Cymru Women's Team

[Belle Vue]

Grainger has to go , clearly out of her depth, she may want to consider going back to coaching 17s and 19s
Squad is ageing - loyalty won’t win you football matches
Incredible amount of young talent left on the bench last night
Mooney should be off too - ploughing money in left - right and centre and this is the end product
Massive dip in attendances over a 18 month period
Little revenue gained
Hosting matches at a 30k stadium is clearly not going to be cheap
Could they not of played this match at Rodney Parade or Wrexham?
FAW needs to press the reset button on this squad !!

[surge]

Wales have struggled in the Nations League and lost all five of their Group A3 games.

Gemma Grainger's side dominated for much of the contest at Cardiff City Stadium, but they were made to pay for failing to take their chances in what has been a campaign of brutal realities as to the work needed for Wales to compete with Europe's top nations.

Ultimately their relegation has come down to two narrow defeats against Iceland, though the world rankings do give some context to the results in this campaign, with Wales up against the sides ranked sixth (Germany) 12th (Denmark) and 14th (Iceland).

By comparison, Wales are ranked 29th and they will now turn their attention to Euro qualifying and a chance to reach a first major finals.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67580812

[Belle Vue]

I take you point but Wales are ranked 29th because of what ??
Poor results over the last 18 Months

[surge]

Dec 2, 2023 11:34:08 GMT Belle Vue said:

I take you point but Wales are ranked 29th because of what ??
Poor results over the last 18 Months

FIFA ranking
Current
29 Increase 1 (25 August 2023)[1]
Highest
29[2] (June–December 2018; August 2023)
Lowest
57[2] (June 2005; May 2006)

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales_women%27s_national_football_team

[surge]

I don't know if our senior women's team are on the right track or not.

I think some people in this thread don't like women's football (underlying sexism?) and don't like Noel Mooney so are coming out with bad faith criticism.

[janglingjack]

Didn't watch last nights game but what i remember about watching all of the away tie is that if we had someone who could actually shoot and score or just be a poacher we would have won very easily, quite surprised to see Iceland are ranked higher to be honest (as i said didn't watch last night though).

[mrpicton79]

Dec 2, 2023 11:42:25 GMT surge said:

I don't know if our senior women's team are on the right track or not.

I think some people in this thread don't like women's football (underlying sexism?) and don't like Noel Mooney so are coming out with bad faith criticism.

I mean how popular is it with the general public really? If you like football you're watching men's football generally. Mainstream media may be pushing women's football hard right now for whatever reason, but in reality it just doesn't have the same appeal as the men's game (yet), perhaps in time they could catch up but there's a long way to go. Either way nothing to do with sexism.

[aberbeeg]

Dec 2, 2023 11:42:25 GMT surge said:

I don't know if our senior women's team are on the right track or not.

I think some people in this thread don't like women's football (underlying sexism?) and don't like Noel Mooney so are coming out with bad faith criticism.

One of the most ridiculous comments I’ve ever seen on this site. 

[hooky]

The problem is the aging of the squad. Its like Wales in the WC men's tournament or the Welsh rugby team prior to the rugby WC - you can not carry too many players well into their 30s. The energy levels are just not sufficient

To be fair to Grainger she inherited a few players past their sell by date but how on earth was she ever going to be able to drop one or more of the likes of Ingle, James or Fishlock to the subs bench? She could not do it as 1. she would be making her position extremely vulnerable if we failed in that scenario 2. there has not been sufficient quality coming through demanding their places. Where is the next Fishlock, Ingle or Ludlow? The likes of Jones are looking like they will have a pretty average ceiling.

The big failure was screwing up against a functional but very limited Northern Ireland and we were overly defensive under the last manager Ludlow. She had these experienced players at close to their peak and we blew it.

What does frustrate me is that we should have exposed fringe players far more than we have in the Nations League. We needed to give the one goalscorer we have much more game time than we have and should have rotated at least one of the above trio out of each game.

Really sad news about Cain. She was not the answer to our goalscoring prayers but did add energy and some creativity to our attacking play. She apparently got another ACL in training? If that is true then it is horrific news for her and bad news for Wales.

[evans1282]

Dec 2, 2023 18:46:59 GMT hooky said:

The problem is the aging of the squad. Its like Wales in the WC men's tournament or the Welsh rugby team prior to the rugby WC - you can not carry too many players well into their 30s. The energy levels are just not sufficient

To be fair to Grainger she inherited a few players past their sell by date but how on earth was she ever going to be able to drop one or more of the likes of Ingle, James or Fishlock to the subs bench? She could not do it as 1. she would be making her position extremely vulnerable if we failed in that scenario 2. there has not been sufficient quality coming through demanding their places. Where is the next Fishlock, Ingle or Ludlow? The likes of Jones are looking like they will have a pretty average ceiling.

The big failure was screwing up against a functional but very limited Northern Ireland and we were overly defensive under the last manager Ludlow. She had these experienced players at close to their peak and we blew it.

