**Official** English Football Season 2024/25

[sledger]

Wing backs have been a thing since at least the mid 90s when 3-5-2 was all the rage.

Before this imo. Italy in the 1980s for example.

 

[sledger]

The ridiculous Lazio Championship Manager sides of around then.

Haha still remember the great "Nesta for £100m" incident. Which doesn't seem at all farfetched or ridiculous now.

 

[Pothas]

Medienta crazy good as well although don't think it worked our in real life at all for him there.

 

[Furball]

Before this imo. Italy in the 1980s for example.

Probably in Germany as well given the popularity of sweeper systems - I can't remember off the top of my head what the position would have been called, but from a UK perspective it was definitely wing backs, and the term is about 30 years old.

 

[sledger]

Probably in Germany as well given the popularity of sweeper systems - I can't remember off the top of my head what the position would have been called, but from a UK perspective it was definitely wing backs, and the term is about 30 years old.

Yeah, and the term probably predates the role/position itself quite significantly. Jimmy Armfield could probably have been described as a wingback for instance, even if the term itself hadn't entered the vernacular/been invented at the time.

 

[sledger]

Medienta crazy good as well although don't think it worked our in real life at all for him there.

To say nothing of the mercurial and (literally) completely unstoppable Crespo.

 

[Furball]

'He's very good in the hair' - Claudio Ranieri

 

[Furball]

The attacking talent in Serie A from around 1998 to 2002 is ****ing ridiculous btw.

 

[Skipper Pup]

Medienta crazy good as well although don't think it worked our in real life at all for him there.

Maybe I'm boring but Baggio was my guy back then, closely followed by Batistuta. Serie A was so good. I had a soft spot for Inzaghi too right up until he scored against us in back to back UCL finals.

Mendieta brings back some great memories too.

 

[sledger]

The attacking talent in Serie A from around 1998 to 2002 is ****ing ridiculous btw.

From what I remember the only real way to compete with the Italian teams on the CM games from that era was to actually buy their players so that they couldn't destroy you every time you came up against them.

 

[Skipper Pup]

Umm both in the last 24 hr... why are we letting all our defensive mids go?

 

[Tom Flint]

Roma were the cm team of 00-01, impossible not to win the treble with that tomassi team.

 

[Tom Flint]

Batistuta was unbelievable in real life back then. Made us look awful for fiorentina at Wembley when we thought it would be a good idea not to play our home games at Highbury

 

[Pothas]

Montella was amazing as well.

My real life Italian football love was more mid to late 90s. Beppe Signori the ultimate hero. Strange and a bit sad watching the Itay side at the last Euros and not really knowing half the team.

 

[Himannv]

I suppose if you want to apply modern day positions retrospectively he would be considered a right wing back. Reality is they weren't known as wing backs then (the position didn't exist) - he was listed on team sheets as a right midfielder.

Umm, this is not correct..

Wing backs were in existence way back in the 70s and, in a way, the Grande Inter side kind of paved the way for it in the 60s with the Zona Mista setup. Herrera wanted Picchi to have the extra protection that Burgnich offered without sacrificing flank dominance. So Jair and Facchetti kind of played those roles even back then

Cafu played as an RB and a wingback, but he also played as an actual winger as well in Roma. My point was that he wasn't played out of position to fit someone else in, but to showcase his excellent attacking skills some more. We're talking about one of the best right backs of all time here and possibly even the position GOAT.

 

[Skipper Pup]

Umm, this is not correct..

Wing backs were in existence way back in the 70s and, in a way, the Grande Inter side kind of paved the way for it in the 60s with the Zona Mista setup. Herrera wanted Picchi to have the extra protection that Burgnich offered without sacrificing flank dominance. So Jair and Facchetti kind of played those roles even back then

Cafu played as an RB and a wingback, but he also played as an actual winger as well in Roma. My point was that he wasn't played out of position to fit someone else in, but to showcase his excellent attacking skills some more. We're talking about one of the best right backs of all time here and possibly even the position GOAT.

Admittedly the 70s were before my time.

I know teams played with back 3's and attacking fullbacks in Italy during the 90s but I didn't think 'wingbacks' were really popularised as a position in modern football until Conte came along (obviously they existed before then). Might have just been a terminology thing.

No arguments from me about how great Cafu was, nor do I disagree with your point. Edit: I didn't argue Cafu ever moved out of position to fit in other players, I just said he wasn't a RB during his Roma days.

 

[Furball]

Iknow teams played with back 3's and attacking fullbacks in Italy during the 90s but I didn't think 'wingbacks' were really popularised as a position in modern football until Conte came along (obviously they existed before then). Might have just been a terminology thing.

lol

 

[Skipper Pup]

lol

Really insightful stuff.

I'll admit when I'm wrong and I probably should have thought more before I made the original comment, I'll own that.

it's just really interesting so many posters have jumped in to pile on when everything else that was argued for the preceding few pages was completely ignored. I've never claimed to be speaking gospel, end of the day its just opinions.

I dont know about these sort of childish responses. I'm here to talk football and I'm happy to learn from people who have more educated opinions than myself. If you don't want to read or engage with my posts then just use the 'ignore' button, seems to work for a few others.

 

[wpdavid]

Regarding the 1970s, it's interesting to look at the line-ups in the 1974 WC Final, which was the high-point of the great WG and Dutch teams.

1974 FIFA World Cup final - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I don't think they played with wing-backs as such; not if that required three other defenders in the side. But some of the full-backs did push up, especially Breitner and Krol. I suppose the more defensive mid-fielders probably dropped back to cover. Even England under Ramsey used the full-backs operating as attacking players, largely because of the lack of wingers, but they were never wing-backs really. That's why Cooper was toast when WG brought on a fresh winger in the infamous 1970 quarter-final.

 

[Himannv]

Regarding the 1970s, it's interesting to look at the line-ups in the 1974 WC Final, which was the high-point of the great WG and Dutch teams.

1974 FIFA World Cup final - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I don't think they played with wing-backs as such; not if that required three other defenders in the side. But some of the full-backs did push up, especially Breitner and Kroll. I suppose the more defensive mid-fielders probably dropped back to cover. Even England under Ramsey used the full-backs operating as attacking players, largely because of the lack of wingers, but they were never wing-backs really. That's why Cooper was toast when WG brought on a fresh winger in the infamous 1970 quarter-final.

From a formation perspective I thought their 1978 side reflected the shape quite well but the personnel were off.

They played with midfielders more than wingbacks back then, which is likely because the player most suited to playing wingback for them was transitioning to sweeper. Neeskens was a good fit whenever he played there but he's a weirdo and tried to be Cruyff Lite far too often in my view..