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Post by fiveattheback on May 31, 2023 21:19:47 GMT
Not sure if I made it up or not but think there was at least one team at either last World Cup or Euros who didn't take 26 players on basis that i) 26 players usually aren't needed, ii) the more players you have the more there are to manage and potentially disrupt things if they're unhappy, iii) well-oiled squads performing to high standards tend do better in tournaments. In no way am I suggesting Vaulks and Sheehan are anything but good personalities - think we've seen enough of each to know they are good blokes - and there are obvious risks involved in not taking full cover, but there are arguments to be made to support opposite point of view. I would however take Will Vaulks knowing what a good bloke he is off the pitch and thinking he can contribute positively on it....maybe, I'm undecided. I understand that logic. At least to some extent.
Still. Every team needs characters in it. Hell, our 2016 squad was jam packed of characters. It feels to me that the FAW / Page are opting for "Youth-First" policy. Not saying that youth has no place. Obviously. But please. Balance.
We have 3 (4 if you add in Ramsey, but I'd rather not) players to cover the midfield 2, including a teenager who's played 30 seconds of international football. We have, by my count, 8 players to cover the wings/attacking midfield spots. I don't get it. Still, Page has finally seen the light in picking someone who can cover at left back rather than 3 right backs, so maybe in future we'll get some midfield cover |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Jun 1, 2023 0:45:35 GMT
I understand that logic. At least to some extent.
Still. Every team needs characters in it. Hell, our 2016 squad was jam packed of characters. It feels to me that the FAW / Page are opting for "Youth-First" policy. Not saying that youth has no place. Obviously. But please. Balance.
We have 3 (4 if you add in Ramsey, but I'd rather not) players to cover the midfield 2, including a teenager who's played 30 seconds of international football. We have, by my count, 8 players to cover the wings/attacking midfield spots. I don't get it. Still, Page has finally seen the light in picking someone who can cover at left back rather than 3 right backs, so maybe in future we'll get some midfield cover In Page's defence if he thinks those 4 including Ramsey are his best options then that's fine. I don't see too many scenarios where we'd even have to field JJ, as I think Ampadu-Morrell, Ampadu-Ramsey & Morrell-Ramsey will all be used as combinations before we'd need to play JJ. If we're required to play JJ I wouldn't be feeling confident but maybe he can step up and take to it really quickly, who knows? I agree I'd like a more experienced squad player like Lowery, Sheehan or MJ Williams to be tested there, but Page obviously doesn't agree for now and perhaps he's right. A couple of injuries and I'd start to worry more |
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Post by aberbeeg on Jun 1, 2023 8:01:50 GMT
Not sure if I made it up or not but think there was at least one team at either last World Cup or Euros who didn't take 26 players on basis that i) 26 players usually aren't needed, ii) the more players you have the more there are to manage and potentially disrupt things if they're unhappy, iii) well-oiled squads performing to high standards tend do better in tournaments. In no way am I suggesting Vaulks and Sheehan are anything but good personalities - think we've seen enough of each to know they are good blokes - and there are obvious risks involved in not taking full cover, but there are arguments to be made to support opposite point of view. I would however take Will Vaulks knowing what a good bloke he is off the pitch and thinking he can contribute positively on it....maybe, I'm undecided. I understand that logic. At least to some extent.
Still. Every team needs characters in it. Hell, our 2016 squad was jam packed of characters. It feels to me that the FAW / Page are opting for "Youth-First" policy. Not saying that youth has no place. Obviously. But please. Balance.
Do you think Page struggles to handle players with big characters? Certain managers struggle with it. Southgate rarely picked huge characters in his squads and if he did they rarely lasted long. Steve Morrison at Cardiff was very similar. |
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Post by CrackityJones on Jun 1, 2023 8:26:33 GMT
There’s no evidence of that and there are already big characters in the squad anyway. Connor Roberts for example.
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Post by marsvolta on Jun 1, 2023 9:34:45 GMT
I understand that logic. At least to some extent.
Still. Every team needs characters in it. Hell, our 2016 squad was jam packed of characters. It feels to me that the FAW / Page are opting for "Youth-First" policy. Not saying that youth has no place. Obviously. But please. Balance.
