Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid's enthralling two-legged Champions League semifinal Tuesday was one of the most fascinating tactical battles European football has seen for years. It was a wonderful clash between the two best-organized club sides in the world, teams that have mastered entirely different playing styles.
Atletico have become renowned for their deep defensive block; Bayern Munich were forced to find a way around it. Pep Guardiola is always experimenting to find innovative ways to cause opponents problems. He took that challenge literally and focused heavily upon width, trying two completely different approaches down the flanks. The results were very interesting.
Guardiola understood that Atletico remain extremely narrow when the opposition have possession in central positions, preventing teams from passing through them. Therefore, to exploit the space out wide Guardiola decided to use two outright wingers on their "natural" flanks in the first leg, asking them to dribble down the line and stretch the play. Kingsley Coman played on the right and was sporadically dangerous with his directness while Douglas Costa's tremendous acceleration tested Juanfran on the left.
These days it's highly unusual to see wingers deployed on their natural flanks, charging down the outside and getting crosses into the box. Teams are based more around technical football: midfield possession play segues into quick passing interchanges on the edge of the opposition box. As a result, having two players concentrating heavily upon crossing rarely reaps rewards. Guardiola doesn't need to be reminded of this, and in this example, it was part of a wider plan to pull Atletico Madrid's defence/midfield out of shape and get Bayern's full-backs running through the gaps. However, it wasn't particularly effective partly because the wide players were so predictable.
Guardiola effectively abandoned this approach midway through the 1-0 defeat away in Madrid, introducing right-footed Franck Ribery in place of Coman but deploying him on the left flank, where he could cut inside. Douglas Costa moved to the right and did the same. Bayern retained this format for the return leg, in which Bayern were simply more threatening. Ribery and Costa could move inside, finding pockets of space between the lines that allowed David Alaba and Philipp Lahm forward on the overlap. Guardiola may argue his players were covering the same angles of attack, simply in different ways. However, it helps to have advanced wide players who are capable of various things.
Realistically, this is what "inverted" wingers offer. Those who love to cut inside like Arjen Robben (out injured for this tie) are often considered too predictable, simply because it's still a relatively modern phenomenon to see wingers so determined to shoot. But these players actually offer greater possibilities by coming inside; shooting is their primary intention but they also open up their body in a manner that allows them to play a sideways pass to a midfielder or a penetrative pass into attack. They're even capable of continuing their dribble if confronted by another opponent while crossing, the sole purpose of the conventional winger, isn't out of the question either. It might be more difficult and involve crossing from a narrower position, but it's still an option.
Old-fashioned wingers, as Guardiola deployed in the first leg, are more restricted. Once they head for the byline there are few options either than playing the ball into the box. This doesn't always need to be a simple cross, of course, and coaches are increasingly asking players in these positions to look for cut-backs towards the penalty spot and actively pick out a teammate rather than floating the ball in. Nevertheless, their intentions are easier to read.
On Wednesday evening, we saw another example of how old-fashioned wingers are struggling in the modern game during Manchester City's 1-0 defeat at Real Madrid. City's Jesus Navas is the epitome of an old-school winger: a dribbler rather than a shooter, a player who hugs the touchline and determinedly beats opponents down the outside rather than moving into the middle. His reputation suffers badly from his one-dimensional nature and in an era when Europe's best wide players are capable of so much more.
In truth, Navas receives too much criticism. While unquestionably a one-trick pony, it's still a trick that can be effective. Only 12 Premier League players have recorded more assists this season despite the Spanish winger starting less than two-thirds of Manchester City's Premier League matches.
Then again, Navas can be truly infuriating. In Manchester City's 5-1 thrashing of Bournemouth back in October, one particular incident summarized his limitations. Put through on goal, Navas managed to round the opposition goalkeeper to the left and found himself with an open goal, but he was so unaccustomed to using his left foot that he decided to check back onto his right, therefore allowing the goalkeeper to recover. Inevitably, he didn't score; he hasn't scored in the Premier League since January 2014.
Yet Navas remains useful as a "different" option. That's the role he played for Spain in their triumphant World Cup 2010 campaign, a proper winger in a squad obsessed with ball retention in central positions. In the opening month of Manchester City's Premier League campaign, meanwhile, Manuel Pellegrini appeared to have found the perfect balance with Navas on the right and Raheem Sterling (a player who can go either way when he faces full-backs) on the opposite flank. The pair stretched the play and created space for David Silva in the No. 10 role and Sergio Aguero running the channels. Navas' personal contribution wasn't significant but he played a useful decoy role, heavily influencing the shape of the game and allowing other, more valuable players to find space.
That was Guardiola's plan in Madrid and maybe he'll find a use for Navas at Man City next season. But whether it's viable to use two "decoy" wingers on either flank is highly questionable, especially when he omitted Thomas Muller from his starting XI. With Robert Lewandowski the sole attacker in a central position, Bayern didn't create enough angles for attack and couldn't find players between the lines. The "inverted full-back" plan still needs work.
Eventually, Guardiola settled on a compromise for the final 20 minutes of the tie against Atletico. On the left, Ribery drifted inside and Alaba overlapped, crossing for Bayern's second goal. On the right, Coman was introduced in place of Costa and stayed wider with Lahm making "underlapping" runs inside. Guardiola had found the right balance and Bayern looked more impressive.
As with everything in football tactics, "balance" is the key word. Football teams who attack in one manner, and one manner alone, are generally worked out and nullified fairly quickly. Guardiola knows that better than anyone, of course, and was attempting to surprise Atletico with an unusual, somewhat antiquated system. In the end, however, he strengthened the belief that inverted wingers make most sense in the modern era.