just been discussing with a mate in work, why is it left footed players have such cracking left feet haha
i mean most of them have a cannon there, (riise, roberto carlos, sheedy, billy, julian dicks etc etc)
just seems to be whenever a lefty gets mentioned its "...... has a sweet left foot"
any scientists in here that can come up with a really clever response?
I think it's similar to the Southpaw principle in boxing, where they seem to have devastating success against right-handers even if they have a disadvantage technically.
Left footers in football are a rarity and as such find it a bit easier getting space and time on the ball for the cross because defenders are used to showing people on to their left. Showing a player onto their right foot is less intuitive. For a right back to do this, it means playing to their own disadvantage as they'd be tackling the player with their weaker side.
It's the reason why managers in the modern age also play left footers on the right cutting in, because the ball is an extra half a yard away from the defender when cutting in so they can't nick the ball away. For a defender, it's like playing back to front and it only takes half a second of hesitation at the highest level to get punished.
I also think a large part of it is about expectation and heritage. Left footed players who come into the game today know what is expected of them and, as such, work a lot harder on technique than a right footer, who will perhaps concentrate on physical aspects of their play to give them an edge instead. Right wingers will try to beat a man on the outside and get a cross in sharpish, concentrating on getting half a yard ahead and sending the ball in quick, whilst left footers will look to beat a man with a bit of skill and wrap the foot around the ball.
As such, there's an influx of ultra-fast right wingers, like Coleman, Wright-Phillips and Lennon, whilst there's an influx of technical wide players like Bale, Baines and Bilyaletdinov (granted, Bale and Baines also have pace but it's a
secondary part of their game rather than a primary.)
These aren't hard and set rules, of course. There's always exceptions, like the slow but technical David Beckham on the right, but that's my take on things anyway.