Do you think Page struggles to handle players with big characters? Certain managers struggle with it. Southgate rarely picked huge characters in his squads and if he did they rarely lasted long. Steve Morrison at Cardiff was very similar. We have had, and still do have, loads of big characters in the squad so I don’t think Page has a problem with that. Also, most of the players who haven’t been selected aren’t really ‘big characters’ |
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Post by fiveattheback on Jun 1, 2023 11:25:52 GMT
We have 3 (4 if you add in Ramsey, but I'd rather not) players to cover the midfield 2, including a teenager who's played 30 seconds of international football. We have, by my count, 8 players to cover the wings/attacking midfield spots. I don't get it. Still, Page has finally seen the light in picking someone who can cover at left back rather than 3 right backs, so maybe in future we'll get some midfield cover In Page's defence if he thinks those 4 including Ramsey are his best options then that's fine. I don't see too many scenarios where we'd even have to field JJ, as I think Ampadu-Morrell, Ampadu-Ramsey & Morrell-Ramsey will all be used as combinations before we'd need to play JJ. If we're required to play JJ I wouldn't be feeling confident but maybe he can step up and take to it really quickly, who knows? I agree I'd like a more experienced squad player like Lowery, Sheehan or MJ Williams to be tested there, but Page obviously doesn't agree for now and perhaps he's right. A couple of injuries and I'd start to worry more But we've seen what happens when you play Ramsey in a midfield 2 in international football, it rarely ends well, so I'd question his inclusion as a deeper midfield option. Even if you include him you're dragging away our star man from where he can do the most damage, sticking an inferior player in there and putting a square peg in a round hole in midfield, it makes little sense. That's then compounded by the inclusion of 4 attacking midfielders for, realistically, one spot which is filled by the captain, it doesn't make sense and points to an unbalanced squad. The very basics of squad building are 2 players for each position and then add in some extras, but we're leaving ourselves light in a crucial area of the pitch for no reason. The likes of Vaulks, Levitt and Smith aren't world beaters, but they provide options and competition, one injury and all of a sudden we're dragging players around the pitch or bringing on a teenager. I like Page but his squad selections baffle me at times. There was that bizarre period where we were selecting 3 right footed wing backs in Roberts, Williams & Gunter and just Ben Davies (who we didn't want to play there) and Sorba Thomas (who isn't really a wing back and has done next to nothing for us) as left footers. He's spoken about picking players who play and putting them in their proper positions but I see little evidence of that when were including a host of general "forwards" and leaving ourselves light elsewhere for no reason. After years out in the cold all of a sudden the clubless 30 year old Morgan Fox is involved and Regan Poole, also clubless but impressing and younger, is nowhere to be seen after being in squads and seemingly usurped by Joe Low? There was some talk around Tom Lowery and Josh Sheehan, they've dropped off the map. It's weird. |
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Post by iot on Jun 1, 2023 12:19:11 GMT
In Page's defence if he thinks those 4 including Ramsey are his best options then that's fine. I don't see too many scenarios where we'd even have to field JJ, as I think Ampadu-Morrell, Ampadu-Ramsey & Morrell-Ramsey will all be used as combinations before we'd need to play JJ. If we're required to play JJ I wouldn't be feeling confident but maybe he can step up and take to it really quickly, who knows? I agree I'd like a more experienced squad player like Lowery, Sheehan or MJ Williams to be tested there, but Page obviously doesn't agree for now and perhaps he's right. A couple of injuries and I'd start to worry more But we've seen what happens when you play Ramsey in a midfield 2 in international football, it rarely ends well, so I'd question his inclusion as a deeper midfield option. Even if you include him you're dragging away our star man from where he can do the most damage, sticking an inferior player in there and putting a square peg in a round hole in midfield, it makes little sense. That's then compounded by the inclusion of 4 attacking midfielders for, realistically, one spot which is filled by the captain, it doesn't make sense and points to an unbalanced squad. The very basics of squad building are 2 players for each position and then add in some extras, but we're leaving ourselves light in a crucial area of the pitch for no reason. The likes of Vaulks, Levitt and Smith aren't world beaters, but they provide options and competition, one injury and all of a sudden we're dragging players around the