Inverted Wingers: Why Can't Right-Footers Play on the Right?

Some of us will remember flared jeans in the 1970s. They then became straight jeans and then my wife persuaded me to start wearing skinny jeans… only for flared jeans to make a comeback. There have always been changing fashions from generation to generation. Even when it comes to football strips, there have been changes and different styles, from images of Len Shackleton and his baggy shorts to Barry Venison and shorts that I don't know how he got into or how they didn't split! Hard-toed boots to modern-day slippers. Socks pulled up smartly to your knees, to around your ankles, to the present style of over your knees so that you can't even see some footballers' legs at all. There were even pictures circulating after the weekend of a Fulham player whose shorts were halfway down so we could 'fashionably' see his underpants! LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 24: Sunderland player Barry Venison in action during the 1985 League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium on March 24, in London, United Kingdom. (Photo/Hulton Archive) Does anyone remember those nose clips at the turn of the century? Apparently, they were designed to control the amount of oxygen an athlete was exhaling and to assist in running for longer periods. How's that worked out, then? They aren't around today. Shin pads have gone from over twenty centimetres long and bone-ribbed, the kind I wore back in the day - that wrapped around my ankles to the point where I could challenge anyone to whack me in the leg as hard as they liked and I didn't feel a thing - to a shin pad the size of a credit card! What's the point of wearing any? And don't get me started on cutting the foot out of the bottom of a sock, so that you can then buy an ankle sock with grips on. Now you can actually buy knee football socks with no foot in. You couldn't make it up! Once home, youngsters proceed to cut holes in the back of the new socks as 'it helps to cool down your calf muscles'. What a load of hogwash! Of course, what's really the case (as my teenage stepson and friends have admitted) is that it's fashion. Your mates do it, so you want to do it too - and that includes some young footballers. But if it hinders movement (like socks over the knee), why would you want to? Has anyone seen a 100m sprinter wearing socks over their knees? Of course not. Modern shin pads are next to useless, but it's still a requirement to wear them, so why do the authorities allow such flimsy leg protection? They may be the cause of many injuries… who knows? Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images But in our beloved game, it's not just football kits that change with so-called fashion - playing styles do as well. Alf Ramsey's World Cup-winning side famously stunned the rest of the football globe by not using wingers - 'Alf's Wingless Wonders'. 4-4-2 was the only way to play at one stage; now, in some quarters, it gets laughed at. Playing out from the back 'Pep-style' is the way forward. Forget how good your players are, or what tactics or formations you want to adopt… you must play out from the back! It's the law. Long throw-ins were a threat, then they lost favour, and now they're back. Long throws are back in fashion, and this really confuses me. If something is effective, why would teams stop using it as a weapon? Why do so many coaches follow other coaches' ideas instead of adopting all the various tactics or innovations at their disposal? This isn't just a sporting anomaly - it happens in all walks of life. Supermarkets will copy or adopt a display idea from another supermarket but then forget what made their own supermarket unique in the first place. I used to be in education, so I know for a fact that if my headteacher went to a collaboration or conference with other headteachers, they would come back to the staff and we would be made to implement any idea or element of the meeting that had been thrust onto them, and that would become our new strategy. The result was that all schools in the area became the same to a large degree, and any previous good practice that was deemed 'outdated' was binned. So, what's put a real bee in my bonnet recently? Why am I unable to stay quiet any longer and what's fashionable now yet wasn't a few years ago? Inverted wingers! Photo by Laurence Griffiths/EMPICS via Getty Images Inverted wingers are not new. They've been around for decades and some actually attribute the catalyst for inverted wingers to Jose Mourinho's Chelsea in 2004, although they were still around a long time before then. (Chris Waddle, anyone?) But my gripe came to a head during the recent transfer window. The amount of people saying we needed a right winger as we only had 'left' wingers, all of whom were right-footed! That just does my head in. Apparently, we have five or six right-footed wingers that can't play on the right wing, only on the left. Stop and think about that for a moment. Highly talented professional footballers (and we all know how difficult it is to make it to the very top) are now somehow incapable of playing on the right wing if they are right-footed!? What nonsense! I was a right winger, all the way through school, to first XI (All-England Champions), youth clubs, Sunday teams and teachers' teams. Before anyone says anything about standards, of course there's no comparison. But I mention it because you couldn't keep me off the touchline. As I got older and slower, and tried to play more centrally, I couldn't help drifting out to the wing. It was where I was born to be. My main aim was to hit the byline and get a cross in. That cross could be high or hard and low, and I could also cut inside. I didn't possess a fantastic left foot, so I was unable to curl a shot in from the edge of the box. There are many out there who would suggest that a footballer who does nothing else all day but practise football skills should be able to be comfortable with both feet. That's a separate issue, yet I did cut inside at times and pull the defenders all over the place before laying it off to someone else. CARDIFF, WALES - AUGUST 10: Jack Clarke of Sunderland celebrates after he scores the second goal during the Sky Bet Championship match between Cardiff City FC and Sunderland AFC at The Cardiff City Stadium Stadium on August 10, 2024 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images) Sunderland AFC via Getty Images In my limited view, the strength of an inverted winger is only to be able to cut inside and shoot. If they don't shoot, they have no more advantage than a winger on his natural side who cuts in. Take Jack Clarke. We all loved him. He would cut inside and we'd all wait for that curling shot. If it didn't come, cutting inside was now no greater an advantage than if he'd been on the right wing. Likewise, we would all say that he should occasionally take someone on on the outside, but his crossing on his left foot was poor. I'm not saying inverted wingers should be scrapped - far from it. But what does frustrate me is that we should be utilising all our weapons and ideas, perhaps with one inverted winger on one side and a 'natural' winger on the other. What about starting with inverted wingers, then swapping later in the game? Just change things around. Confuse the opposition. Inverted wingers aren't the only answer! SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - AUGUST 16: Habib Diarra of Sunderland applauds during the Premier League match between Sunderland and West Ham United at Stadium of Light on August 16, 2025 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images) Getty Images Where did our goal on Sunday come from? A burst down the right by Habib Diarra - a right-footer - and a low cross to Wilson Isidor in the middle. But please don't tell me that a right-footed winger can't play on the right wing, or that we have no right wingers at the club. That's poppycock! Little Stan Cummins, Leighton James, Colin Pascoe, Nicky Summerbee et al. would be collectively tearing their hair out. I rest my case. I'm off to the tip to throw out my collection of platform boots. Haway the lads.