Future Wingers

What makes him an incredible talent is his ability on the ball. He can dribble and take on players confidently. Drops deep to break the press. Has good pace (not Sane) which is complimented with his intelligent runs. Good finishing for a 20yo winger. The flaw for us is that he is mainly a right sided winger where we are already loaded.

Although it would be nice to have a left footed winger on the left, I think many would agree it's very hard to find someone who can do what Sane does. However, we also don't necessarily need to buy someone just because they are left footed and plays on the left. We just need a true winger that creates width. Even if it means a right footer on the right. We do have a lot of options on the right, but both Mahrez and Bernardo invert and don't get behind the defence to create the width. So you can have the winger do similarly to what Sane does, but on the right and Sterling can play on the left to help finish off the move. Bernardo could also possibly play more central seeing Dave is leaving. I agree with most of your assessment. Torres has a lot of potential.
 
The whole concept behind Pep's tactics is moving opposition defenders out of position; trying to create space horizontally and vertically.

Wingers playing on their natural side drags fullbacks out of position, you can't defend narrow because it only takes one decent cross to concede. Once the fullbacks have to come out to stop crosses, it's a 1 vs 1 unless the central defenders or defensive midfielders double up, if they do that leaves space for the striker or #8's to exploit. Either way it creates indecision and drags defenders out of position.

No matter how special the individual talent of an inverted winger, it's easy to keep the defensive shape compact and narrow for because there's no threat from a cross. Even if the inverted wingers do occasionally go down the line and cross it, the delivery with their weaker foot is likely to be poor (who can realistically cross a ball hard, low and accurately with their weaker foot?). Fullbacks can stay narrow forcing the winger to pass backwards, central defenders and defensive midfielders can stay narrow restricting the space for our strikers and #8's.

I sound like I'm on Dragons Den but for that reason; I'd rather have a slightly less individually talented natural winger than a slightly superior inverted winger because it would bring the best out of all our other players.
 
The whole concept behind Pep's tactics is moving opposition defenders out of position; trying to create space horizontally and vertically.

Wingers playing on their natural side drags fullbacks out of position, you can't defend narrow because it only takes one decent cross to concede. Once the fullbacks have to come out to stop crosses, it's a 1 vs 1 unless the central defenders or defensive midfielders double up, if they do that leaves space for the striker or #8's to exploit. Either way it creates indecision and drags defenders out of position.

No matter how special the individual talent of an inverted winger, it's easy to keep the defensive shape compact and narrow for because there's no threat from a cross. Even if the inverted wingers do occasionally go down the line and cross it, the delivery with their weaker foot is likely to be poor (who can realistically cross a ball hard, low and accurately with their weaker foot?). Fullbacks can stay narrow forcing the winger to pass backwards, central defenders and defensive midfielders can stay narrow restricting the space for our strikers and #8's.

I sound like I'm on Dragons Den but for that reason; I'd rather have a slightly less individually talented natural winger than a slightly superior inverted winger because it would bring the best out of all our other players.

Lots of teams use the wingers to double up to defend so it's not a 1 on 1 situation. It's usually our fullbacks or holding midfielder who are left unmarked in a low block. So when our winger is doubled up, the option is to go back and shift the ball to the other side. Like you said moving the defenders. Against Villa in the Carabao cup Foden was playing as the right winger. Villa was in a low block and doubled up on Sterling on the left. He played it back to Rodri, when this happened Phil made his run from a high and wide position to ghost in behind. Rodri chipped the ball over to Phil who headed back to Aguero to score. Even if Phil is left footed he wasn't inverted because this pattern of play happened a few times where he was on the outside of the fullback. Phil's pace was used to get in behind. You would think it would be better to put Phil on the left and Sterling on the right, but Pep probably thought Matt Targett was the weaker of the fullbacks and Sterling was going to be double teamed no matter what side he played on. So he targeted Targett.

It's not only about getting the wingers in 1 on 1 situations, because you don't know how the opposition will defend. You also need patters of play to break them down. A good right winger can also be useful as long as he doesn't invert.
 
