Random Rants On The Beautiful Game: Wingers are key contributors to effective attacks.

Wingers are key contributors to effective attacks.

By Chris Courtney
SoccerTimes

ROME (Monday, April 2, 2007) -- When Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro was named FIFA "Player of the Year," some said it was the year of the defender. If the past year tells us anything, it is the year of the winger.

Sure, forwards like Chelsea's Didier Drogba, Manchster United's Wayne Rooney and Inter Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic get most of the glory, but they owe much of their success to the speedy outside players delivering cut-backs and crosses after ripping a hole in the opponent's defense. Some of this year's highest impact wingers don't just give service to the forwards, but are a constant threat to score on their own. This year, wingers, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery are getting more than their share of the spotlight.

Of course, England won the World Cup in 1966 without one (for which they were called the Wingless Wonders), but today the most successful teams seldom do without them.

Manchester United's Portugal international Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the hottest winger in the world having powered Manchester United to a six-point lead over Chelsea in the English Premier League. Pound for pound, Chelsea has arguably the better lineup, but the impact of Ronaldo's world-class performance on the wing has made the difference this season. Sure, he can be a whiner and a diver, but his pace, technique and sheer audacity can't be denied.

At the same time, we can probably attribute some of Chelsea's early underperformance to the loss of its two wingers (one to injury and one to a formation change). The speedy Joe Cole has spent much of the season injured, while Arjen Robben was benched because of a formation change. After Robben, the Dutch left winger, performed so well for club and country last year, he found himself on the bench after the arrival of Michael Ballack, Andrey Shevchenko, and Ashley Cole. The new signings led Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to change from a 4-3-3 system with two wingers to a 4-1-3-2 formation, using multi-purpose midfielders instead of pure wingers.

As a result, Robben sat on the bench. While Chelsea started out fine, it was not collecting enough points to get ahead of Manchester United. Of course other key injuries and disappointing starts by Ballack and Shevchenko played an important role, but benching a proven player (in his prime) and changing formations cannot be ignored.

Since the late fall, Robben saw more playing time (in various roles), but then suffered a season-ending knee injury. Add the inconsistent availability of Cole and Mourinho is no longer in a position to return to the system that took his team to two straight titles.

Across the English Channel, much credit for France's strong performance in last year's World Cup can be credited to the strong wing play of Olympique Marseille's Frank Ribery and Olympique Lyon's Florent Malouda. While the resurgence of Zinedine Zidane was most welcome, the blistering, fearless runs by Ribery constantly stretched or pierced opposing defenses, opening the door for Zidane and Thierry Henry to do their magic.

After much speculation last summer, Ribery decided to stay at Marseille for another year, but don't be surprised to see him at Arsenal, Real Madrid, or one of the Milan clubs next season. Meanwhile, Malouda is helping to power his Lyon club to a sixth straight title.

What about in Italy, home of the 2006 World Cup champion? While Italian football does not always subscribe to the idea of the winger, the wing play of Fiorentina's Stefano Fiore (now with Livorno) was a major reason that Luca Toni scored 31 goals last season and the overachieving Viola earned a Champions League spot (only to lose it in the referee scandal).

This year, Brazilian winger Amantino Mancini has helped boost a decent AS Roma squad into the Champions League quarterfinals. Without him, the team is an upper, mid-table squad. Despite creating incredible goals like the one he scored to knock Lyon out of the Champions League, he remains outside of the Brazilian national team's plans.

On the Italian national team, the outside play of Juventus' Mauro Camorenesi (currently targeted by Chelsea) is the closest thing we've seen to a winger suiting up for Italy's national team in quite awhile. During the World Cup, Italy coach Marcello Lippi mainly stuck with his compact Juventus 4-3-3 style and seldom attacked on the wings, even against a nine-man United States team in the World Cup. On those occasions when Camorenesi was unleashed to run free on the wing, he was often dangerous, but seldom productive. Now, with the Azzurri under the helm of a former winger in Roberto Donadoni, things could change (if he can hang onto the job).

The U.S. men, have produced talented wingers such as DaMarcus Beasley and Clint Dempsey, both of whom coincidentally combined to score the only American goal in last summer's World Cup (not counting the own goal courtesy of Italy). Dempsey's signing by Fulham in England has many U.S. fans excited, while Beasley continues to emerge from a spate of injuries at Manchester City. Their form and fitness will continue to be a key for the U.S., especially now that a resurgent Landon Donovan has proved he can convert their service into powerful Serie A-type finishes.

I would discuss the great impact of Arsenal's Robin Van Persie, but since being converted from a winger to a striker, the young Dutch sensation does not qualify for this discussion.

At the same time, injury has sidelined some of the Spanish League's best wingers in Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Valencia's Vicente Rodriguez. If only Rodriguez had managed to stay healthy this season, Valencia had the talent to nudge Barcelona from the top spot, but that prospect now remains a long-shot.

And, of course, I'll spare our English friends the misery of delving too deeply into the high hopes England manager Steve McLaren has placed on Tottenham's Aaron Lennon. I believe he is a great talent with the potential to make England a tough squad to beat. That having been said, I don't think he is quite ready to carry the load of expectations being placed in him. To have the impact of a great winger, he needs a good partnership with a great striker. And if the reverse is also true (despite all the talk about compatibility of striking partners), does every great striker actually need to partner with a great winger?

Even Pele had one -- his name was Garrincha. No discussion of wingers is complete without recognizing this Brazilian legend who helped Brazil win two World Cups in 1958 and 1962. In 1958, his blazing runs, vision, and ability to create something out of nothing enabled him to set Pele and his teammates up for more than a few memorable goals. In 1962, after an injury knocked Pele out of the tournament, he led the team to the title, being named the outstanding player of the tournament.

Chris Courtney is SoccerTimes European correspondent and lives in Rome.

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