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How to Be the Best Winger in Soccer: 7 Tips for Improvement

Written by Ben in Soccer Positions

Playing as a winger for your soccer team is an important role. However, to be the best, you need to
improve your performance constantly. I’ve played winger many times, and I want to share with
you the tips that I found helped me on the soccer field.

To be a good winger in soccer, you need to:

Study the performance of better wingersIncrease your fitness levelsWork on your passing and
crossing skillsConsistently provide a threat on goalPractice your technical skills and
creativityRealize how your performance is affected by your belief in yourselfImprove your speed
and agility

Each of these areas is important if you want to be the best.

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So, keep reading for my top tips for being the best winger you can be.

1. Study the Performance of Better Wingers and Take Notes

The first step in improving at anything in life is to understand what areas of your role need
improvement, figure out how to get better, and then focus on working on those areas.

Just blindly trying out different options will only get you so far.

Until you have a plan of action or specific goals, you will just be trying out all sorts of ideas and
hoping for the best.
The first step you should take is to find three wingers that you look up to and are better than you
and observe how they play.

Ask yourself:

What are they doing differently from me?Where are they positioned without the ball?What do
they do when they receive the ball?Why are they making specific choices?

If you’re watching someone local to you, you may even be able to ask them these questions and
get an understanding of their thought processes on the field and how they train off the field.

Otherwise, you may want to check out videos of some of the best wingers in the world, such as the
video below.

Top 10 Wingers in Football 2021

Best Wingers in Soccer

As you’re taking notes, choose three areas that stand out to you and commit to working on these
aspects of your game.

2. Increase Your Fitness Levels

The next step that any winger can take and see an improvement in their performance is to increase
their level of fitness.

If you want to be the best winger, then you need to be as physically fit as possible.

To be the best, they need to be faster than their opponents and have a higher endurance level.
Being fitter than your opponents will give you an advantage in taking on and beating the tough
defenders in high-pressure positions.

Because it’s not always easy to know the best way to achieve this, I created the 30-Day Soccer
Fitness Guide to give your fitness levels a boost and set you on the path to being the best.

My guide follows the same fitness training routines that the pros use and gives you a daily, step-
by-step guide to walk you through the process of being fitter than you are right now.

Check it out here, or click on the button below if you want to find out more.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE 30-DAY SOCCER FITNESS GUIDE NOW!

3. Work on Your Passing and Crossing Skills

This next step is key because creating opportunities for the forwards on your team to score goals is
one of the primary responsibilities of a winger.

When a winger has the ball on the side of the field, the rest of their team expects the player to
attempt a cross or pass into the opposition’s penalty box.

If the winger can accurately perform this move, their team stands a much greater chance of
scoring a goal.

My advice is to spend more time working on crossing or passing drills on the training field.

One way to do this is to aim to hit a target at least 30 yards away from where you kick the ball.
Then, repeat this multiple times until you can consistently hit your target.

Alternatively, check out the crossing drill in my list of the 10 best soccer coaching drills or the
overlap drill in my list of 7 Most Effective Soccer Drills for High School Players.

Soccer player crossing the ball

4. Consistently Provide a Threat to Your Opponent’s Goal

If you really want to stand out as a winger, you need to contribute to your team ’s goal count
throughout the season.

No coach will expect you to score in every game, but if you can average a goal every 3 games, for
example, then you will make it very hard for the coach to leave you out of the starting 11.

One way to improve in this area is to move into the penalty area when the ball is on the opposite
side of the field.

Although you will need to be acutely aware of your team’s tactics and your responsibility to
stretch the opposition defense, there will be opportunities in every game to get near to the goal at
least once.

Being nearer to the goal when the ball comes in gives you a much higher chance of scoring than if
you stay out on the “wings” of the field.

In the past, I would not make the most of these opportunities and used to stay out by the touchline
at all times. But once I realized I could move into the center of the field without neglecting my
duties as a winger, my goal contribution to the team went up dramatically.

If you are unsure when to move infield and when to stay wide, sit down with your coach and talk
about it some more.
5. Practice Your Technical Skills and Creativity

Another area of improvement for a winger is the use of technical skills.

A winger has many opportunities to take on the opposition defenders during a game. For example,
they may try dribbling past them, running past them, or working the ball down the line in tandem
with other players on their team.

Each of these techniques requires technical skills and creativity.

Although creativity is fairly abstract and hard to learn, practicing technical skills that give more
options for creativity will improve your performance on the field.

For some examples of these, have a look at my list of the 10 Soccer Tricks and Skills to Bypass
the Defender in Front of You.

Soccer player practicing skills

Otherwise, take a skill you have seen another winger use successfully and focus on mastering that
trick.

It may take time to learn it and become comfortable using it, but when you have the opportunity to
use it in a game, it will make all the effort worthwhile.

6. Realize How Your Performance Is Affected by Your Belief in Yourself

Another often forgotten part of what it means to be a good winger is having a positive attitude.

If you want to be the best, or even just be better than you are now, then you need to believe in
yourself.

This means believing:

you are capable of more,you can improveyou can achieve your goals on the soccer field.

Some of your aims may be high, but that’s OK. It gives you something to aim for.

If you are struggling to believe you will be better, pause what you are doing and focus on
improving something small.

Choose one aspect of your game that you want to develop, figure out how to do that, and then
simply take the first step in that process.

For example, if you want to improve your first touch of the ball, find a wall and a soccer ball, start
bouncing the ball off the wall, control it with your foot, and kick back to the wall.

Repeat this for as long as you can, and it won’t take long for your first touch to start improving.

Once you see this development, your attitude and self-belief will begin to change, and you’ll be
inspired to work harder to be a better winger.

7. Improve Your Speed and Agility

The last area I want to look at is the ability of a winger to be fast and agile.

The winger position requires a great deal of speed and agility, which is very useful when beating
defenders on the sidelines.

Wingers must be versatile and be able to mix up their attack to keep opponents guessing. They
must also have excellent footwork.

Speed is also an asset to beat the defender to the ball.

One area to specifically focus on is your “explosive power.” This is your ability to get moving
as quickly as possible.

You can practice this on the soccer field by training with a soccer ladder, such as this one on
Amazon, or use drills where you race defenders to a series of cones.

As a winger, being fast is a huge asset to your team.

Soccer player training for speed with ladder

A combination of all the areas we have looked at makes a great winger in soccer.

You can see a significant improvement in your game if you follow these tips and be the best
winger on your team in no time at all!

For more information regarding the position of winger, check out one of my following articles:

How to Play Winger in Soccer: The Skills Needed to SucceedThe Winger in Soccer: Position,
Role, and ResponsibilitiesWinger vs Striker in Soccer: What’s the Difference?

Ben

Hi! My name's Ben. I've played, watched, read about, and enjoyed soccer throughout my life. I
really enjoy finding out more about the game I love and sharing it with you all. Find out more
about me here - Ben Clayfield
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ABOUT ME

Hi, welcome to my website. My name’s Ben and I’ve been playing, watching, and enjoying
soccer for as long as I can remember! I’ve created this site to share different things with you that
I’ve learned, and am learning, about soccer along the way. Whether you're new to soccer or
you've been enjoying it for years I'm glad you're here!

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