pitch or bringing on a teenager. I like Page but his squad selections baffle me at times. There was that bizarre period where we were selecting 3 right footed wing backs in Roberts, Williams & Gunter and just Ben Davies (who we didn't want to play there) and Sorba Thomas (who isn't really a wing back and has done next to nothing for us) as left footers. He's spoken about picking players who play and putting them in their proper positions but I see little evidence of that when were including a host of general "forwards" and leaving ourselves light elsewhere for no reason. After years out in the cold all of a sudden the clubless 30 year old Morgan Fox is involved and Regan Poole, also clubless but impressing and younger, is nowhere to be seen after being in squads and seemingly usurped by Joe Low? There was some talk around Tom Lowery and Josh Sheehan, they've dropped off the map. It's weird. "But we've seen what happens when you play Ramsey in a midfield 2 in international football, it rarely ends well, so I'd question his inclusion as a deeper midfield option." I don't think it's as clear-cut as that. We know that he's struggled playing in a double-pivot with Allen, however he's been playing really well in a deeper role for Nice this season (sometimes at the base of their midfield). So we know he can play well in that position if the conditions are right. For whatever reason him and Allen didn't work well as a partnership, but I do remember some of his earlier performances next to Ledley (Scotland away 2013 stands out) where he was effective in a deeper role for us. It may also be the case that, as he gets older, he becomes more suited to a deeper role. He didn't stand out in an advance position in the last international window despite playing very well in a deeper position for Nice at that time. We also wouldn't exactly be lacking in options to fill that 10 role, with Brooks and Wilson, and there's a good chance we wouldn't be playing a 10 at all - having two no. 8s could make up for losing out on someone like Ampadu. For example, a midfield 3 of Morrell-Ramsey-Cooper could do a job with one of Morrell or Ramsey at the base and the other as an 8 next to Cooper. |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Jun 2, 2023 12:47:08 GMT
Dyma'r carfan cyhoeddi; Interesting to hear one of the journalists say that this season has been the highest number of minutes played by Welsh players in the Premier League since 2016. That's a really positive statistic youtu.be/U1S5mimFqek |
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Post by cogancoronation31 on Jun 4, 2023 17:40:13 GMT
Grant-Leon Ranos : we shall need to watch this guy (Armenia's promising young striker), ex-Bayern Munich and has now signed for Borussia Monchengladbach.
He won his first cap in Armenia's most recent outing, a friendly against Cyprus on 28 March 2023. He also scored his first two international goals, as the game ended in a 2–2 draw.
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Post by allezlesrouges on Jun 4, 2023 23:32:58 GMT
Dyma'r carfan cyhoeddi; Interesting to hear one of the journalists say that this season has been the highest number of minutes played by Welsh players in the Premier League since 2016. That's a really positive statistic youtu.be/U1S5mimFqekInteresting to compare the no. of mins for Welsh players in the Premier League season-by-season (player with the most mins in brackets); 22/23 - 15,348 (Brennan 2940) 21/22 - 8295 (Davies 2539) 20/21 - 9438 (Ampadu 2090) 19/20 - 9617 (James 2290) 18/19 - 10,898 (Brooks 2276) 17/18 - 17,657 (Allen 3142) 16/17 - 19,671 (Ash 3158) 15/16 - 22,108 (Ash 3240) 14/15 - 22,940 (Ash 3330) 13/14 - 23,313 (Ash 3040) 12/13 - 22,835 (Ash 3330) 11/12 - 34,974 (Ash 3330) 10/11 - 24,809 (Vaughan 3150) 09/10 - 22,961 (Collins 2637) We experienced a real lull in number of mins from 2018-2022. Despite this we managed to qualify for a Euros, a Euros knockout stage, win Promotion to League A, and qualify for a World Cup, which in the context of this data is quite a remarkable achievement. We have more players playing abroad these days in comparison to the early 2010s, so perhaps we shouldn't necessarily be aiming for the highs of consistent 22,000 mins+ that we used to get, but I do think that 15,000 isn't quite enough - although it's good to see a trend upwards indicating maybe we're out of the lull For me if we can get that up to around 20,000 next season I think that's a good number. I think it's do-able too. Brennan, Davies, Mepham, Neco and Wilson should all be getting good minutes. Adding in Brooks, Connor & Lockyer into that mix should see us have 8 players on over 2000 minutes (only had 4 this season). It's uncertain where Moore, DJ, Ward, Rodon & RND will land, but it's possible a mix of these could land in the top flight |
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Post by cogancoronation31 on Jun 5, 2023 0:01:33 GMT
Good stuff, allezlesrouges - but what's all this got to do with Cymru v Armenia?
