What happened to the Nigerian winger?

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

It use to be that no matter how bad our youth teams were, we always had promising young, skillful and fast wingers. Over the last few yrs it seems to have reverse course. The last 2 editions of our u17 and u20 have been seriously lacking in the LW and RW. I might be wrong but I think the last winger from Nigeria to make it to a top 5 league is Simon Moses. What happened to our wingers?

[joao]

Fast wingers are of little or no consequence in a world of possession football,
well organized defense lines, and equally fast opposing players.
South Africa, at the just concluded African U-20 seem to have the fastest paced
players, yet they were seldom effective with all that speed.

Athleticism, without a well coordinated, organized, and disciplined system will not
provide much success in todays football. If one watched without prejudice, the four
teams that made the UEFA Champions league semi-finals do not rely primarily on fast
paced wingers, but a well coordinated attack and defensive structure.

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

Fast wingers are of little or no consequence in a world of possession football,
well organized defense lines, and equally fast opposing players.
South Africa, at the just concluded African U-20 seem to have the fastest paced
players, yet they were seldom effective with all that speed.

Athleticism, without a well coordinated, organized, and disciplined system will not
provide much success in todays football. If one watched without prejudice, the four
teams that made the UEFA Champions league semi-finals do not rely primarily on fast
paced wingers, but a well coordinated attack and defensive structure.

Good points, Makes sense. So what becomes of players who have the speed and skills to play as a winger? Should we be transforming them into WB and FB?

[Enugu II]

Fast wingers are of little or no consequence in a world of possession football,
well organized defense lines, and equally fast opposing players.
South Africa, at the just concluded African U-20 seem to have the fastest paced
players, yet they were seldom effective with all that speed.

Athleticism, without a well coordinated, organized, and disciplined system will not
provide much success in todays football. If one watched without prejudice, the four
teams that made the UEFA Champions league semi-finals do not rely primarily on fast
paced wingers, but a well coordinated attack and defensive structure.

Joao,

Fast wide players are still relevant. We saw Spain use two to devastating effect in the most recent Euros. It is still football and the quickness matters especially if a team is able to create space through various means.

More specific to Nigeria, these type of players are increasingly absent as point out here. More troubling is the increasing lack of a ball holding and ball playing play maker. However, we all know why that has died not just in Nigeria but elsewhere in Africa. On that volumes of European preferences has been written on those and how those impact talent coming from the African continent.

[joao]

Fast wingers are of little or no consequence in a world of possession football,
well organized defense lines, and equally fast opposing players.
South Africa, at the just concluded African U-20 seem to have the fastest paced
players, yet they were seldom effective with all that speed.

Athleticism, without a well coordinated, organized, and disciplined system will not
provide much success in todays football. If one watched without prejudice, the four
teams that made the UEFA Champions league semi-finals do not rely primarily on fast
paced wingers, but a well coordinated attack and defensive structure.

Joao,

Fast wide players are still relevant. We saw Spain use two to devastating effect in the most recent Euros.
It is still football and the quickness matters especially if a team is able to create space through various means.

More specific to Nigeria, these type of players are increasingly absent as point out here. More troubling is the increasing lack of a ball holding and ball playing play maker. However, we all know why that has died not just in Nigeria but elsewhere in Africa. On that volumes of European preferences has been written on those and how those impact talent coming from the African continent.

EII, I can't argue with the highlighted, especially the larger part.
The larger part is what makes players with mental quickness matter and not merely
their ability to turn the game into a track event, as evidenced in some EPL teams.

On the subject of this thread, I will argue that such players were much needed in an era of
quick counter-attacking football with few precision passes that end in a shot at goal. Of course
such opportunity might still be present but not often.
The present game is more of possession to facilitate moves towards attack, with he ball being
passed around quicker through smaller spaces, and the players being able to adjust to the flow
in a coordinated orchestration of ball play. In this case, I believe that individual focus and ability
to execute under pressure are more relevant than simply being able to outpace the opponent.

In short, the modern game is mostly about focus, discipline, and execution, with all players
working on a prescribed team agenda set by the coach.

[gochino]

Fast wingers are of little or no consequence in a world of possession football,
well organized defense lines, and equally fast opposing players.
South Africa, at the just concluded African U-20 seem to have the fastest paced
players, yet they were seldom effective with all that speed.

Athleticism, without a well coordinated, organized, and disciplined system will not
provide much success in todays football. If one watched without prejudice, the four
teams that made the UEFA Champions league semi-finals do not rely primarily on fast
paced wingers, but a well coordinated attack and defensive structure.

Nah, I disagree, playmaking is done from the wings these days and fast skillfull wingers are very important in modern day football. We saw how Spain dominated teams at the Euros with Yamal and Williams. Barcelona just won the league and got to the Champions league semi final relying on two wingers for creativity. In fact Raphinia and Yamal had the highest goal contributions for Barcelona.