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Post by hookd on May 10, 2014 16:02:01 GMT
Vindicated then Welshiron It does not matter how many games he has played over 9 seasons he always turned up for Wales & whatever problems Darcy Blake has had, he always gave his all & had some truly excellent performances for his country. ....apart from Serbia away. You are joking. He was such an obvious weakness. Way too short for central defence. Lost a lot of headers and made some careless mistakes. It was madness picking him in front of Collins! |
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2014 18:50:12 GMT
....apart from Serbia away. You are joking. He was such an obvious weakness. Way too short for central defence. Lost a lot of headers and made some careless mistakes. It was madness picking him in front of Collins! Not necessarily, he was immense under Speed and was there on merit, unfortunately his performances under Speed were the pinnacle of his career and he seems to have let himself go after that culminating in a car crash display against Serbia. With those games as a reference point I'm sure there are some managers out there who think they could get him back to that form, if so, it would be like buying gold at a rock bottom price. For his part, His downward spiral may make him a better pro in the long run as he must realise that he has only got one more shot at the big time left before he becomes permanently damaged goods. |
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Post by welshiron on May 11, 2014 21:38:49 GMT
Darcy Blake had a couple of good games for Wales, this does not make him a top player.
For those who don't remember look up Alan Knill and how he played against a top dutch team
Blake is too short, too slow and frankly not good enough if we have any realistic ambitions of qualifying. If you don't believe me ask his club managers (probably about 10( why he rarely got picked
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2014 23:25:11 GMT
Maybe Wales could set up the team similar to Roberto Martinez's style of football. Where he has had Naismith acting as a sort of "false 9".
Basically the full backs press high up the pitch, there's a diamond in the middle, and 2 wingers also cut inside to play as strikers too.
I wonder who would be best acting as a "false 9" for us, Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey, Jonny Williams or Bale I think.
I'd probably keep Bale wide right though, he can be "Lukaku".
Aaron Ramsey has played box to box behind the striker for Wales and is the best finisher out of himself Allen and Joniesta.
It'd be a shame not to have Joniesta played more centrally, he's said that he prefers playing in the middle, but in this scenario he can play wide left.
Joe Allen and Joe Ledley are in the middle, both will work tirelessly and retain possession well. Emyr Huws would sit a little bit deeper but I don't know who's best suited for this position/role either. Ledley, Allen or Huws I'd imagine.
Back 4, the two full backs pushing high up the pitch would be Ben Davies and Adam Matthews maybe. With Ashley Williams and James Chester/Collins alongside him. (Lets say Chester for now because that will be the only added relevance to this topic)
Wayne Hennessey in goal, or Boaz Myhill. Depending on who's playing regular football. If they don't I think stick with Hennessey.
SO, my pointless late night rambling has come to the conclusion that we should attempt Martinez style football. Sorry, nos da.
-----------------Hennessey------------------
-------Chester----------------Williams--------
-Matthews----------Huws--------------Davies-
-----------Ledley----------Allen--------------
------------------Ramsey--------------------
----------Bale--------------Joniesta-----------
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Post by Tim P on May 12, 2014 7:08:04 GMT
That's an interesting team:
Makes use of our abundance of quality midfielders.
Hides our lack of a top striker (am not counting Vokes until he's played at least 15 games in the epl).
The three midfielders can provide protection to our defence.
Puts our three most technically complete and explosive players in a position where they will work directly with each other.
Would be interested to hear counter arguments for this formation / selection.
Must note however that Collins starts ahead of Chester all things being as they are now.
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Post by alarch on May 12, 2014 10:59:04 GMT
Thought provoking stuff, and it could well work. Biggest problem is the lack of game time between now and the start of the qualifiers to experiment. Will any of our players have played in a formation like this? Allen is the closest I guess, with Liverpool playing a similar formation at times, but the vast majority of the team won't be familiar with this setup. Not necessarily a show-stopper, but good reason for caution.
Why do we only have one friendly arranged for the end of season? With countries going off to the World Cup having so many games, club managers could hardly grumble if we had just a couple before the season's end. If we are serious about qualifying the players need as much game time as possible to bed in new players (Lawrence and Huws for instance) and try out new formations.
As for the composition of the team I would go for Collins ahead of Chester, and Taylor ahead of Gunter.
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Post by ontheroadagain on May 16, 2014 18:54:32 GMT
BBC saying that Chester to face a fitness test for the FA Cup Final.
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Post by rossettred on May 16, 2014 21:45:16 GMT
Some stick heading Bruce's way but no Hull centre halves holding out for England, including his son.
