England was very much still in the “four four fucking two” way of thinking back then. If you played in midfield and on the left according to the team sheet, you were a “winger”, simple as, nuff said.
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Yeah, I understand that.
What we played couldn’t have been more far from a traditional “english 442” obviously.
More a “brazilian 442” where they, as we did, have two attacking midfielders and two denfensive midfielders, while it’s the full backs who are providing most of the width when attacking.
Even Freddie, who was more direct than Pires, I didn’t consider him a real winger either. Also was cutting inside all the time, attacking those “half-spaces”. Super high football IQ too. Always though Thomas Muller was very similar to him.
And also, later on, obviously continued with guys like Hleb, Rosicky, Nasri etc., none of them being a real winger.
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