Phil Cole/Getty Images
<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} p {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:12.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->
Do wingers live; or don’t they?
In the case of the England team, there is now almost a superabundance of them
The recent Chelsea-Liverpool Premiership game at Stamford Bridge provided a fascinating if somewhat confusing and contrasting study in wingers.
Chelsea didn’t use them, Liverpool did. Yet, Chelsea won the game with two goals which were set up by an irresistible Didier Drogba, first from the left-flank, then from the right.
It should be said that Liverpool employed no fewer than four flank players though by far the best of them, the Israeli left-winger Yossi Benayoun, was brought on only late into the second-half.
Instantly causing confusion in the right-flank of the Chelsea defense, even if, near the end, with Chelsea in the lead, he pulled wide of the goal an excellent chance. So do wingers live; or don’t they?
In the case of the England team, there is now almost a superabundance of them. Yet, Fabio Capello continually calls up the one-paced, one-footed, David Beckham who never beats his man, never even attempts to get to the line and pull the ball back as a classical winger will.
As indeed Drogba did, first from the left-flank, finding Nicolas Anelka, his strike partner, who also used the flanks, with a gem of a pass. Then, in injury time, bulldozing his way past the vulnerable Liverpool centre-back, Carragher, to make an easy goal for Malouda. A natural winger, who had come on as a sub, but was largely operating in the middle.
A curious sideline to Chelsea’s tactics was that in the absence of true wingers, it is very often the habit to rely on an overlapping full-back or two. Chelsea, in fact, has the ideal overlapper in the versatile Ashley Cole, the England choice at left-back, but on this occasion, he stayed largely in defense.
England’s situation is now a somewhat ironic one. With the platoon of excellent right-wingers he has available—James Milner showed on his fine second-half debut in Holland that he can play on the left just as well—Capello still insists on using Steven Gerrard there, unable or perhaps simply reluctant to resolve the endless dualism for a central-midfield position, between Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
0 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete