I’ve always tried to remember that in recent years we’ve been living through the best era ever in international football and so I’ve been resolved to not be too critical when the inevitable decline arrived, because what we’ve seen for nearly a decade now is far from typical of Welsh football.
However, last night’s 4-2 loss at Cardiff City Stadium to an Armenian team ranked ninety seventh in the world was shockingly bad – the margin of defeat could have been worse and, defensively especially, we were terrible.
Not for the first time recently, Robert Page was outthought tactically and I’m afraid the recent long term contract he was given is looking increasingly like a serious mistake by a governing body that was in the habit of getting things right for a few years. The truth of the matter is that the current malaise which started as so9n as we qualified for the World Cup, in fact the cracks were showing in the win over Ukraine, has been going on for a year now – that’s too long for it to be dismissed as some sort of a blip.
I suppose this dismal showing proves that too much credit was given to what was a freakishly lucky point in Croatia back in March that was followed by an uninspiring single goal win at home to Latvia. Now, if, as seems very likely, Turkey beat us on Monday, we’re going to find finishing in the top two really hard – indeed, Armenia will be fancying their chances of relegating us to fourth.
Hopefully, Page learned that we’re not good enough to play with a back four, especially if the two sitting midfielders are giving it as little support as they did last night.
Having picked an attacking 4-3-3, Wales started by putting an Armenian defence that had conceded goals at a rate of three a game in their last eleven matches under intense pressure and were ahead inside ten minutes with a goal which the visitors protested, with some justification I thought, should have been ruled out for a foul.
Although it came from a low Brennan Johnson cross turned in from close range by Dan James, a few headers won in the Armenian’s defensive third seemed to convince Page and his team that an aerial approach would work best as long throws rained in on the visitors from then on with only limited success. It seemed to me that Wales got complacent and Armenia, who looked there for the taking early on, began to realise that they were up against a side that was weaker defensively than they were.
Wales are not good enough to get complacent against any opposition, they never have been, and, with a combination of some superb finishing and defending of a level I’ve not seen from a Welsh side in years, we were picked off by a visiting team who were helped by a harsh red card for Keiffer Moore.
I’ve been trying to think of a comparable game from Wales’ past to this one and came up with the 5-1 loss to Slovakia in 2008 at the Millennium Stadium. However, even that day was not as bad as this because, in that game, it seemed everything Slovakia hit ended up in our net (from memory, they only had six efforts on target), whereas Armenia could easily have scored three or four more.
Apparently, all of last night’s starting eleven are at clubs in First/Premier divisions, but if ever there was a misleading stat, that is it because you then ask how many are in their club’s strongest starting eleven and I’d say the answer is three or four if you’re being generous.
Look at Danny Ward for example (I thought he was blameless last night); he started the club season as first choice and ended it on the bench in a relegation side. Joe Rodon, so solid for Wales in the past, ended the season out of the Rennes team and has gone back a mile on this evidence, Ethan Ampadu specialises in playing for sides which go down, Keiffer Moore has barely featured for Bournemouth this year (and it shows) and I’m afraid, based on his three appearances in this campaign, the great Aaron Ramsey is now struggling at this level.
Only the clever first half movement of Harry Wilson was suggestive of the attacking quality needed at this level (Brennan Johnson became a peripheral figure in a very disappointing second half showing).
I’ll come to the only real reason for Welsh positivity later on, but now for the absolutely awful defending which showed itself in all four of the goals we conceded. One of the aspects of the modern game that this pensioner does not get, and never will, is the penchant for wing backs/full back to defend narrow. This “tucking in” invariably leaves the opposing winger or full back with stacks of room to put their crosses in – I daresay that the modern manager/coach will say that this leaves more defending players in the penalty box to deal with the ball in, but I’d much prefer to see someone trying their hardest to block the potential problem at source by closing down the attacking player befoe any cross comes in.
