sledger
Spanish_Vicente
Before this imo. Italy in the 1980s for example.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.Wing backs have been a thing since at least the mid 90s when 3-5-2 was all the rage.
Haha still remember the great "Nesta for £100m" incident. Which doesn't seem at all farfetched or ridiculous now.The ridiculous Lazio Championship Manager sides of around then.
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.Before this imo. Italy in the 1980s for example.
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.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.
To say nothing of the mercurial and (literally) completely unstoppable Crespo.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.Medienta crazy good as well although don't think it worked our in real life at all for him there.
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.The attacking talent in Serie A from around 1998 to 2002 is ****ing ridiculous btw.
Umm, this is not correct..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.
Admittedly the 70s were before my time.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.
lolIknow 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.
Really insightful stuff.
From a formation perspective I thought their 1978 side reflected the shape quite well but the personnel were off.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.