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Post by allezlesrouges on Jun 5, 2023 23:22:57 GMT
Good stuff, allezlesrouges - but what's all this got to do with Cymru v Armenia? In the squad announcement for this camp the reporter asked Page a question quoting the number of minutes our squad has compared to last season. I was just quoting the numbers, plus a bit more, in response to that |
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Post by cogancoronation31 on Jun 6, 2023 9:07:11 GMT
Diolch, allezrouges - it was an interesting read.
Looking forward now to the game itself, only 10 days to go!
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Post by vvm on Jun 8, 2023 10:50:52 GMT
Handful of tickets still available on the ticket site if anyone still needs.
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Post by njdragon on Jun 9, 2023 8:44:11 GMT
Dyma'r carfan cyhoeddi; Interesting to hear one of the journalists say that this season has been the highest number of minutes played by Welsh players in the Premier League since 2016. That's a really positive statistic youtu.be/U1S5mimFqekInteresting to compare the no. of mins for Welsh players in the Premier League season-by-season (player with the most mins in brackets); 22/23 - 15,348 (Brennan 2940) 21/22 - 8295 (Davies 2539) 20/21 - 9438 (Ampadu 2090) 19/20 - 9617 (James 2290) 18/19 - 10,898 (Brooks 2276) 17/18 - 17,657 (Allen 3142) 16/17 - 19,671 (Ash 3158) 15/16 - 22,108 (Ash 3240) 14/15 - 22,940 (Ash 3330) 13/14 - 23,313 (Ash 3040) 12/13 - 22,835 (Ash 3330) 11/12 - 34,974 (Ash 3330) 10/11 - 24,809 (Vaughan 3150) 09/10 - 22,961 (Collins 2637) We experienced a real lull in number of mins from 2018-2022. Despite this we managed to qualify for a Euros, a Euros knockout stage, win Promotion to League A, and qualify for a World Cup, which in the context of this data is quite a remarkable achievement. We have more players playing abroad these days in comparison to the early 2010s, so perhaps we shouldn't necessarily be aiming for the highs of consistent 22,000 mins+ that we used to get, but I do think that 15,000 isn't quite enough - although it's good to see a trend upwards indicating maybe we're out of the lull For me if we can get that up to around 20,000 next season I think that's a good number. I think it's do-able too. Brennan, Davies, Mepham, Neco and Wilson should all be getting good minutes. Adding in Brooks, Connor & Lockyer into that mix should see us have 8 players on over 2000 minutes (only had 4 this season). It's uncertain where Moore, DJ, Ward, Rodon & RND will land, but it's possible a mix of these could land in the top flight Shows what a collosus Ash was 5 seasons like that. We miss him! |
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Post by jono on Jun 9, 2023 15:11:20 GMT
We could probably do with Kev coming out of retirement in the anchor position.
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Post by rob on Jun 10, 2023 16:13:00 GMT
Tom King called up as 4th goalkeeper.Why not think ahead and call up Nathan Shephard or Daniel Barden.Old pals act again like the World Cup.
