Football Manager 2024: Why you need to use an inverted wing back?

Most top class managers these days have tweaked their system to include full-backs in a rather unconventional way. Full-backs bombing down the flanks up and down became very popular but over the past few years, we often see full-backs inverting more often to act as an additional midfielder when his team is in possession of the ball.

Football Manager 2024 has also replicated this by bringing inverted full back and inverted wing back roles into the game. Inverted full-backs basically act more like an additional central defender alongside the centre backs which can also yield excellent results but here we will focus on what inverted wing backs bring to the side.

Unlike inverted full-backs, inverted wing-backs take their position in midfield and even further if they are assigned an attack duty. There are a number of advantages of using an inverted wing-back. The biggest advantage is you will have an additional midfielder with the inverted wing back underlapping and hope to dominate possession.

This also encourages the number eights to move forward and have more bodies forward when you are attacking. Having an inverted wing back in the side also somewhat negates the threat of a counter as you full-back staying in midfield alongside the defensive midfielder will help in intercepting counter attacks.

However, having an inverted wing back might help the side but it is also a very demanding position and not every full-back is capable of playing in this role. He requires to have the skillset of a full-back and a midfielder at the same time and not every player can pull this off.

Another drawback of this is that as full-backs are not providing width, your wide players or central midfielders will have to do that but that can be managed by assigning those players a 'stay wider’ instruction. Using an inverted wing-back will create a whole new dimension for the team when they are on the ball and it has more pros than cons.