What does frustrate me is that we should have exposed fringe players far more than we have in the Nations League. We needed to give the one goalscorer we have much more game time than we have and should have rotated at least one of the above trio out of each game.

Really sad news about Cain. She was not the answer to our goalscoring prayers but did add energy and some creativity to our attacking play. She apparently got another ACL in training? If that is true then it is horrific news for her and bad news for Wales.

Won't disagree with most of what you say but I think what most people are missing is that in the mens and womens game,we are effectively an A- or a B+. The gap is much greater in the womens game. However I think this needs to be factored into all the comments.

[dai]

I'm hoping we see a few changes tonight and some of the younger players given a chance, even if it means taking a hit on a bad scoreline.

I may be wrong, but I think we'll see a better performance if we field a younger team as they will be eager to impress.

[winsumluzsum]

Excellent performance. Frustrating that we couldn't perform to that level in any of the previous games. At least that's something to build on, and much needed by Grainger and the team, who know they haven't done themselves justice before tonight.

[surge]

Always frustrating when you've put in a good performance after it becomes less significant but there were plenty of positives tonight.

[dai]

Very good first half, but missed a lot of this second half.

0-0 looks great on paper, although Germany never really got out of first gear, so need to be realistic when evaluating the performance and result.

Is it just me or does Fishlock look quite ineffective these days? I know she's a target for the opposition and quite small, but she often gets bullied and pushed off the ball.

[hooky]

Very good performance and let's remember Germany did have something to play for!

Hughes was very effective - good to see her getting a proper run out!

Think Fishlock is getting on and so can be run off the ball but she is there because she can be creative and can score goals, as we saw against Denmark again!

Lets not get away from the fact that this was a massive performance - they usually score a hatful of goals against us. The best thing is that while Germany dominated possession a bit we genuinely went toe to toe with them throughout the match and had as much chance as them of winning it. This was Germany in third gear perhaps but that is still a top team we drew with! Well done Wales and well done Grainger

[bringbackelmo]

Chuffed with the point last night.

There's clearly a lot of work to go to bridge the gap to the top sides but with continued investment we could be a top 10 side a decade from now. The beauty of the women's game is that if you're willing to pump money in you'll reap the rewards far more easily than in the men's game because other countries can't or won't do it.

[CrackityJones]

Granger has left her position to manage Norway. Can’t say I’m too disappointed

[abercymru]

Jan 10, 2024 18:08:03 GMT CrackityJones said:

Granger has left her position to manage Norway. Can’t say I’m too disappointed

Probably good for both parties. Norway probably a bit further ahead than us, but Grainger wasn't entirely convincing for us. Be interesting to see who's next.

[bringbackelmo]

I'll reserve judgement until someone new is brought in and whether they are any improvement. I liked Grainger and I think we need to be really realistic about the quality of player we have at our disposal at the moment. Getting us so close to qualifying for the WC was a decent achievement.

[surge]

I think her final statement is very classy. Pob lwc with your future, Gemma.

(Until you inevitably go for the England job of course!).

Some real highs during her time here but also a sense of what could have been with coming close to World Cup appearance. Will have to see what happens next.

[winsumluzsum]

Overall Grainger did well, but there's a chance to take things further. Is there a requirement that the next manager is female? If not, someone like Cameron Toshack (linked with the Notts County job) could be a good appointment.

[quetzal]

Makes sense. She hit a wall with Wales and there were whispers. She couldn’t turn down Norway

[bringbackelmo]

Jan 10, 2024 19:40:12 GMT winsumluzsum said:

Overall Grainger did well, but there's a chance to take things further. Is there a requirement that the next manager is female? If not, someone like Cameron Toshack (linked with the Notts County job) could be a good appointment.

There probably isn't a requirement but personally I don't think it's a great look to have men in charge of women's teams.

[Belle Vue]

Had enough of Mooney / Adams

[iantov]

Hannah Dingley?

[hooky]

Disappointing

To sign a new deal and then walk away so quickly because you get an offer from a bigger gig is disappointing, especially as she did not actually achieve anything. Surprised Norway want her as there were significant question marks - such as being stuck in her tactics and not using the bench / failing to develop younger players. At the end of the day we did more for her in raising her profile than she did for us.

[redwall65]

It is disappointing.

I Imagine the FAW invested a huge amount of money into Gemma’s vision, which would have included extra staff etc with all eyes on qualifying for Euro 2025… it will be interesting to see if any of the senior players retire now.

But it does feel like something else is at play as they have already lost some key female staff, the Head of Women’s football, the head of the women’s league, and others, and now Gemma…

Something doesn’t seem right with this

It’s a great job so hopefully it isn’t rushed and we get the right person in to continue the good foundations Gemma has put down.

[winsumluzsum]

Sounds promising: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68407645

[surge]

Plenty of tournament experience and at nations as of yet a level above us. Looks promising.

[cymruramdcfc]

Taking granddaughter to tallagh stadium tomorrow night , be my first time watching a women football match