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Post by fiveattheback on Jun 10, 2023 17:00:56 GMT
Tom King called up as 4th goalkeeper.Why not think ahead and call up Nathan Shephard or Daniel Barden.Old pals act again like the World Cup. He must have some cracking jokes |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Jun 12, 2023 9:42:30 GMT
How are people feeling for this one, I'm personally hoping we go a bit more attacking than the Latvia game, I think we might need two goals to win this one as Armenia are a level above Latvia
Ward
Connor-Rodon-Mepham-Davies
Ampadu-Ramsey
Brennan-Wilson-DJ
Moore
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Post by jbt95 on Jun 12, 2023 10:42:51 GMT
How are people feeling for this one, I'm personally hoping we go a bit more attacking than the Latvia game, I think we might need two goals to win this one as Armenia are a level above Latvia Ward Connor-Rodon-Mepham-Davies Ampadu-Ramsey Brennan-Wilson-DJ Moore Yes I hope we do go for a bit more. Didn’t enjoy March’s games. |
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Post by jimexotic on Jun 12, 2023 10:53:10 GMT
On another day the Latvia game would have been 3 or 4-0 although equally on another day we could have easily lost 3-0 in Croatia. I'd take a 1-0 against Armenia every day of the week.
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Post by allezlesrouges on Jun 12, 2023 11:17:28 GMT
On another day the Latvia game would have been 3 or 4-0 although equally on another day we could have easily lost 3-0 in Croatia. I'd take a 1-0 against Armenia every day of the week. I'd happily take a 1-0, I just think Armenia will pose more of a threat than Latvia. I don't think we can rely on "just take one chance" like we could against Latvia, which was a game where the clean sheet was pretty guaranteed. I think Armenia have the ability to take a chance themselves, so I think we'll need to score twice The two games against Armenia are vital for us in this group, proper banana skin. Win both and we're in a really good position to get 2nd with our point out in Croatia in the bank. Drop points and Turkey's tails will be up Their 19 year old striker Grant-Leon Ranos has been prolific for Bayern's 2nd team and scored a brace on his international debut against Cyprus |
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Post by vvm on Jun 12, 2023 12:16:00 GMT
Don't know much about Armenia so hard to say how this might go. Ranked a bit higher than Latvia so should be a tougher game, hopefully the extended camp has given the team a chance to click ahead of this.
In terms of team selection, expect it will be similar to the Latvia home game but hopefully Johnson comes in.
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Post by talyfan on Jun 12, 2023 12:20:14 GMT
Johnson for Morrell and drop Ramsey deeper into the two with Ampadu.
Rambo is fitter than he was in the world cup and we should have most of the ball, so need as much quality all over the pitch as possible.
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Post by talyfan on Jun 12, 2023 12:22:15 GMT
Ward
Mepham Rodon Davies
Neco Ampadu Ramsey James
Wilson Moore Johnson
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Post by vvm on Jun 12, 2023 14:10:39 GMT
Ward Mepham Rodon Davies Neco Ampadu Ramsey James Wilson Moore Johnson I'd like to see that team and on paper looks pretty good. Think Page might play it safer and keep Morrell next to Ampadu at the expense of one of the attackers but if we can't experiment with a more attacking team here, when can we? |
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Post by hc16040 on Jun 12, 2023 14:53:36 GMT
Don't know much about Armenia so hard to say how this might go. Ranked a bit higher than Latvia so should be a tougher game, hopefully the extended camp has given the team a chance to click ahead of this. In terms of team selection, expect it will be similar to the Latvia home game but hopefully Johnson comes in. From what I can see and what I understand of them they'll be a bit more of a threat going forward but seem pretty inept in defence. If we can go out all guns blazing early on and get a quick lead I think we will be in for an easy night. If we leave it too late I can see it being a banana skin or at the very least tiring our top boys out. |
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Post by dragonsoccer on Jun 12, 2023 17:27:38 GMT
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Post by hal on Jun 12, 2023 20:23:47 GMT
How are people feeling for this one, I'm personally hoping we go a bit more attacking than the Latvia game, I think we might need two goals to win this one as Armenia are a level above Latvia Ward Connor-Rodon-Mepham-Davies Ampadu-Ramsey Brennan-Wilson-DJ Moore This is exactly how I would line up (minus Mepham for Neco and push Davies CB) but I just don’t think Page will do it. I’m expecting Ward/Hennessy (depending who’s fitter) Connor Mepham Rodon Davies Morell Ampadu Rambo Wilson James Brennan |
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Post by manulike on Jun 12, 2023 22:01:05 GMT
They have beaten ROI last year as well as beating Iceland and Romania the year before.
They beat North Macedonia twice in the last four years.
They will not be a pushover.
1-0 will make me happy.
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