Robert Pires: From Saka to Salah, these are my favourite modern wingers

It is nearly 14 years since Robert Pires last graced an English football pitch in a professional match at the end of his short-lived, and oft-forgotten, stint at Aston Villa. But, as one of the first inverted wingers of the Premier League era, his tactical legacy has never looked more secure.

Although the English game had occasionally witnessed wide players playing on the opposite flank to their stronger foot in the pre-Premier League era — Tom Finney, George Best, Dennis Tueart, Chris Waddle — they were the exception rather than the rule. And in the years immediately following the launch of the Premier League in 1992, the orthodoxy remained that right-footed wingers belonged on the right and left-footed wingers on the left.

From Andrei Kanchelskis and Ryan Giggs at Manchester United to Stuart Ripley and Jason Wilcox at Blackburn Rovers, the Premier League’s first few title-winning teams all tended to play with wide players on their ‘natural’ side.

Pires cannot claim to be the first high-profile Premier League winger to have bucked the trend, an honour that probably goes to his compatriot David Ginola, who played on the left at Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur. But he was undoubtedly part of a vanguard that also included Marc Overmars (the player he was signed to replace at Arsenal) and the Chelsea trio of Damien Duff, Joe Cole and Arjen Robben.

These days it is hard to imagine a universe in which wingers do not play on the opposite side to their stronger foot. From Mohamed Salah to Son Heung-min, via Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, Kaoru Mitoma, Anthony Gordon, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Noni Madueke, the vast majority of wingers in the Premier League are ‘inverted’.

Perceived as something of a tactical oddity when he first joined Arsenal in the summer of 2000, Pires instead proved to be a trailblazer.

Yet had it not been for a positional shift in his late teens, he might never have become a winger at all. A slight and skilful attacking player, Pires had played as a No 10 in the academy at his formative club, Reims. But when he joined Metz in 1992, the club’s reserve-team coach, Philippe Hinschberger, told him it was time to spread his wings.

“I’d already played at No 10 with him, but he felt that I could play on the left,” Pires tells The Athletic during an interview in Paris. “I was 18-19 years old and I said to him, ‘But coach, I’m right-footed. I can’t play on the left’. It was the 1990s, you know? It wasn’t 10 years ago.

“But Philippe said, ‘Yes, I know, but given the ability you have to play passes and to score goals by cutting inside and curling in shots, I’m convinced you could do something on the left’. There was a reserves game between Metz and Sochaux. He put me on the left and I was voted man of the match.”

Moved out to the left by Hinschberger, Pires discovered — as so many inverted wingers would discover over the years that followed — that playing on the ‘wrong’ flank presented multiple advantages. Not least that, with the ball on his favoured right foot and the whole pitch spread before him on his stronger side, a wide variety of attacking options now presented themselves.

“I felt really good there. I felt at ease,” he says. “It’s hard to explain, but visually speaking, when you’re right-footed and you’re on the left, your peripheral vision becomes super-wide. That means that when you receive the ball, you can either attack your opponent on the outside or look for a pass into a midfielder or your striker.

“A lot of the defenders I played against didn’t know what to do with me, because they weren’t used to that.

“A left-footer on the left who cuts inside, or a right-footer on the other side who does the same, automatically finds himself using his weaker foot. But now it was the opposite. You could go to the left and cross, but you could also come inside and play a pass or shoot. So you had options. And for a defender who doesn’t know what you’re going to do, it becomes complicated.”

Although playing on the left presented several technical and tactical advantages, Pires did not possess the searing pace typical of the classic wide player. His response was to develop a dribble that was as devastatingly effective as it was simple.

Confronted by an opposing player, he would make as if to speed past him with the ball on the outside, then suddenly stop, and when his opponent reacted by slowing down, he would hit the accelerator again and speed away. A study in cat-and-mouse wing play, the ‘stop-start’ dribble would claim dozens of hapless victims.

Pires takes on a panicked Chelsea defence in the autumn of 2000 (Shaun Botterill /Allsport)

“It came with the change of position,” Pires explains. “‘Titi’ (Thierry Henry) didn’t need that because he knew he was quicker than everyone else. He knocked the ball past someone and you didn’t see him again.

“But because I had less pace, in order to unbalance or get past my direct opponent, I had to do something. I don’t know how I started doing it. Maybe the first time, it worked and I kept it in mind. Once your brain has got hold of something like that, it becomes instinctive. I worked on it and I perfected it once I was on the left.

“It’s true that it kind of became my trademark. I have the ball, I go, I stop, and as soon as the defender stops, I go again. And he’s dead. I did it loads of times!”

Pires cites an assist in a 2-1 league win over Liverpool at Anfield in December 2001 as one of the best illustrations of his signature move.

Finding himself one-on-one against a young Steven Gerrard on Arsenal’s left flank, the Frenchman slowed and made as if to cut inside, only to immediately charge down the line onto his left foot, leaving Gerrard flat-footed, before crossing for Freddie Ljungberg to score. “Game over,” he says through a grin — in English — while watching the footage.

