SEASON 4: PLAYER ROLES ; EPISODE 23: PLAYER ROLE (WIDE FORWARD)

*Licks lips and rubs hands profusely*

(UPDATE: SUMMER 2025) You have noooo idea how excited I am about today’s episode. Back in Episode 14, I mentioned that the ‘Ball Winning Midfielder‘ is my favorite role within all of Soccer, but today, we’re taking a look at my favorite role to use within Soccermanager! 🔥

I absolutely Love ‘Wide Forwards’! They epitomize everything modern about soccer today and are just a different breed of player who are quite outstanding at what they do.

Also known as Inside Forwards, ‘Wide Forwards’ are attacking players who generally start in wider positions but have no intentions of staying there as they are very goal hungry types of forwards. I like to say that ‘Wide Forwards’ are “Strikers” playing in “Winger” positons due to their tendency to be more smaller in stature which means they are not equipped to handle the physical battle against more dominant and stronger D(C)’s. But make no mistake, these smaller ‘Wide Forwards’ are some intelligent bastards who have a lot of tricks up their sleeve.

ATTACKING PHASE

‘W.F’s’ are all about goal scoring, so they will tend to start off in wide positions but always find themselves making runs in behind defenders via making an “out to in” kind of run. When your team has possession in the middle third of the pitch, ‘W.F’s’ like to operate in between the fullback and centre back as they set themselves to run into any open space in order to be in on goal. Usually, they’re not too concerned about having the ball at their feet most of the time but they will sometimes drop deep just to get a touch so that they aren’t “cold”.

DEFENSIVE PHASE

I honestly don’t know why, but almost every ‘W.F’ is a pressing demon… They are the perfect attackers to play in a press all over scheme. They almost always tend to have high levels of Stamina and Workrate and they also work hard to track their ‘Wingback’ as well. They’re a manager’s wet dream in my opinion when it comes to attackers doing their defensive responsibilities (UPDATE: Unfortunately, some of the ‘Wide Forwards’ I’ll be mentioning later are doing their best to ruin the reputation of the role that prides in off the ball grafting, but whateva! 🙄).

POSITIONAL TRAITS

Like I mentioned earlier, ‘Wide Forwards’ are considered “Strikers” playing in a “Winger’s” position, so they all have the ability to play as a F(C). Some ‘Wide Forwards’ also have the ability to play in the AM(C) position due to being such great off the ball operators, but generally speaking, all ‘Wide Forwards’ can comfortably play as an AM(FL),F(RLC).

A final note to mention: If you ever play a ‘Wide Forward’ as your ‘no.9’, then I advise that you do not tick the use target man box since they are not great with their back turned to goal. The only instance when you can tick the use target man box is if you plan to play your ‘Wide Forward’ like a ‘Finisher’ (more about the ‘Finisher role‘ when we get to episode 27).

UPDATE: In 2025, the intention is to give your ‘Wide Forward’ the ‘General Forward’ role when playing as your F(C) (while choosing No under the Use Target Man slot), or giving him the ‘Finisher’ role (while choosing the Yes option).

KEY ATTRIBUTES (From SM25 and beyond)

Here are the all too important attributes that every ‘W.F’ possesses:

Positioning
Movement (Absolutely Crucial!!!) 
Finishing
Dribbling
Long Shots
Creativity
Pace
Stamina
Work Rate
Composure
Concentration

BEST PLAYERS OF ROLE IN SOCCERMANAGER WORLDS

*LICKS LIPS AND RUBS HANDS EVEN MORE PROFUSELY!!!*

Unfortunately, there are A LOT of players who have been confused as ‘Explosive Wingers’, when they are actually ‘Wide Forwards’. And, altough there are some ‘W.F’s’ who can play as ‘E.W’s’, the biggest difference between both is that ‘E.W’s’ want to always take on thier defender, while ‘W.F’s’ want to get into the box to score goals. Now, don’t get me wrong, ‘Wide Forwards’ can beat a man as good as ‘Explosive Wingers’ can, but they just don’t see the need to. So, with all this confusion, I’ve decided to give you Lot the 10 best ‘W.F’s’ within Soccermanager. Enjoy! 😉

UPDATE: I’ve grown, Soccermanagerites… 😌 I now understand that players can indeed play multiple roles depending on their overall attributes. I’m still quite bullish when it comes to playing someone out of their usual role, but I’m mastering that pesky part of me as I develop each passing day! ✊️

So… Here’s what I’m gonna do:

I’m gonna leave the top 10 that I had first listed back when this blog was originally posted in February 2023, and then add the new top 15 as of late Summer 2025 (this should be interesting… 👀)

FEB 2023 LIST 👇

Mohammad Salah 🇪🇬
Kylian Mbappé 🇫🇷
Sadio Mané 🇸🇳
Heung-Min Son 🇰🇷
Vinícius Júnior 🇧🇷
Raheem Sterling 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Marcus Rashford 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Serge Gnabry 🇩🇪
Goes Rodrygo 🇧🇷
Christian Pulisic 🇺🇸

SUMMER 2025 TOP 15 👇👇

Mohamed Salah 🇪🇬
Kylian Mbappé 🇫🇷
Vinícius Júnior 🇧🇷
Sadio Mané 🇸🇳
Heung-Min Son 🇰🇷
Raheem Sterling 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Rafael Leão 🇵🇹
Ousmane Dembélé 🇫🇷
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia 🇬🇪 (CRIMINAL that he’s no longer able to play as a F(C)!!! 🙄)
Marcus Rashford 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Serge Gnabry 🇩🇪
Goes Rodrygo 🇧🇷
Federico Chiesa 🇮🇹
Jarrod Bowen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Omar Marmoush 🇪🇬 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Mason Greenwood 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Cody Gakpo 🇳🇱
Luis Díaz 🇨🇴
Bryan Mbeumo 🇨🇲
Ferrán Torres 🇪🇸