Ah find Ashley gettin dumped on..
I like Ashley cole + Bosingwa
time will tell as they are now developing their partnership.
Two very good players as well.
One a de INDIRECT purposes of dis thread was to emphasise de importance de wing backs have in today's game.
Filho is correct. Brazil really revolutionize de position where their wing backs were frequently found attacking the opposition as well as defending when the opposition had the ball. This requires a lot of stamina, aerobic capacity, speed, and recovery in addition to technical ability and tactical awareness.
That combination is a prototype in many respects for today's modern footballer except it's even more emphasised for wing backs.
I remember immediately after watching the game between Brazil and Russia in the 82 world cup in spain, we imeediately went out to play ball and everybody was trying to imitate Socrates, Zico, Eder, Falcao, Junior etc.
Purely by fluke, I happened to execute a text book perfect slide tackle on an opposing player and our coach stopped the game and told us that he was happy to see the impact the World Cup was having on us. He went on to say that the position that would be the "glamour position" in world football was wing back because of how Brazil played it and he hoped that we as yutes would try and emulate that because he knew how we all wanted to play "glamour positions".
Suffice it to say that Socrates won out over everybody else. But Junior and Leandro in that tournament left a lasting impression. I mean...these were HIGHLY SKILLED players playing what was perceived to be a defensive position. Being Junior or Leandro was NOT Boring to young wide eyes impressionable youngsters. Of course....Junior was actually a horrible defender...but at de time...we wasn't studyin dat. We were marvelling at how he was up in the attack more often than not.
We understood what coach was saying about glamour position and we liked that part. What we didn't like is all de hard wuk yuh woulda have to put een to become truly successful. De amounta runnin and trainin. And if yuh did....yuh woulda find yuhself in de forward line or midfield anway. The wingback in modern football puts in the hardest shift consistently of all the players.
Today.....Junior could not make a 1st division team. Not playing how he was anyway. But he could probably make a midfield maybe. Brazil converted so many wingers to wing backs. Branco, Jorginho, Leandro, Josimar, etc. Roberto Carlos made the position even more glamorous in his heyday. He was just as much of a superstar as Ronaldo & Rivaldo.
Hopefully T&T can learn from that and coaches can direct and guide more of our really gifted players in that direction. Because if yuh want to be considered a top team, without solid wing backs, yuh ass is grass.