Bruce - NI, Chester - Wales, Davies - likely to opt for Rep Ire
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Post by saints19 on May 16, 2014 23:19:02 GMT
Like it or not, we will need Collins at some point, because 3 Premiership centre backs is not exactly world class strength in depth. And Collins has a history of reacting sensitively to being dropped. Also, Collins has been a stalwart in the team for many years, we have no idea if Chester will be a long-term option or just a flash in the pan. In my opinion, start Collins in the Netherlands friendly and bring Chester on at about 50 mins. See how they both get on, but we can't afford to alienate either.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 23:45:54 GMT
Like it or not, we will need Collins at some point, because 3 Premiership centre backs is not exactly world class strength in depth. And Collins has a history of reacting sensitively to being dropped. Also, Collins has been a stalwart in the team for many years, we have no idea if Chester will be a long-term option or just a flash in the pan. In my opinion, start Collins in the Netherlands friendly and bring Chester on at about 50 mins. See how they both get on, but we can't afford to alienate either. Thats the beauty of it, we don't need to alienate Collins- he does a good enough job of it himself with his chequered history of turning up as and when. He simply isn't very reliable. But you are right that we have yet to see this Chester lad play a game for us so yes Collins is still a vital piece in the jigsaw...but, as much as I will get flamed for this, I look forward to the day when our only concern is whether Collins is giving us some back up on the bench. For what we would lose with Collins absent, I would rather see a settled team full of players who are committed to the cause and who you can guarantee will turn up. With Collins you just never know and given our lack of strength at CB that is not good enough. I take my hat off to Bale in this respect, the guy is the worlds most expensive player and yet you know that the only way he will not be on that pitch is if he is genuinely injured and by that I mean hes not even carrying a light knock or anything like that. I wish we could transplant some of that into Collins. |
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Post by melynwy on May 17, 2014 10:07:28 GMT
Maybe Wales could set up the team similar to Roberto Martinez's style of football. Where he has had Naismith acting as a sort of "false 9". -----------------Hennessey------------------ -------Chester----------------Williams-------- -Matthews----------Huws--------------Davies- -----------Ledley----------Allen-------------- ------------------Ramsey-------------------- ----------Bale--------------Joniesta----------- I've thought this for a while as well, although my thinking was Jonny Williams as false 9, with Bale and HRK as wide forwards who cut in a lot - HRK is not a fantastic player all means and doesn't look awfully comfortable on the ball but he's strong, rarely loses the ball and, going on the Iceland game, has a decent understanding of Bale's game and is willing to work around that - they switched positions quite often and HRK seemed comfortable doing it. I had Ledley down as the holding midfielder who could cover at LB when Davies/Taylor pushes up the left wing (slightly different to a holding mid who drops to CB such as New Gerrard or Busquets) With the emergence of Huws, and if he proves to be decent, I think I'd go with your team now, pretty much. Good reasoning with Ramsey's finishing, he could be a good candidate for the 'forward' role, and let Bale do what he does best. I've never been comfortable with the idea of playing Bale as a striker "because we have no-one else" - it's a strange logic. Bale is at his most dangerous running at defenders, and his pace is his greatest asset. To stick him upfront on his would be to take him out of the game. With this system he'd be allowed to drop back, play his natural game and just do what Gareth Bale does.* If we have no decent strikers, don't play any. And why is Matthews never playing? *We need to play Bale as a defensive winger against Belgium away though - it would hopefully cause havoc with their usual 4-2-3-1 - they'd have to let Bale have space if he dropped deep, or else mark him out of the game and undermine their own system. Plenty of room then for our LB to push forward as their RB would be pulled out of position by Bale sitting so deep. There's also Bale's defensive abilities, which are being overlooked these days. Aled |
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Post by ontheroadagain on May 17, 2014 15:31:52 GMT
Chester starts so it will be good to see how he plays in a high pressure game.
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Post by ontheroadagain on May 17, 2014 16:06:47 GMT
Couldn't have started better for Chester.
Great touch for the goal. Game on.
Can Chester play centre forward?
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Post by llannerch on May 17, 2014 18:59:13 GMT
Didn't watch all the cup final but from what I saw Chester looks a decent defender. Terrific news that he's opted for us
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Post by flynnfan on May 17, 2014 19:58:25 GMT
Didn't watch all the cup final but from what I saw Chester looks a decent defender. Terrific news that he's opted for us First time I'd watched him closely (for obvious reasons..) Looks a quality defender. Promising. |
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Post by abwales on May 17, 2014 20:27:51 GMT
I just hope he doesn't change his mind with Ramsey scoring the winner against him...!!!!!
