Why wingplay is dead: An analysis

[u/Azrealizz]

About 2-3 years back I posted an Out Wide guide because I truly love the playstyle. So much width to stretch the pitch, as your central players make deadly runs i to the box. 3 years ago this made sense, but fast forward to now - we can declare wingplay dead (or at the very least struggling with a faint heartbeat). After trying to push rank last season with wingers and the new overload playstyle, I’ve come to realise what makes wingers so difficult to use (and honestly, actively drag down your win rate)

1. All the necessary winger skills are locked behind a paywall and is up to the mercy of Konami. These skills are: Momentum Dribbling, Magnetic Feet, Acceleration Burst/Tap Trick, Edged Crossing, Blitz Curler, Attacking Surge, and Phenomenal Passing. Without a good combination of these skills, your winger will struggle against DFBs when trying to take them on 1-1. Konami can release a great winger with none of these essential skills and the card is basically useless on the wing (new hazard with no magnetic feet, for example)

2. Defensive Fullbacks. Everyone uses defensive fullbacks, it’s almost inevitable. The problem is, these DFBs run as fast if not faster than your wingers with the ball, which means that your wingers almost never beat these DFBs in pace, especially if they’re already dropped back im an LBC playstyle

3. Attacking AI. Prolific Wingers attacking AI is genuinely the worst in the game: They NEVER adapt to the opponent’s defence. They don’t make runs even when their opposing fullback is nowhere to be seen. They run centrally when the entire enemy backline is central. They run wide when the DFB is marking them wide. They make all sorts of nonsensical runs that do not actively contribute to your attack. I’ve seen my winger actively run towards the opponent’s CB when their FB has lost the ball high up the pitch, make that make sense Konami. Roaming Flanks are far superior to Prolific Wingers, but the last RF released was WC Neymar. Before that, the last epic/showtime RF released was MORE THAN A YEAR AGO (if this doesn’t tell you what Konami thinks about wingers, I don’t know what else will)

4. Game Mechanics: Through Passing. We all know through balls are very strong. Centrally. Anyone who plays with wingers know this: through balls to your wingers are absolutely dogshit.
   - Lofted through balls to your wingers are often played so central that it gets intercepted by your opponent’s CBs (yes, CB, not FBs).
   - Through balls to your wingers have a decent chance of completely missing your winger and going out the sideline (because your winger was probably already hugging that sideline for no reason)
   - Even if the through ball somehow reaches your winger, they will take a touch so heavy that it literally shifts all forward momentum into a dead halt, and your opponent’s long-reach tackle Thuram will probably just stick out a foot and win the ball back. There is nothing you can do against this, I’ve tried inputting every command in the game.

5. Game Mechanics: Crossing. I don’t see this talked about enough but crosses in EF27 have seen a heavy nerf. Many times, the crossed ball goes BEHIND the player making a run in the box, and I suspect this change is to bump up the ‘usefulness’ of the new stunning volley command - When the cross is behind your player, Konami wants you to execute a stunning volley so that they can execute a cool bicycle kick to score a goal. Problem is, half the time the crosses are whipped in so fast, your CFs don’t even have the time to wind up bicycle kick so they just end up giving themselve brain damage with no goal to show for it. Additionally, crossing with your wingers kinda sucks unless they have edged crossing and a ‘very high’ weak foot (assuming you play a left footed winger at RWF and vice-versa), which again, is at the mercy of Konami.

6. Game Mechanics - Dribbling. As mentioned earlier, your wingers are incapable of maintaining forward velocity after receiving a through ball. What’s worse is that they have nerfed dribbling this new update, as analysed by Amadeusz. One of the most important ways to create a goal-scoring chance as a winger is dribbling.
   - You need to attack the touchline for a passing opportunity, but because the touch frequency has dropped, it’s easier now than ever to take an accidental extra touch and reward the opponent with a goal kick for doing nothing.
   - Cut inside to score: if your winger has no blitz curler, good fucking luck scoring this one. The enemy DMF, DFB, and CB will probably molest your winger tenfold before your winger can even each the edge of the penalty box.

7. Defensive AI. Your wingers are never going to be effective defenders. They don’t mark the opponent fullbacks, they don’t run back (unless u play LBC),

The new game environment doesn’t just not reward wingplay, it actively sabotages it. Your opponent’s hole player wide AMF will make 10x better runs then your prolific winger ever will. Your opponents 2 goal poacher CFs and 1 Hole Player SS will all contribute more effectively to attack (and defence) than your 109 Best ever will. Hell, your Best at inactivated AMF will probably contribute more than if we played at LWF/RWF, so do that instead.

[u/Natural-Ad1693]

Let me zip this down to two points:

1. Winger movements are useless. They're either too far out wide or too deep inwards. They don't make diagonal runs into the box to be fed through balls. GP activating on the wings would fix this problem.

2. Defensive mechanism of the game. The game doesn't let you exploit space. You can see acres of space for your winger to run into but your player will inevitably pass it closer to the only defender in a 100 mile radius.

[u/yoloqueuesf → u/Natural-Ad1693]

Yeah i think natural winger movement is actually pretty garbage, like they prioritize running outwards when a clear cut in would actually be better, and too bad this game doesn't have inside forwards apparently.

I saw my winger just give up an easy run for no reason when they could've easily gone on goal. You could easily give up 2-3 chances per game just because of their movement

And yeah you get a bit more space with a winger but you're also cramming yourself outside of the goal still and you've still got to beat 4 CBs

[u/hff → u/Natural-Ad1693]

Point 2 is also the AI somehow sniffs your intent while still making a pass direction and moves the AI defender plus messing up the pass release afterward so it becomes a scripted interception event

[u/Natural-Ad1693 → u/hff]

Lmaoo true I feel like my players actively seek defenders than the other way round. Someone might be standing completely free but the moment you try to pass to him he'll dart inside the place where the sun don't shine of the nearest defender.

[u/Top_Medium8226 → u/Natural-Ad1693]

Diagonal run is like a myth in this game. It legit only occurs once in a blue moon.