Euro 2024: Lamine Yamal & Bukayo Saka lead the way as wingers steal the limelight and change how game is played

The Euro of Yamal. Posterity would remember, and recognise, the European Championship of 2024 as the one where Lamine Yamal burst forth and marvelled not only the continent but also the world with his immense skill and outrageous football IQ. The fearful symmetry of the curler that shook France would be rewatched for ages, and described as the exact moment he arrived to conquer the game. Like Kylian Mbappe’s solo run in the 2018 round-of-16 game against Argentina, or Lionel Messi’s lob over Albacete goalkeeper Raul Valbuena in 2005, the exact moment the world held its breath and sighed at the first revelation of unfolding greatness.

In years to come, Yamal could change the way the game is played; he, who began the tournament at 16 and ended it at 17, winning fame and flattery, has already changed the way Spain has played football. The soul of the Spanish game was the midfielder; the football-orchestra conductor, the virtuoso technician. The heart of Spain is now on the wings, on Yamal and his left-winged counterpart Nico Williams, equally quick and mischievous. In that sense, wingers have blossomed in this tournament.

Not just the pair of Yamal and Williams – a duo that could define an era of Spanish domination like the midfield twins of Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez – a raft of wingers have blossomed. England’s leading light, even in their early dark days in the tournament, was Bukayo Saka. Like Yamal, he is an inverted winger (left-footed player on the right side), who has flourished after England’s embracing of the three-man defence. The shift to a back four was considered the beginning of the end of the old-fashioned winger. The extra man denied acceleration room for the winger, fullbacks pushing tight on wingers not allowing them to accelerate down the line ; then teams began to build play from the back, eschewing the frenetic switch of play from the backline to the wings.

Goal of the semi-finals ✅

Lamine Yamal’s incredible strike wins it! 😮‍💨👏#EUROGOTT | @AlipayPlus pic.twitter.com/BMzFOgLEkG

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 14, 2024

In most games for Arsenal, Saka operates as a wide forward rather than a conventional winger, waiting for a snappy pass from a defender and turning on the afterburners. But once Gareth Southgate began to employ a three-man defence, Saka reshaped into a semi-orthodox winger. The conventional touchline-hugging, bandy-legged speed merchants are a relic, but Yamal, Saka and Williams are as close to the old-world as modern variants could be. Their duties too have doubled — they are expected to fall back and defend, should score goals, and play-make — rather than just run and cross.

It was not a coincidence that the most penetrative players of most teams were wingers. Portugal relied on Rafael Leão for attacking thrust, France looked most lethal when Mbappe functioned as a winger and not a forward; Georgia’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia doubled his number of admirers with his explosive speed and crossing verve, Turkey’s Arda Güler sparkled, and as did Germany’s Florian Wirtz; the Dutch employed a false fullback of sorts in Denzel Dumfries, who essentially performed the duties of a classical winger.

All of them are instinctive dribblers too, which disturbs the predictability that 4-3-3 engenders. The montage video of this Euro would feature a horde of wingers cutting this way and that, in a blur, scoring mind-bending goals and ripping defence-splitting crosses.

Bukayo saka goal vs Switzerland and Celebration pic.twitter.com/bOyfcqrNVq

— salessharrif@gmail.com (@salessharrif) July 6, 2024

Changing tactics

But as with anything in football, or any other sport, the renaissance of wingers was a reaction to the prevalent tactics of the era. Most teams press aggressively. The best way to beat the press, tacticians realised, is to cross more often into the box, switch flanks regularly, and make the game direct. That was an energy-efficient method too, as pressing consumed an incredible amount of energy. The players have already had a gruelling league season. Besides, national sides have barely any time to settle into a passing rhythm. So one could see wingers flying on the flanks, cutting inside, often crossing or taking shots themselves, like Yamal’s stunner against France and Saka’s equaliser against Switzerland. Wingers would often target the back post, as Mbappe served Kolo Muani for France’s opener against Spain. Austria, the most free-flowing team after Spain, too resorted to crossing. Slow build-up and weaving a web of intricate passes was not only draining but also unsustainable. To beat the press, to bypass the crowded box, they are playing the ball over it. Or flipping long rangers.

So even Spain—the Tiki-Taka-ians would loathe to ping the ball cross-field — crossed with joy. Spain’s 16.3 open-play crosses per 90 minutes at Euro 2024 is their highest rate in major tournaments this century. “The idea was to play with the depth we had, with wingers, crosses, look for shots, chances to break into space,” coach Luis de la Fuente had said last September. “That is what we had been working on and I am sure this is the path and we will polish these details and perform better.”

A year later, they indeed have polished the standard of crossing.

As a chain reaction, coaches, to maximise the prowess of the wingers, began to employ double pivots. Spain have two high-class operators in Rodri and Fabian Ruiz; England’s began to bed in as a team when Southgate fused Kobbie Mainoo with Declan Rice. It was thus a tournament that would be remembered for solo efforts more than any major tournament this decade. Much of the liberation of individuals from claustrophobic systems owe to the power of wing-men in this tournament. And it is apt that the tournament would be remembered for the most electric winger in the tournament and his ridiculous strike against France.

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