Are wingers dead?

[Konfuchie]

I stopped following football almost 10 years ago. But I always came back to the game of FM as it was kind of strategic challenge for me. I have to admit this World Cup reinvigorated my interest in football.

Being old school I was happy when inside forwards were introduced in the game but soon I became desperate as later versions of the game seemed to favour IF and IW much much more in the match engine than traditional wingers.

I agree this correlates with real world football (especially top teams) but just for a sake of an old stubborn guy is there a way to make wingers in attacking midfield work? I especially mean 1 striker formations like 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 DM wide.

I watched some Rashidi video from FM21 where he suggests playing very narrow in possession, but it was still much worse than playing them on opposite sides with opposite foot even they were just accomplished there, and had more of a winger attributes (if we can agree that they are somewhat different than IF favoured attributes).

[GIMN]

They certainly can work, but personally I prefer them from the midfield strata.  Either the full-back comes up to meet them, and there is space to push the ball behind and run onto, or the full-back sags off, and they have space in front to either cross early or build up speed before taking them on the full-back.  In the AM strata, there's less space to work with (except on the counter) and you'll probably need to work an overload on that side to get them free.  That said, they can be effective in maintaining width to stretch the opposition defence, and useful as a defensive option to initiate the press on a particularly vulnerable full-back.

[WhyMe]

In my FM23 demo test save I used a 4-3-3 DM with my AMR as a winger on attack and regardless of who I played their they were very effective, mostly assists but also chipped in with a decent number of goals.  This was regardless of which player I played there, Saka with his strong left foot or Nelson with his strong right foot, both were equally effective.  So it can definitely work.  What matters is ensuring the rest of the roles and duties work well together and if so then a winger either on support or attack can definitely work.  However, where it can struggle significantly is if you try to play a winger role on both flanks in a 4-3-3 as you can end up being too one dimensional.

[CARRERA]

Wingers are still very effective. Just make sure other players are taking over the channels then.

[warlock]

2 hours ago, CARRERA said:

Wingers are still very effective. Just make sure other players are taking over the channels then.

Yes, a winger paired with a mez on the same side is one of my favourite combinations - winger-support with a mez-attack, or vice-versa.

For me, one of the key things if you're playing a winger is to make sure there's someone in the box to receive the crosses. Also, you don't want a back behind the winger trying to do the same thing, so no WB-attack behind a winger. I'd go for a WB-support or WB-defend, or a fullback on support.

[Rashidi]

On 08/01/2023 at 11:23, Konfuchie said:

I watched some Rashidi video from FM21 where he suggests playing very narrow in possession, but it was still much worse than playing them on opposite sides with opposite foot even they were just accomplished there, and had more of a winger attributes (if we can agree that they are somewhat different than IF favoured attributes).

That was FM21, where narrow was the way to go, but you can opt to go narrow or wide, on FM23 I play a lot of systems and maximum width settings and play with wingers on attack duty, and they are fun to use.

[kingjericho]

My wingers score less than last year for sure (using the same tactic), but they still provide width and many assists. It seems the Winger (Attack) attacks the box less often when a cross from the opposite side comes in.

[FM1000]

On 09/01/2023 at 10:52, Rashidi said:

That was FM21, where narrow was the way to go, but you can opt to go narrow or wide, on FM23 I play a lot of systems and maximum width settings and play with wingers on attack duty, and they are fun to use.

Regarding FM 21, do you mean going narrow in general is the way to go (meaning maybe overpowered in the engine) or using wingers on the opposite foot and going narrow is the way to go?

[Cloud9]

On 07/01/2023 at 19:23, Konfuchie said:

I stopped following football almost 10 years ago. But I always came back to the game of FM as it was kind of strategic challenge for me. I have to admit this World Cup reinvigorated my interest in football.

Being old school I was happy when inside forwards were introduced in the game but soon I became desperate as later versions of the game seemed to favour IF and IW much much more in the match engine than traditional wingers.

I agree this correlates with real world football (especially top teams) but just for a sake of an old stubborn guy is there a way to make wingers in attacking midfield work? I especially mean 1 striker formations like 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 DM wide.

I watched some Rashidi video from FM21 where he suggests playing very narrow in possession, but it was still much worse than playing them on opposite sides with opposite foot even they were just accomplished there, and had more of a winger attributes (if we can agree that they are somewhat different than IF favoured attributes).

They're a super way (winger on attack) of utilizing a player who isn't that great and turning him into an absolute threat. If they've got dribbling, flair, and speed they can play as a winger and be a wrecking ball out there.

Can't shoot? Can't pass? Dumb as a rock? put um out there. Can't cross? who cares! Well, hopefully he has at least decent crossing. Stick rounds the goalkeeper on them and you're off to the races. 

 

Wombo combo if you throw out a front pairing of TF, AF with a Winger (a) off the side on wide attacking width. 

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Cloud9

[Overmars]

In FM23, I bought an outright winger regen who had incredible pace, acceleration, dribbling, crossing, flair, and agility. He wasn't great at much else, so W(a) was how I deployed him in both a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. In both formations, he was really bad. In his last 73 league matches (about half of those matches were with my team), he has scored 1 goal and provided 8 assists. One goal in 73 matches!!! I couldn't believe it when an AI team wanted to pay me 20 million for him, which I felt was about 19 million too much.

I had a similar player in FM22 and he was almost as bad. I figured that was mostly due to FM22 favouring more narrow formations, but now in FM23, I still don't think wingers are hugely effective. I agree that sliding them back to the ML/MR spots can help because the match ratings don't seem to punish them for not scoring goals when positioned deeper. If your AML/AMR goes a few games without scoring, it can be nearly impossible to get them out of that ratings funk.