While any 6-0 win, as Wales managed against China in Ryan Giggs’ first match in charge, is not to be sniffed at and the World Cup showed that a 1-0 defeat against Uruguay and a 0-0 draw with Mexico with teams lacking some key players were creditable outcomes, I’d commented before on here that it felt to me as if the former Manchester United winger’s career in charge of his national team had not really begun yet.
Although there was a trophy at stake in those first two matches we played back in late March, they still seemed like friendlies and Wales were very much the supporting cast in the Mexico match as part of their opponent’s preparations for the far bigger matters to come in Russia a couple of weeks later.
So, it was hardly Giggs’ fault, but I couldn’t help thinking that Wales had been in some sort of limbo since Chris Coleman’s tenure ended, to all intents and purposes, after the World Cup elimination triggered by the Republic of Ireland last October.
For the above reasons, it was hard to draw any firm conclusions from that first trio of fixtures, but it did all feel somewhat Toshackesque as Giggs took advantage of the “rehearsal” element behind the matches to introduce a number of young players to full international football.
For example, Leicester’s George Thomas and Manchester City’s Matt Smith earned first caps against Mexico taking the number of debutantes in Wales’ past five games to eleven, while Brentford’s Chris Mepham, introduced as a sub against China, was outstanding in his first start against Mexico.
Before Wales’ Uefa Nations League reintroduction to the Irish kicked off last night, Mepham probably represented Giggs’ biggest impact as manager because the young centreback’s emergence had come entirely under his command and now he had decided that the player who Bournemouth repeatedly tried to sign last summer would break up the long established Ashley Williams/James Chester partnership at the back.
Given Willilams’ erratic club performances over the past year or so, Chester could consider himself unfortunate to be the one to step aside to accommodate Mepham, but it was the most clear sign in the build up to the game of a new era in Welsh football.
There were other indications of the “new broom” in the team line up when it was announced – although there was still a nucleus of the old guard (you know, the young kids who were being called the golden generation what seems like five minutes ago!) with the names Hennessey, Williams, Davies, Allen, Ramsey and Bale still there, other stalwarts besides Chester were missing.
Chris Gunter’s run of consecutive appearances over the past eight years ended at sixty three to accommodate Swansea’s impressive Connor Roberts, as he, like Chester, Andy King, Joe Ledley and Sam Vokes had to be content with a place on the subs bench – the feeling of change was maintained as none of those named saw any game time against Ireland.
Roberts and Mepham were joined by Chelsea’s Ethan Ampadu and David Brooks, with the Bournemouth man being one of what looked like an interchangeable attacking quartet along with Bale, Ramsey and Tom Lawrence – it was a line up that excited me when I heard it, but I certainly didn’t expect things to go as brilliantly for Wales as they did.
Before going on to praise Wales and their manager though, I think I should add the proviso that Ireland weren’t very good on the night. Their cause not being helped by an injury list which included Robbie Brady, James McCarthy, Shane Long, Scott Hogan, Sean Maguire and James McClean, while England qualified West Ham teenager Declan Rice was reconsidering his international future despite having won three caps for the Republic in friendly games.
There was also something of a self inflicted wound for the Irish with City’s Harry Arter withdrawing from the squad after, reportedly, having a “difference of opinion” with Martin O’Neill’s assistant, Roy Keane.
So, it was an Irish side featuring more players at Championship clubs than you’d normally expect from them, but, even taking that into account, it has to be said that Wales were so good that they would have proved too strong for better sides than the Irish last night.
It didn’t take long at all to get the feeling that, first, Wales were really up for the game and, second, there was an intensity, speed and sophistication about their attacking play which you didn’t get under Chris Coleman. This is not to say that Coleman’s teams did not have good attacking performances in them – you only have to look at the Belgium and Russia games in Euro 2016 for proof of that and that they were able to come through on the big occasion, but, essentially, there was a pragmatic edge to Coleman sides and so much depended on Bale and Ramsey when it came to attacking play.
With the dispute which threatened to see Wales playing a Denmark side full of Third division representatives, Futsal players and keepy uppy performers on Sunday now resolved, perhaps a full strength Danish side will see some of that pragmatism return as a few of those players benched last night make a return. Nevertheless, after last night, any side that takes the field against Wales thinking they’ll be fine as long as they keep Bale and Ramsey quiet may be in for a rude awakening.
Brooks continues to impress every time I see him and he appears to have taken to Premier League football like a duck to water, Tom Lawrence is now establishing himself and, along with the consistently good Ben Davies, represents the best of those who came through between the Bale, Ramsey, Allen generation and the current crop of good youngsters.
Harry Wilson, another who watched the game from the bench, and Ben Woodburn, surprisingly left out of the twenty three strong match squad, are further examples of the quick, clever and technically good young forward players we seem to have an abundance of at the moment and, of course, there’s the ultra reliable Joe Allen to keep things ticking along in midfield as well.
However, on a night when so many excelled, it was the performance of a seventeen year old which excited me most. In August 2017, Wales captain Ashley Williams had this to say about Chelsea’s Ethan Ampadu;-
“We (Wales) play a back three and he plays the same position as me. I was watching him at the other end and I thought, ‘This kid is unbelievable’.”
Williams went on to say that Ampadu made him feel better about the timing of his international retirement because he now knew that there will be someone ready, willing and able to step into his position when he decides to stand down.
The thing is though, Ampadu now has a man of the match performance (as recognised by many pundits and writers in the media) in a competitive international while playing in midfield to argue that he would be better used in that area, rather than at the back.
