ORTHODOX WINGER

The traditional wide man typified by the likes of Matthews and Garrincha in the 50's. Famed for their ability to tear down a flank and stretch the opposition defence, with their close control ability drawing full backs in before beating them with a feint and going round the outside, exploiting the space to gain their teams territory as well as to whip in devillish crosses to their centre-forward to create goals for their side. In the modern game, this role is almost defunct with wing-backs taking on the responsibility for stretching the game and tasked with supplying crosses but the likes of Willian have demonstrated that there may still be room for this dying art just yet.

SIDE MIDFIELDER

Players who shared the work ethic and playmaking characteristics of more centrally placed midfielders but were stationed out wide, due to their ability to cross the ball and in some cases take on opponents thus rendering them more influential on the flanks. Such players due to their lack of pace and ball manipulation skills could not be deployed as orthodox wingers as they would lack the ability to beat a man, but by adopting a deeper starting position - they can either coax the opposition full back to desert their post or use the opportunity to wreak havoc from afar. A prominent example would be David Beckham.

DEFENSIVE WINGER

A wide player who is tasked with predominantly doubling up on an opposition winger who is a great attacking threat. A player in this role must have great work-rate and defensive discipline, but must also be able to provide support in possession or the counter-attack although not much is expected in terms of goal-scoring exploits or chances created. It is rare to find such a player being associated with 'greatness' and thus they're usually the undersung heroes of their sides. A prominent example would be Mauro Camoranesi.

INVERTED WINGER

A winger who plays on the flank opposite to their strongest foot and loves to cut in, taking the opposition full back out of the game and striking at goal with their stronger foot, or threading through balls. The Inverted Winger is the winger of choice in the modern game and works in tandem with the modern day wing-back to provide a complete arsenal of threats out wide. The weakness of the Inverted Winger is the ability to whip in crosses as that would mean having to deliver the ball with their weaker foot. A prominent example would be Bruno Conti.

WING-FORWARD

A winger (inverted or otherwise) who is part of an attacking trident, and is responsible for sharing the goal-scoring responsibility but retains elements of the orthodox winger in that they're responsible for providing width and consistently stationed out wide throughout the 90 minutes. In contrast a wide-forward is permitted to roam and as a result tends to possess a far greater goal-scoring output. Whilst there is a lot of artistic licence afforded to the wing-forward, they have to shoulder a lot of the burden in terms of creating, ball-carrying, tracking back, goal-scoring. A prominent example would be George Best.