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Post by ontheroadagain on May 17, 2014 21:32:40 GMT
I just hope he doesn't change his mind with Ramsey scoring the winner against him...!!!!! I am sure he would like to be on Ramsey's side after that goal. Didn't give the defender a chance. |
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2014 21:42:25 GMT
I just hope he can play against Holland, surely if he was fit enough to play 120 minutes today?
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Post by ontheroadagain on May 17, 2014 21:47:58 GMT
He had a solid game today. I am sure that he would want to be in Amsterdam on Ramsey's side.
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Post by welshiron on May 18, 2014 8:12:13 GMT
I have already stated how pleased I am that we now have another decent centre half
However, I can't believe how many of you would drop Collins straight away for a player that you haven't even seen much of.
All, you question the attitude of Collins but no one has questioned why Chester has waited until he is 25 to opt to play for us. Dis his Mum just tell him he was welsh.
A great addition to the squad but he is no better than Collins and has a lot less experience
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Post by squatter1 on May 18, 2014 8:40:46 GMT
I have already stated how pleased I am that we now have another decent centre half However, I can't believe how many of you would drop Collins straight away for a player that you haven't even seen much of. All, you question the attitude of Collins but no one has questioned why Chester has waited until he is 25 to opt to play for us. Dis his Mum just tell him he was welsh. A great addition to the squad but he is no better than Collins and has a lot less experience TOTALLY THIS |
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2014 9:33:13 GMT
I have already stated how pleased I am that we now have another decent centre half However, I can't believe how many of you would drop Collins straight away for a player that you haven't even seen much of. All, you question the attitude of Collins but no one has questioned why Chester has waited until he is 25 to opt to play for us. Dis his Mum just tell him he was welsh. A great addition to the squad but he is no better than Collins and has a lot less experience I agree, stick with Collins for now but the fact remains he hasn't played well/been convincing when playing with Ashley Williams. Also he's not comfortable at passing it out of the back, which is something that Chester might be better at (from yesterday's evidence) ...and currently we don't really have a great outlet for long ball. |
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Post by marsvolta on May 18, 2014 11:35:40 GMT
Why does everyone think we have to choose between Chester and Collins?
We need at least three centre backs for the campaign, maybe even a fourth.
Personally I'm happy as when we announce a squad we will now be announcing Williams, Chester and Collins as centre backs rather than talking about moving Ricketts or gunter to centre back, or calling up Lynch or Wilson, or crossing our fingers than Gabbs will somehow manage another campaign, or hoping Darcy Blake will get his shit together.
Chester just gives us another option.
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Post by hookd on May 18, 2014 11:39:24 GMT
Everyone is missing the point. The following is quite depressing!
Williams: 30 in 3 months
Collins: 31 in 3 months
Gabbidon: 35 in 3 months!
Ricketts: will be 33 in October
That is quite a desperate situation. We had no obvious replacements coming through. In a couple of years we would have faced the problem of needing to play central defenders from several leagues down and/or very young players in a position where experience is critical. We still need to find 2 more or so central defenders from somewhere! Our defence is already a big weakness, but if we weren't developing replacements, we would be looking at a scenario where Bale and Ramsey reaching their peak in four years would be irrelevant as far as trying to qualify!
That is why the situation with Shawcross, Turner and even Lloyd Jones is so disappointing. The first two were never going to break into the England team on a permanent basis but would have been so important for us. I know they are very average but our cupboard is very bare in that department.
PS. Any promising central defenders anyone is aware of?
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Post by Baxter Cymru on May 18, 2014 13:06:07 GMT
Joe Walsh seems a very good prospect
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Post by alarch on May 18, 2014 13:28:42 GMT
Some good points there hookd, but I think you underestimate the longevity of centre backs. I reckon Ashley Williams will still be playing top-flight football in 4 years time, and quite possibly Collins too. But long-term for sure we could do with some players coming through.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2014 16:06:33 GMT
Jordan Williams who had his first cap for Liverpool's first team the other day is normally a midfielder but he has played CB too.
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Post by squatter1 on May 18, 2014 17:45:52 GMT
I'm a little surprised and disappointed Chester didn't wrap himself in a welsh flag like Rambo did at full time.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2014 18:29:58 GMT
I'm a little surprised and disappointed Chester didn't wrap himself in a welsh flag like Rambo did at full time.  |
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Post by ladotelli on May 19, 2014 0:01:47 GMT
All, you question the attitude of Collins but no one has questioned why Chester has waited until he is 25 to opt to play for us. Dis his Mum just tell him he was welsh. Because he is English and naturally wanted to play for the country of his birth. He's obviously decided he hasn't got a chance and will settle for Wales. He owes our national team absolutely nothing until he puts that red shirt and when he does we should demand 100% commitment to the cause which all of our English contingent give and I expect Chester will too. |
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