Lots of teams use the wingers to double up to defend so it's not a 1 on 1 situation. It's usually our fullbacks or holding midfielder who are left unmarked in a low block. So when our winger is doubled up, the option is to go back and shift the ball to the other side. Like you said moving the defenders. Against Villa in the Carabao cup Foden was playing as the right winger. Villa was in a low block and doubled up on Sterling on the left. He played it back to Rodri, when this happened Phil made his run from a high and wide position to ghost in behind. Rodri chipped the ball over to Phil who headed back to Aguero to score. Even if Phil is left footed he wasn't inverted because this pattern of play happened a few times where he was on the outside of the fullback. Phil's pace was used to get in behind. You would think it would be better to put Phil on the left and Sterling on the right, but Pep probably thought Matt Targett was the weaker of the fullbacks and Sterling was going to be double teamed no matter what side he played on. So he targeted Targett.

It's not only about getting the wingers in 1 on 1 situations, because you don't know how the opposition will defend. You also need patters of play to break them down. A good right winger can also be useful as long as he doesn't invert.
Foden made a great run in behind and we were lucky the ball was at head height, if it was lower he would have had to have used his weaker right foot to play it into Aguero's path. Just roughly I'd say 30% chance maximum on most players weaker foot, maybe 70% chance on most players stronger foot of making a successful cutback. That's the difference.

Foden is a really bad example because he's actually very clean and precise with his weaker right foot as we've seen with his first time strike in the earlier rounds of the league cup and also a cushioned volley cross to the back post for Aguero against someone in the league, can't remember who on either occasion. If that's Mahrez on the right or Sterling on the left, you know in your heart of hearts that ball isn't going to be put cleanly into Aguero's path. Mahrez/Bernardo on the right would try a fancy flick and Sterling wouldn't strike it cleanly, although at least he would try.

As for your point of opposition wingers doubling up, great. That's when our fullback can make an underlapping run or move into a central midfield role to support #6 against a counter attack while also allowing the #8's more freedom to join the striker. A winger on his natural side can still get a cross in by just beating the fullback too, eliminating the effectiveness of the opposition winger doubling up.
 
Foden made a great run in behind and we were lucky the ball was at head height, if it was lower he would have had to have used his weaker right foot to play it into Aguero's path. Just roughly I'd say 30% chance maximum on most players weaker foot, maybe 70% chance on most players stronger foot of making a successful cutback. That's the difference.

Foden is a really bad example because he's actually very clean and precise with his weaker right foot as we've seen with his first time strike in the earlier rounds of the league cup and also a cushioned volley cross to the back post for Aguero against someone in the league, can't remember who on either occasion. If that's Mahrez on the right or Sterling on the left, you know in your heart of hearts that ball isn't going to be put cleanly into Aguero's path. Mahrez/Bernardo on the right would try a fancy flick and Sterling wouldn't strike it cleanly, although at least he would try.

As for your point of opposition wingers doubling up, great. That's when our fullback can make an underlapping run or move into a central midfield role to support #6 against a counter attack while also allowing the #8's more freedom to join the striker. A winger on his natural side can still get a cross in by just beating the fullback too, eliminating the effectiveness of the opposition winger doubling up.

That's precisely why Pep went for Foden on the right in that game instead of Mahrez or Bernardo. Because Phil had the pace to get behind even though he was on his weaker foot. If we had a right winger like Torres for example who has a better right foot than Phil, he would have been used instead which was my point about a right winger. Phil had about 3 or 4 great runs behind which meant it was by design.
 
That's precisely why Pep went for Foden on the right in that game instead of Mahrez or Bernardo. Because Phil had the pace to get behind even though he was on his weaker foot. If we had a right winger like Torres for example who has a better right foot than Phil, he would have been used instead which was my point about a right winger. Phil had about 3 or 4 great runs behind which meant it was by design.
We already have Sterling on the right, no matter who comes in they're not displacing him. I really like Torres, he could be something special but I doubt he'd come here to play second fiddle. We also have Braaf who is right footed and should ideally be playing on the right, it sounds like he may hopefully get a chance next season.

The issue is wide left, if/when Sane leaves. Torres doesn't solve that problem.
 
We already have Sterling on the right, no matter who comes in they're not displacing him. I really like Torres, he could be something special but I doubt he'd come here to play second fiddle. We also have Braaf who is right footed and should ideally be playing on the right, it sounds like he may hopefully get a chance next season.

The issue is wide left, if/when Sane leaves. Torres doesn't solve that problem.

Sterling plays on the left now which is also where Torres wants to play. Both can play either side especially Torres who is two footed, same with Braaf - who prefers the left. Mahrez however is exclusively right
 
Sterling plays on the left now which is also where Torres wants to play. Both can play either side especially Torres who is two footed, same with Braaf - who prefers the left. Mahrez however is exclusively right

Torres played 99% on the right.
 

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