(UPDATE: 2025) A throwback role, the ‘Wide Midfielder’ has been around since the 1980’s but its popularity has waned over the years as most teams cannot find a position for these kinds of players anymore. But that doesn’t ’t take away from their effectiveness whenever being utilized.
‘Wide Midfielders’ are players who possess a lot of energy and determination to do the best that they can for a team. They aren’t the most techincally gifted, but are good enough to cause the opposition danger from the outwide positions. Where they thrive the most is when being asked to simply use their high energy to impact a match both within the attacking and defensive transition of play.
ATTACKING PHASE
A ‘W.M’s’ role is pretty straight forward: provide the width for your team, keep it simple on the ball, and get yourself into good positions to aid the attack.
DEFENSIVE PHASE
These players are exceptionally hard working so they will always be an asset when it comes to defensive transitions whether you’re pressing all over, in own half , or in own area.
POSITINAL TRAITS
Although there aren’t a lot of ‘W.M’s’ around anymore (i.e, players who specialize in this role), it can still be played by anyone who has the work ethic, tactical disclipline, and selflessness that being a ‘W.M’ requires. The primary postions on the field would be the M(RL) and AM(RL), but be on the lookout for any M(C)’s and DM(RL)’s who possess the right stuff to play as your ‘Wide Midfielder’. Lastly, thanks to the rise of 3 at the back formations, the ‘Wide Midfielder’ role is one that is normally used by the players who are more known as being a natural ‘Winger’ (more on this role in our next episode).
KEY ATTRIBUTES (From SM25 and beyond)
Positioning
Crossing
Stamina
Work Rate
Concentration
BEST PLAYERS OF ROLE IN SOCCERMANAGER WORLDS
(UPDATE) In my previous list I created two varying compilations of whom I considered were the “top 5 players within SMW who can play as a ‘Wide Midfielder”, and the “top 5 players within SWM who are actually ‘Wide Midfielders”. This time around, I have narrowed it down to the 15 best players who can operate as your ‘Wide Midfiedler’ without a decrease in quality, and I have to say that (somehow) this list has been the most difficult to compile during these updates to date! Could’ve put like 5 more players within the honorable mentions, tbh! 😬
Federico Valverde 🇺🇾
Bukayo Saka 🏴
Monteiro Otávio 🇵🇹
Samuel Lino 🇧🇷
Ritsu Doan 🗾
Jeremie Frimpong 🇳🇱
Marcos Llorente 🇪🇸
Raphaël Guerreiro 🇵🇹
Alphonso Davies 🍁
Weston Mckennie 🇺🇸
Achraf Hakimi 🇲🇦
Ferdi Kadioğlu 🇹🇷
Rodrigo Riquelme 🇪🇸
Alejandro Balde 🇪🇸
Benjamin Henrichs 🇩🇪
HONORABLE MENTIONS
John McGinn 🏴
João Mário 🇵🇹
Jonas Hoffman 🇩🇪
And with that, we’ve come to the end our look at the Midfield roles within Soccermanager worlds. It’s been really fun looking over each with you!
We’re now heading into the business end of season 4. Moving forward, we’ll be taking a look at the roles that potentially will cause us to have our name on a trophy at the end of the season granted you choose the correct roles for your pattern of play.
I’ll See you there. DON’T miss it! 🤙
The Soccermanager Experience 