A sobering day for Welsh football.

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4 Responses to A sobering day for Welsh football.

  1. HarryKirtley'sGhost says:

    A thoughtful piece as ever from you Paul.
    Here is my take on our national team…
    You say that major restructuring work is not necessary. Mmm…I am not so sure.
    At the centre of things is the manager. He has the best group of players since the Rush/Hughes/Ratcliffe days. And his man management is largely outstanding (the blip with Ginge Collins being the one black mark).
    But he has never had any tactical nous. And like the definition of insanity, he loses games with his mistakes, and keeps repeating them. Still getting Hennessey to play short kick outs. Unforgivable.
    Keeps playing the ball square or backwards (your favourite Joe Ledley is his star performer in this bizarre non-skill), and shows zero flair when it comes to trying new things.
    I watched the Denmark v Ireland game last night. I promise you that only the goalkeeper, centre backs and Eriksen could get into the Welsh team…although our onetime not so great Dane, Andreas Cornelius on the strength of last night, could probably take the place of Sam Vokes. (Amazing how CCFC lost £7m net on that deal in less than a year, eh?).
    Yet Denmark still gave Ireland far more of a test than Wales…despite having inferior players. And that is because their Norwegian manager was using diagonals to switch the play, and not being as predictable as Cookie.
    Will sign off now, on a personal note.
    You mention the two games with Romania back in 1993. I recall them well…not least because I was seated just 30 yards away from the two brothers who killed the retired postman. (My wife’s first ever football match, and her last: after witnessing that horrible event, she said “never again”. She is incredulous when I tell her that the game is called the “Bodin penalty game”…she says it should be called “the “postman murder game”.)
    I have good reason to be fond of Romania. 18 months later I was in an 11 day coma in a hospital in their capital city…and their medical staff saved my life.
    And that city was not in Bulgaria…!!
    That mistake apart Paul, as we say in my old Rhondda stamping ground,… “I can’t fault you butty”.

  2. The other Bob Wilson says:

    Morning Dai and thanks for the reply. Just a couple of things to say in reply. First, I’d be interested to know who you rate as tactically good managers and coaches – I always find it hard to come up with names of managers/coaches that I feel win games mainly through their tactical mastery. To me, “tactics” are, basically, a way of being able to make an inferior side beat their so called betters – if you are better than your opponents. there are little fixes and titbits which can help you along the way, but it seems to me that you should just trust your talent.
    Second, Lord knows what possessed me with Sofia – I read the piece back twice looking for errors and still I didn’t notice it!

  3. Jeff Blight says:

    The team has gone backwards since 2016 and the ageing process, injuries and loss of form have not helped. Players such as Ledley, Taylor and King have to be replaced by the crop of emerging youngsters.

    Finding a replacement for Ashley Williams is a priority but what alternatives are there? I would suggest the best option is Paul Dummett. However he seemed to be constantly overlooked by the manager previously and is no longer part of the squad. Perhaps as was the case with Ginger Collins, the manager needs a clear the air meeting and bring him back into the fold. Looking longer term Regan Poole could be the solution.

    Again what better options are there when considering a replacement for Coleman?

  4. The other Bob Wilson says:

    It turns out Jeff you’ve mentioned the exact three players I was thinking of when I said;-

    “Wales are not an old team in terms of years then, but they are in terms of the international football mileage they’ve racked up”

    and

    “but there are two or three others for whom international football is looking increasingly difficult these days.”

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