Inverted wingers in the Premier League – are they here to stay?

“I am a bit biased,” said Giggs. “I was a winger who liked to make things happen and excite the fans.

“Sir Alex [Ferguson] used to say ‘give the guy who works in the factory something to smile about’.

“I liked to pass it forward, to run and try a difficult ball with the outside of my foot knowing the manager wasn’t necessarily going to have a go at me.”

While the current generation are highly skilled and technical, the criticism is that their individuality has been taken away by micro-management, in an era when every positional change is detailed and coaches are a constant presence on the sidelines telling players where to go.

Grealish’s experience is often cited as an example – a player who arrived at Manchester City from Aston Villa in 2021 as a British record signing, capable of the kind of magic Giggs possessed, but then had his ‘off-the-cuff’ style taken away by Pep Guardiola’s demand for possession.

“You don’t like to go back to your time, but it does look a bit strangled with certain quality players,” added Giggs.

“There are some, like Josh King at Fulham, and Martin Odegaard, who get me excited as well, so it is not everyone but yes, from when I first started, I think it is a bit more robotic, with the patterns of play and more defensive minded teams.”

With conventional wing play seemingly a dying art it appears the inverted winger will be around for a while.

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