Perhaps the best compliment to pay to Ampadu is to say that his performance did not suffer in the slightest compared to that of an on form Allen – in fact, the kid took the eye more I’d say than the man who was voted into the team comprising of the best players in Euro 2016.
Ampadu offered strength in his defending when it was needed, the anticipation and positioning of a seasoned defensive midfielder, calmness and confidence on the ball, the ability to hit passes crisply with no loss of accuracy and the vision and technique to play long passes, not hoofs forward, with an accuracy and pace which enabled the receiver to barely break stride.
Significantly though, you got the impression from Ryan Giggs’ post match interview that he is most impressed by Ampadu’s temperament as he had this to say about the youngster who broke into the Chelsea first team last season;-
“Ethan is a talented player. Even more so than that, as a person, he’s so balanced and mature for such a young player. He’ll be a magnificent player.”
Ampadu played his part in the move which led to Wales’ first goal which culminated in Allen sliding a pass into Lawrence in the inside right channel who fired beyond keeper Darren Randolph from about ten yards. Last October, Wales, without the injured Bale and with Allen having to be replaced after about a quarter of the game, laboured in vain to break down an Irish defence consisting of the same back four and keeper as last night. This time around, Ireland also had Seamus Coleman back to, apparently, bolster things at the back for them, but they never got to grips with Wales’ attacking movement – if the home side had a “proper” striker, then I suppose it was Bale, but, as mentioned earlier, they had any one of four as the most advanced player in a red shirt.
Of course, having an in form Bale back helped matters – never more so than when he controlled Davies’ tremendous sixty yard crossfield pass cut in from the right and fired in with his left foot from twenty yards. There is a feeling around that Bale, now, seemingly, the main man at Real Madrid following Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Juventus, is back to his best. Certainly, I had that feeling of inevitability which used to be there when he got himself into such positions in the past last night – it was a great finish, but Bale made it look routine.
Gareth Bale extended his lead at the top of the Welsh goalscoring charts with this twenty yarder – even with all of these great youngsters coming through, we won’t half miss him when he’s gone!
Yet, while Wales’ talisman offered plenty more besides his goal (for example, the part played in our fourth goal), there were periods in the first half when he, and Ramsey, almost seemed peripheral figures, such was the positive impression being created by the youngsters in the “new guard”.
Two up with less than twenty minutes played, Wales took their foot off the pedal somewhat after that as Ireland were able to get a bit of a foothold in the game and Preston’s Callum Robertson should, possibly, have done better on his debut than fire over after some impressive work down the right by Coleman – apart from that one incident however, Wales were largely untroubled and went on to increase their lead just before half time.
This was, probably, Ampadu’s biggest single contribution on the night as he robbed Jon Walters (I thought it was a foul at the time, but replays showed he won the ball fairly), drove forward and then, as usual, played the right pass. This time it was to Ramsey who, as Lawrence had done earlier, beat Randolph on his near post with a shot from about eight yards further out than the Derby mans had been for a goal which the scorer celebrated with what seemed like an odd routine which was later revealed to be to do with the fact that he had learned that he is going to be the father of twins.
Although I’m sure the Irish would have thought differently, all three goals had been well constructed and finished and, despite my mention of the keeper being beaten on the near post twice, I’m not sure he could be blamed for either of them. However, if one move summed up the Welsh attitude in the opening forty five minutes, it was when left back Davies drove down the his flank to deliver a cross which right back Roberts headed narrowly over.
The twenty two year old Roberts had never scored a senior goal in his career, so you would have thought it would be a while before another such opportunity would come along for him. However, when he was picked out by Bale after a fluent move down the Welsh left, Roberts took one touch to control the pass and another to hit his shot past Randolph from just outside the penalty area.
A slip by Ramsey allowed Ireland sub Shaun Williams to reduce the deficit with a neat finish, but there was always the threat of further Welsh goals, never more so than when one of of a trio of interesting substitutes tried his luck from the distance where his side had been scoring from, only to be foiled by Randolph’s best save of the night.
Two or three years ago, Tyler Roberts had a reputation as the next big thing in Welsh football, but he had found himself being overtaken by the likes of Ampadu, Brooks and Woodburn in recent years. A move from West Brom to Leeds appears to have given Roberts a boost at the right time though as he played a part in the Yorkshire club’s pre season programme and started both of their League Cup matches this season.
Roberts made an impressive contribution in his twenty minutes or so on the pitch after replacing Bale, as did Matt Smith who was an assured presence in the last quarter of the match after coming on for Ampadu, while, Paul Dummett, returning to the fold after growing frustrated at his lack of opportunities under Coleman, got in some solid tackles after coming on for Davies in the eightieth minute.
Giggs denied after the match that there was a deliberate plan to get the dual qualified Mepham, Ampadu, Brooks, Smith, Dummett and Tyler Roberts all capped at competitive level to rubber stamp their commitment to Wales, but it was, nevertheless, another thing the Wales manager got right on a night when his approval rating, surely, soared after what was a controversial appointment by the FAW.
The man whose only previous experience in the role had been for an inconsequential, end of season, four matches at Manchester United in 2014 had the most impressive night of his fledgling career against Ireland. It seems to me that Wales moved on to a different level last night, one with more attacking intent and flair – perhaps the whole thing will turn out to be another false dawn, but I now look at Ryan Giggs as a more substantial figure in football management than I did at this time yesterday.
