Just googled a few names, Wales have a very very young team and some interesting and more known players. It's not going to be easy, especially because I know that we tend to underestimate some matches.
Yeah, it shouldn't be easy for any of the sides in our group against us. There's certain times and eras you'd have played us and it would have been a walkover. For a nation of our size, we've managed to get in to Nations League A and have already secured a play-off for the next World Cup. In terms of ability, and in terms of strength in depth, it's the best overall squad we've had. We've definitely benefitted from the improvements of academies, from the money that's gone in to the Premier League where a lot of our players are coming from. In Euro 2016 though there was a few players peaking at the right time, we had a bit more experience and leadership and we also managed to avoid any injuries so I can't see it going the same way but I can see us getting out of the group. Be interesting to see how we get on against France tonight.
The Welsh team has a few good players but it's significantly weaker than 4 years ago, they also have pretty much no depth at all. I think their only hope is being a well organised unit with Bale/Ramsey producing moments of magic. God help them if they ever have to play Mepham, the fact he's even made the squad is baffling.
The squad's definitely stronger and has far more depth to it then we had in 2016. Past the 14 or so core members of that squad, you had the likes of George Williams, Jazz Richards, Simon Church, David Vaughan, Dave Edwards, David Cotterill & Owain Fon Williams in the squad. None of those would be making this squad. If you were looking at having to name a 26 back then, we'd really struggle and be looking at the likes of Adam Matthews, Shaun MacDonald and Emyr Huws. We wouldn't have really been able to cope with any injuries to that side, not only in the tournament but in qualifiying and were very fortunate that everyone was fit for both campaigns. We certainly weren't in a position to leave out the likes of James Chester, Hal Robson-Kanu, Rabbi Matondo and Brennan Johnson all together. In qualifying for the tournament, we've managed to cope without the likes of Joe Allen, Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey for significant periods of the campaign which we wouldn't have been able to do in 2016. We've also managed to beat a strong Mexico side recently in a friendly with a complete second string side which wouldn't have been possible before. Sure, Chris Mepham hasn't had a great season, but if you look at any nation of our size you aren't going to get a squad of Premier League standard players and we've never had that luxury. We certainly didn't have that luxury in 2016. When you talk about our only hope, our only hope of what? We've not got the expectations of a top nation, we aren't aiming to go far in the tournament. If we can get through the group stage then it'd be a success for sure, and there's plenty of ways in which we can do that aside from a moment of Ramsey magic (who's only been able to play 3 games in us reaching a World Cup qualifying play-off and this tournament).
Trippier easily 1st choice RB for me. Would like to see Pope in goal although Pickford has been decent for England.
I mean fair enough on the depth but your first XI was surely stronger back then? Getting through qualifying barely means anything anymore to be honest due to the expansion of the tournament. The likes of Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor, King, Ledley, Collins would surely all walk into your current squad if still at their 2016 abilities? Even a few of your current strong players are worse than 2016, such as Bale, Allen, Davies. I did mean in terms of your hopes to get out the group, to be honest I keep forgetting about the 3rd place rule though.
I mean it might not mean anything for you, but for us it's very much the aim for us. There's plenty of comparable and bigger nations who didn't qualify - Bosnia, Ireland, Norway, Serbia, Iceland, Romania, Greece. It's still a big achievement, and the aim for this tournament will have been to qualify first and foremost and it's only the third time we've ever done so in any major tournament. There's areas where we have lost out on, Ashley Williams is obviously a big miss, and there were plenty of players who really did peak in that tournament at the right time together (Bale, Ramsey, Allen) and players who performed out of their skin (Gunter, Taylor, Ledley, Chester). My argument is that we've got a stronger squad and team now. The starting eleven might have been stronger overall, but it's not clear, we've not had the luxury of seeing our strongest eleven out at the same time. That same side failed to reach a World Cup qualifier in 2018, when players performing out of their skin couldn't maintain it for more than a summer and when one or two players got injured. This group of players have exceeded what they team did in terms of World Cup qualifying already. I don't think any of Collins, Taylor, King, Ledley or King get in our strongest current side now, nevermind walk in. They'd all obviously be really useful to have, but I'd still go with Neco ahead of Taylor, Ampadu ahead of the midfield options and a back three of Rodon, Cabango & Davies with the way we're trying to play over those options. Ashley Williams obviously in for Cabango though, and you'd have the 2016 versions of Ramsey, Bale & Allen. Yes, it's going to take one win most likely to get us through and we've got plenty of match winners, Dan James has made a bigger impact then either Bale or Ramsey in the last two years for us and we've got David Brooks, Harry Wilson and Tyler Roberts. The 2016 side didn't have that depth in attacking talent.
Has @SALTIRE started hating the English in here despite spending the rest of his life claiming he "supports" an english team yet?
I think you made undoubtedly a very good job, because we are talking about a nation with three million inhabitants, it's very uncommon to have this amount of quality (I think only Uruguay is better than you). If I make a stupid comparison and I take into consideration the city of Milan (which has the same number of inhabitans), the only one who plays in Serie A is probably Davide Calabria (which is not even in our squad).
Yes seems so. Sounds like it was one of those handball decisions given after a VAR check so no doubt we will have a lot of that to content with in the Euros.
For Neco, firstly the ban would only be a one match ban for denying a goal scoring opportunity. Also though, had he been sent off for something more serious, the ban would have only been for international friendlies. We will be appealing though, even to just give Neco the opportunity to play against Albania and I think more than anything out of principle. So much focus is on where the hands are, and there's next to no focus on the distance between the attacker and the defender. If they're virtually on top of each other and the ball's blasted at his hands, what's he meant to do? He's only meant to be punished for a red card if he's making an intentional Suarez like save, not that.
To be fair stopping the ball from going into the net with your hands has always been a red card, and the ball was clearly going in the net had he not stopped it. One of those that's probably the correct decision but still incredibly harsh on the defender who can't do anything about it. The good thing is he won't miss any competitive games.
It's not been. It's not about whether the hand has stopped the ball going in the net, it's whether he's intended to do it. If you're saying he can't do anything about it, then it isn't a red card. It has to be seen as a deliberate action to deny a goal scoring opportunity with the current double jeopardy rule which is the key here. He has to have been seen to have deliberately make an action to stop the ball going in a net, and given the distance between Benzema and Neco, the power of the shot, the lack of movement of his arms towards the ball and the time he has to get his arms out of the way of the ball it can't be seen as a deliberate action. He's closing down Benzema's shot initially so is throwing himself towards the ball in a natural way. He's only just missed getting the ball off Benzema's foot, which are virtually touching each other. Sure his arms end up in front of him, but they aren't above his head or outstretched or anything like that. You're going to get people blasting the ball at players arms from half a yard if that's deemed a red card, or you're going to get players having to put their arms in unnatural positions to abide by the rule.
You can try this at home. Stand on one bended leg, stretch the other out in front and see what happens to your arms help you stay upright.