I’d already remarked on how narrow Wales were defending when an unmarked Lucas Zelarayan moved on to a low pulled back cross to score with an unstoppable, technically proficient (unlike too many Welsh shots from similar positions) shot from the edge of the penalty area – this was one of many examples of Wales being too narrow on the right and the same was true on the other side of the pitch.
For the second goal, Rodon tired to dribble out from the back. Such sorties could be excused in a three centreback formation I suppose, but not when you’re playing with a flat back four – especially when the defensive midfielder who I presume would have been designated the job of dropping into the centreback position if someone steps out from the back is missing in action (as Ampadu was on too many occasions) and the resultant Welsh panic when Rodon was robbed ended with Grant Ranos easily heading beyond Ward from eight yards.
The third goal was one of those whereby you just revel in the good football if it’s your team that scored it and pick to pieces if it’s your club that let it in. Ranos’ finish for his second goal of the night was exemplary and the slick passing which led to the opening from twenty yards impressive, but we were opened up so easily as our skew if back four almost signposted the way through for the Armenians.
Wales’ high ball obsession finally paid off when a Roberts long throw eventually found its way to Wilson who smacked the ball in from eight yards on seventy two minutes and I had visions of Armenia melting after that, but, instead, they’d hit an upright within a minute and then regained their two goal lead shortly afterwards when sub Joe Morrell lost the ball thirty yards from goal and Zelarayan took advantage to shot past Ward from just inside the penalty area.
That signaled the end of any hopes of Wales getting anything out of the game, but there was still more woe for Wales when a tangle of legs between Moore and goalkeeper Ognjen Chancharevich as they tried to get up following the latest long throw by Roberts saw the keeper collapse to the floor dramatically, then start rolling about in exactly the sort of manner which tells you he’s not badly injured. However, Bulgarian Georgi Kabakov (who wasn’t great, but could hardly be cited as a significant factor in our defeat) saw fit to show Moore a straight red card – television replays of the incident were inconclusive and with VAR seeing nothing worthy of them asking the official to have a second look at the incident, Wales face up to being without Moore for the game in Turkey which may not be a bad thing if it means a less one dimensional attacking approach.
If it was my decision to make, I I’d pick David Brooks as Moore’s replacement while moving Johnson into a more central position. It was great to see Brooks make a return for Wales after overcoming Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and he was the one to get on the ball and be brave with his passing at a time when too many others were looking for the safe ball.
I see now that Robert Page has also used the word “complacency” when describing his team’s performance. Well, he has to bear a share of the responsibility for that for not doing anything about it either beforehand or during the game. While the high ball approach was understandable up to a point because Moore was able to win a few headers early on, uith the big striker being one of a few in the side who looked short of match practice, Armenia were able to largely deal with that approach as the minutes went on and it then became clear that Page had little else to offer.
There are Welsh fans who’ve been against Robert Page from day one. I think that’s unfair, because he did well in the Nations League, and a country like ours should never take qualification for major tournaments lightly. Page has led Wales to qualification for a World Cup and so he’s shown he does have ability at this level of the game, but he’s had a bad year since that qualification and the BBC were right to use the word “humiliation” to describe what happened last night on their website – that four year contract, awarded at a time when Wales were on a run of one win in eight matches, is looking like questionable now, Page and his team need a big result and performance on Monday, but the only hope I can see lies in Turkey’s notorious unpredictability.
In conclusion, there’s very little to report on the Cardiff City side of things although that situation is bound to change next week as we see the announcement of the fixtures for the new season. For the first time I can remember,(apart from when Covid regulations applied), pre season training will begin before the fixture list is out because the players will be back on this coming Tuesday. This may be a one off as Erol Bulut is looking at an earlier opportunity to get to know his players, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a regular occurrence in the future.
Best wishes to Tom Sang as well who was one of the players released by the club last week. He’s joined League One side Port Vale on a two year contract and I reckon it’s a good move for him – he’s got the ability to be a good player at that level and drew praise in particular from coach Dean Whitehead who is another departure from Cardiff City Stadium following his predicted move to Watford in the last few days.
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