Thanks for the replies.

Well, its pretty clear that I am going to try it. My wingbacks gets so often involved in the attack; in one of my last games my left wingback had 4 very good chances in the first 15min. Maybe it would even makes sense to give them the PPM: Places Shoots, since they come from an angle mostly.

 

Additional question: Does it make sense to use a wrongfooted wingback, f.e. a rightfooted player on the left side? But I guess that could be akward with the crosses then.

 

[lemeuresnew]

20 minutes ago, jusinho9 said:

Additional question: Does it make sense to use a wrongfooted wingback, f.e. a rightfooted player on the left side? But I guess that could be akward with the crosses then.

i wouldnt, but it depends if you want quick crosses on the natural foot or shots, maybe drawn back crosses on the weaker foot

i fina a lot of the time even a decent weaker foot gets ignored, pretty annoying

[AFCBeer]

The key to doing this is understanding what type of Wing Back you want to have and creating a system round him to reflect his strengths and weaknesses. 

Being realistic, you aren't likely to convert a winger to a defensive wing back, but if he is decent in two out of Tackling, Marking and Positioning he should perform unless the final attribute is dreadful. For example, my converted Winger to WB is Tak 10, Mar 12 and Pos 13 and he's definitely the best player in the PL. 

What also helps is having good team work, work rate, pace and stamina. These should make up for any technical defensive deficiencies he might have. Then again these attributes are vital for virtually all positions regardless.