Rob Elliot's Tactical Switch for David Ajiboye at Carlisle United

Rob Elliot is banking on a simple switch to bring the best out of David Ajiboye – move him to the other wing and let chaos follow.

The Carlisle United boss has flipped the 27-year-old from right to left through pre-season, and the plan is set to continue in today’s National League opener against Worthing. It is a tweak with a clear purpose, not a pre-season experiment for the sake of it.

Ajiboye was one of the bright spots on the right in the second half of last season under Mark Hughes, stretching games and hurting full-backs in the traditional winger’s lane. Elliot has watched that footage, seen the same strengths, and still come to a different conclusion about where the wide man can do his most serious damage in 2026/27.

The key? His delivery and his instincts.

“David's left-footed crossing is excellent. So when he goes to the byline, he's got that opportunity,” Elliot told the News & Star, highlighting the old-school value of a winger who can still whip a ball in from the outside. But that is only half the story.

Ajiboye, by nature, wants to wander. He likes to drift infield, find pockets, attack defenders on the angle rather than just on the outside. On the left, cutting in onto his right, he has already shown what that can look like, finding the net a few times in pre-season as he drove inside to shoot.

So the switch is deliberate: give him both doors to walk through. From the left, Ajiboye can still hug the touchline, hit those left-footed crosses, or roll inside and threaten goal on his stronger right. The old winger and the modern forward rolled into one.

Elliot views the change as a cornerstone of a broader shift in Carlisle’s front line. He wants movement, not markers. Fluidity, not fixed roles.

“He's able to then open up the pitch on both sides,” Elliot said. “He can go down the outside and he can come inside.” That dual threat becomes even more potent when paired with the rotations involving Regan Linney and Georgie Kelly.

Elliot likes what happens when Ajiboye and Linney start interchanging – Linney stepping off the front line, Ajiboye drifting between the channels, Kelly occupying defenders. Suddenly, no one is “the right winger” or “the left forward” anymore. They are just forwards, rotating into whichever space hurts most.

“It gives that flexibility for our forward players to not be locked down to one position,” Elliot explained. That flexibility is not just aesthetic. It is a weapon for those awkward spells in games when a key attacker goes quiet or the ball refuses to find a certain side of the pitch.

For Elliot, the answer is not to wait and hope. It is to move the pieces.

If Ajiboye or Linney are starved of the ball, they switch, they rotate, they ask a different question of the defence. Carlisle want to be the side that constantly shifts the picture, forcing opponents to work out new problems before they have solved the old ones.

“That way we cause more problems and give teams less time to adapt to what we're doing,” Elliot said. It is a clear statement of intent: Carlisle’s forwards will not be standing in straight lines this season.

Today’s opponents add another intriguing layer to Ajiboye’s role. Worthing are not strangers to him. Far from it.

The winger has worked under Adam Hinshelwood at three different clubs. First in Brighton & Hove Albion’s academy, then at Worthing, and again at York City. Few Carlisle players will walk out today with a deeper understanding of how the visitors want to play than Ajiboye.

Elliot will not ignore that.

“We'll have a chat,” he said when asked if he would tap into Ajiboye’s insight. He already knows the broad strokes of what to expect from Hinshelwood’s side: a team that wants the ball, that looks after it, that only risks it with purpose.

“The way his teams play are clear, and you can understand they're going to want to dominate the ball. They're not going to put it at risk unless it's through being creative,” Elliot said. York under Hinshelwood left a strong impression: “a brilliant team to watch,” playing “fantastic attacking football.” Worthing, in Elliot’s eyes, are cut from the same cloth.

“They're going to be an excellent team. They're going to cause a lot of problems,” he warned. For Carlisle, that means concentration with and without the ball, and a test of whether this new, rotating front line can function when the opposition are confident enough to take the initiative.

Ajiboye is expected to shake off a back issue to feature, and if he does, he carries more than just tactical flexibility. He carries knowledge.

“Hopefully with David, because he knows it, it'll give him that edge as well if he's on the pitch,” Elliot said.

Left wing, right wing, inside, outside – if Carlisle’s plan comes together, Ajiboye will not just be changing sides. He will be tilting the whole game.