Inverted Winger Vs Winger

[Jack722]

What would the difference be between playing a left footed player on the right wing as a winger and as an inverted winger?

Are the difference between roles as simple as choosing IW when the wide player is on the side of his opposite foot and W for when they're on the same side? 

Or is the IW more for players that might lack the pace and dribbling to beat a full back, so that they can cut in and make plays towards the middle of the pitch; while the W can be for players who want to stay wider and try to take advantage of high pace and dribbling regardless of their stronger foot?

 

[Experienced Defender]

8 minutes ago, Jack722 said:

What would the difference be between playing a left footed player on the right wing as a winger and as an inverted winger?

Are the difference between roles as simple as choosing IW when the wide player is on the side of his opposite foot and W for when they're on the same side? 

All else being equal, a left-footed player played on the right flank as a winger will essentially behave as a hybrid between the classic winger and inverted winger (depending on a given situation).

However, you can sometimes even see a right-footed player played as a winger on the right flank occasionally cutting inside like an IW/IF, simply because behavior of any player is dictated by more factors than just his role or preferred foot or player traits etc. Opposition behavior and style of defending will have an impact. As will the position(ing) and movement of his own teammates. Because football is a dynamic and interactive game, meaning players are not robots programmed to do same things in every single situation.

I'll give you a very concrete example from one of my saves. My right-footed right winger in most cases looks to run down his flank and cross the ball into the box (as a winger is supposed to do), but there have been situations when he would suddenly decide to take the ball toward the middle and then play a semi-diagonal killer ball for my striker leading to a 1vs1 situation (NOTE: he neither has the "tries killer balls" trait nor was asked to play risky passes as a PI). 

Why? Because he was intelligent enough to realize that in the given situation there was plenty of space in the middle for him to take advantage of, so why would he go wide and thus potentially - and probably - ruin a promising (counter)attack. Instead, he did opposite to what a winger (role) is supposed to do, which eventually turned out to have been the right decision on his part. 

36 minutes ago, Jack722 said:

Or is the IW more for players that might lack the pace and dribbling to beat a full back, so that they can cut in and make plays towards the middle of the pitch; while the W can be for players who want to stay wider and try to take advantage of high pace and dribbling regardless of their stronger foot?

No. Just like the winger from the previous example can sometimes cut inside, so too will the IW sometimes run wide like the winger. Therefore, it has nothing to do with a player's lack of pace or inability to dribble his way past the fullback. In fact, both the winger and IW roles suit pacy and technically gifted players. 

[CARRERA]

1 hour ago, Jack722 said:

Are the difference between roles as simple as choosing IW when the wide player is on the side of his opposite foot and W for when they're on the same side? 

Wether to choose a Winger or Inverted Winger is about how you want to distribute attacking responsibilities on the flank, especially with more attacking playing styles where movement have to be created in the final third to open up space and break down defensive Blocks .

The Winger will try to stay wide and is looking for more disciplined dribbles down the flank and then deliver the ball into the box, most likely with a cross. Therefore he will leave the channel towards his flank open for other players to underlap like an IWB or central players to occupy that space, like a mezzala would do.

The IW will also try to stay wide until he gets the ball but then is going for lateral dribbles into the channel and look for the most valid option then, like a Shot on goal or a pass. Therefore he will leave the flank open for other players to look for an overlap and occupy the wide areas. Wing backs and complete Wing backs are great to fullfill that task.

Playing both Wingers and IW on the „wrong“ side may simply lead to inefficiency. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t still perform well. 

 

 

[Puluzu]

I wouldn't pick a right footed player to play winger on the left unless they were basically two footed, but I also wouldn't put a right footed player to play IW on the left if your tactic is set up for a true winger on the left, as in they're the player keeping the width in attack.  You could have a tactic that wouldn't "break" if you did do that, but it would change how it plays so it all depends on the roles of your other players.

 

One additional thing I've noticed is that wingers, especially ones that don't have super high mental attributes can really stifle your attack and make it one dimensional if there is a lack of support for them to do something else except what they're hard coded to do, dribble to the byline and cross. That's why roles for the other players around him will make a big difference in how they play. If you have a FB(s), an attacking minded cm making a run to the box on his side and an AF in a 4231, you can be sure that your winger is going just keep spamming crosses to the legs of the opposing full back for the most part. Basically the less support he has for sideways or very short passes, the more they will try even dumb dribbles and cross attempts. IW's don't seem to suffer from that as much because they're hard coded to dribble to the central areas anyway and that is by nature a less direct approach and it will open passing lanes that a normal winger wouldn't get just running straight forward.

 

If you don't want your wide player to cut inside with the ball very often but want to play with a right footed player on the left, one option is to use the ML/MR strata and make them wide midfielders instead. In my current 442 I have one IW, one wide midfielder, leftie on the right and righty on the left. On the right side I have a B2B midfielder and a DLF(a)/F9, so I don't want the right mid to keep cutting in the space with the ball where I already have two players fairly close by, but I don't want him to play like a winger either. On the left there's an AF and a DLP(d) so there is a lot more space to cut into with the ball so IW makes much more sense on that side.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Puluzu
typo

[Zemahh]

9 hours ago, Jack722 said:

What would the difference be between playing a left footed player on the right wing as a winger and as an inverted winger?

I think your question comes down to which takes precedence in player's behaviour, leading with stronger foot or following hard-coded PI's. I haven't experimented with this, but I think it's the latter, which means your left-footed right Winger might still stay wide and look for crosses, albeit with his weaker, right foot.

An Inverted Winger, on the other hand, is only instructed to Dribble More and Cut Inside With Ball. If he's left-footed and played on the left, he might often be forced to cut onto his weaker, right foot, since that's what he's instructed to do.

I think that's indicated in the description below:

That said, footedness still plays a part, so most of these situations simply result in some kind of hybrid behaviour. At that point, I think it depends on what kind of behaviour you're looking for majority of the time:

• Left-footed left Winger = stay wide and cross
• Left-footed left Inverted Winger = mostly cut inside with ball, but also get dragged out wide occasionally
• Left-footed right Winger = mostly stay wide and cross, but also cut inside with ball occasionally
• Left-footed right Inverted Winger = cut inside with ball

That'd be my personal interpretation of it.

I prefer not to complicate my life with such nuances though, I see no logic in asking player to do something he's not naturally predisposed for. You also have to take rest of the movement into account; for example, if my tactic depends on Wingers holding width, it makes no sense to also expect them to cut inside regularly, which means they will no longer create space like I planned them to. Their decision-making will already override their PI's occasionally as it is (no instruction is absolute), so I see no reason to muddy the waters even further.