📅 OTD in 2001…

We recorded a famous win at Anfield courtesy of Henry and Ljungberg’s strikes ✊ pic.twitter.com/52mHqcyPoW

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 23, 2024

Although Pires had spent two years playing as a No 10 at Marseille, Arsene Wenger made it clear to him when he joined Arsenal that he had been signed to play on the left. The day before he flew in to London to undergo his medical and sign his contract, Pires delivered a sublime example of wing play by sashaying down France’s left side against Italy in the Euro 2000 final in Rotterdam (a trademark stop-start dribble taking Fabio Cannavaro out of the game) and teeing up David Trezeguet for the golden goal that settled the match.

While Pires takes pride in the fact that so many modern wingers have followed his lead by playing on the ‘wrong’ side of the pitch, he believes the credit belongs to Wenger.

“I think Arsene revolutionised things by putting me, a right-footer, on the left,” says Pires, who now works as a pundit for French TV channel Canal+. “Because it unsettled a lot of teams. The first months were hard. ‘What’s Pires doing? He’s a right-footer who’s playing on the left. He’s rubbish, it’s not going to work out’. But then, with a bit of work, you realise that it’s actually not bad.

“And 30 years later, they’re all like that.”

Wenger and Pires in their Arsenal pomp (Mike Egerton – PA Images via Getty Images)

The Athletic asked Pires to select his five favourite wingers in the modern game and single out aspects of their performances from the current season that have impressed him.

Bukayo Saka

“Bukayo Saka is one of the best players in Europe in his position,” Pires says. “He has that ability to always get past his opponent. As soon as he receives the ball, if he sees that there’s space behind the defender, he goes for it. I also think he’s progressed a huge amount in his off-the-ball work. He always offers a pass when a team-mate’s on the ball.

“Here, against Southampton, he makes a very good interception… And then he sees quickly. He makes the interception and straight away, he sees where (Kai) Havertz is and gives him the ball immediately. He doesn’t waste any time. Because if you take another touch to control the ball, it’s too late — everything closes up.”

“For this assist against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup, Saka does everything in the inside-right channel. He can’t show for a pass on the wing because somebody else is there. So he opens up the space by coming inside. His control is top: an oriented control towards the goal. And then the pass. Tac. It all goes so quickly.”

Mohamed Salah

“This season Mo Salah has progressed a huge amount in terms of always being in the right position. With the experience that he has, he senses things. He’s always well positioned. And he’s very good at anticipating defensive mistakes. He’s never surprised when the ball comes to him — he’s always ready. As we say here in France, he is irresistible!

“He’s always drawn towards goal, yes. But do you know why? Look at his first touch against Brentford here. Look where the ball goes. Tac. Because if the ball stays too close to his feet and the defender comes in, he’s dead. But here, he controls the ball and his foot sends the ball towards goal.”

“Here, against Newcastle, Salah takes one touch to lay the ball off and, when he sees the ball is going out to the wing, he moves immediately towards goal. He’s capable of playing as a winger and then, depending on where his team-mates and the ball are, he puts himself in front of goal. That’s why he’s so good. He’s good on the wing and he’s good as a No 9.”

Vinicius Junior

“He’s a real modern winger, Vinicius. He moves so quickly that it’s difficult to control him. He can go left, he can go right, he scores goals and he always offers solutions. He’s developing a good relationship with Kylian Mbappe. And although he doesn’t do a huge amount of defensive work, he brings important balance to the team.

“This goal against Borussia Dortmund is the perfect winger’s goal. Because he goes at the defender and the defender doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He forces the defender to turn, but the defender gets it wrong and it opens the door. You need to force him onto his left foot and then, if he scores, he scores. But at least you stop him going onto his right foot.”

“For this goal against Salzburg, I’d have been out on the wing. I wouldn’t have made the run Vinicius makes — I’d have stayed out on the left to offer a pass and then found myself in a one-v-one and attempted to curl in a shot.

“I wouldn’t have attacked the centre like this. It’s incredible. Bravo!”

Raphinha

“All these wingers have great technique, but Raphinha has something different. His touch is superior to other players’. It’s so clean and he’s so precise with his shooting and his passing. He’s able to start wide and end up in the centre, like he does here against Espanyol. He’s out on the right, he’s out on the right… and then suddenly he darts into the centre to score. Freddie Ljungberg did that very well at Arsenal.”

“What I like is that Raphinha always hits the ball hard. Whether it’s a pass or a shot, he really slaps it in. Look at how he hits this cross against Valladolid — bam! That’s real winger’s work.”

Lamine Yamal

“I struggle to understand how Lamine Yamal is capable of doing everything he does at such a young age. When you see what he’s capable of at Barcelona and with the Spanish national team, he’s phenomenal. He’s afraid of nothing, he’s very good technically, he’s quick and he can beat players on both sides. On top of that, he scores goals.

“The passes he plays, with both the inside and particularly the outside of his left foot… He has real suppleness in his ankle when it comes to striking the ball.

“With this assist against Villarreal, he starts by taking in the information. He sees where Raphinha is and he waits to see what Raphinha is offering him. Then he weights his pass in relation to that. The pass is perfect. You have to ‘feel’ the weight of a pass. It’s about the relationship between your foot and the ball.

“It’s hard to explain. You have to manage it and you’re the only one who knows how hard you need to hit it. And doing it with the outside of your foot is very difficult. All of Yamal’s passes are precise. I find what he does incredible.”

(Photos in top design: Paul Ellis / AFP, Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images; Designed by Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic)