Absolute must win game against Azerbaijan after the disaster from Giggs in the last two games. For me, he's not the man for the job at all and is completely out of his depth, but here's a chance for him to try and prove the fans wrong. The Belarus game is also really important as well, not that the manager understands this and I imagine will play a weakened side, but this is a game that we have to be playing our strongest side in. We can't afford another Albania for our rankings, we need to get into habit of winning games, and we need to use these are opportunities to get match practise as a side. Not as an opportunity to give first or second caps to players who aren't as good and are older than the players in our strongest side. Ward Roberts - Rodon - Mepham - Davies Allen - M. Smith Wilson - Bale - James Lawrence
Hard to disagree with that side, I'd hope Hennessey is finished after the last few games. Rodon/Lockyer will be the biggest headache for Giggs, both are playing in teams that can't lose. You can guarantee Giggs will still cap Levitt, Morrell & Moore though.
I mean we might be at a similar end of the table, but Rodon's on a completely different level Lockyer. Lockyer might make a good career in the Championship but Rodon is destined for greater things, before he got injured last season he was seen as a bigger talent than Dan James. Now that he's back fit, he's playing even better, and in a Welsh side that needs to be playing out from the back he just has to be in the side. If Giggs has watched him recently, he'll start, but that's far from guaranteed from the laziest manager in my time watching Wales.
Game day. Welsh pundits unanimous that Rodon has to start, regarded as the best Welsh centre back at the moment by Gabbidon, Iwan Roberts and co (and rightly so). We'll see if Giggs agrees.
1-0 up but not exactly given much confidence that we can do much under Giggs for that half. I still don't know what his strategy is, or what he wants from the team? For me, there doesn't look to be a game plan. It looks like the best eleven players put out on the pitch and hoping that there'll be some natural chemistry between some of the players. It should still be enough to get through tonight, but it is worrying for the campaign.
Bale is actually carrying both Real and Wales at the moment, whilst also admitting that he is a golfer...
Honestly, what a let off. Azerbaijan were hopeless and there for the taking, there's no excuses at home to them. If Giggs had a way of playing, or an idea of playing, you should be seeing it tonight. But he doesn't, ultimately his idea of management is getting the best eleven players out on the pitch and hoping for the best. This isn't someone who's obsessed with the game, this isn't someone who lives and breathes Welsh football, this is someone taking an international job because he only has to manage ten to twelve games a year which allows him to manage all of his other commitments. No strategy whatsoever, leading to next to no chances created and the two goals were fortunate to be honest. Giggs is just hoping the players have natural chemistry, so that he doesn't have to coach anything. Honestly, I can't believe he got the job and it's only down to the incompetence of the FAW that he did. We have no chance of qualifiying with Giggs in my opinion, despite having a squad that should be. He's been blessed with the best Welsh side in recent memory, and he's wasting this opportunity for the nation. He's got another opportunity against Belarus in the friendly, and if there isn't a development of some sort of strategy then we have to get rid. We need a manager that has principles of coaching, and the sooner the better really.
Tomorrow we've got another big game really, a huge opportunity for Ryan Giggs to show if he has anything about him as a coach. If he takes the game lightly, and continues to show a lack of understanding of what it takes to build a successful international side, then the calls for him to go are only going to get louder and I don't here anyone that has faith in him as it is. If your a manager you need the fans coming out of a friendly with Belarus with an understanding of how you want the team to play at the very least. This is the team I'd go for, and I don't understand any reasoning to go any lighter in terms of the selection. The team currently looks completely disjointed and needs all the competitive game time together it can get going into crunch matches next month, this is not the time to be playing players who won't feature next month. Ward Roberts - Mepham - Rodon - Davies Allen - M. Smith Wilson - J. Williams - D. James Bale This isn't the time to give Gunter another cap, as Roberts is our right back now. This isn't the time to give James Lawrence a cap, as Rodon and Mepham need as much time together as a partnership. This isn't the time to give Bale a rest, his best chance of getting back to form is by playing and scoring in these games. You get the feeling he'll have plenty of time to rest at Madrid, this is the time he's going to be able to enjoy. Ward needs to play, Hennessey should have been dropped about a year ago now. Ben Davies has been a few levels above Taylor since he came on to the scene, a few games in the Premier League hasn't changed that. Joniesta has earned his place, and Tom Lawrence hasn't taken his opportunity.
So it looks like Giggs is going to run the changes tonight, for reason I'm completely unsure of but whatever they are they certainly aren't as strong or as valid as the ones I've sfor playing the strong side above. S Only 6,000 tickets sold for this one, which shows you the impact Giggs has had on Wales already and how much he's effected the feel good factor put in place by Coleman and Speed. The last home friendly at the CCS v Panama brought in 13,700. It's not a surprise though with the disrespect he's shown to fixtures like this, and the embarrassment it's caused the side in Albania. Rumours have it Gunter, Kieffer Moore, Joe Morrell and Dylan Levitt will all play. Levitt is fair enough if you rate him that highly but there's no need for the other three. These aren't players that are going to play for us next month. Then there's his comments: "The week before you don't know what players are going to turn up. But I knew that before I took the job. "Its very hard to play. I talk about Denmark, they've got the same team, players with 40 or 50 caps. You see Croatia, the same. I've never had that where you change one or two players for each game. "It's constantly four, five, six [changes] but I knew that beforehand. Also I've given players chances. The other night there were seven players with 20 caps or less, so that's an inexperienced team." There was one pull out for the game, Ramsey, a player who turned up at Albania away but you decided not to play him. You are deciding to make these large scale changes, you didn't have to do it against Trinidad, you didn't have to do it against Albania and you don't have to do it tonight. There isn't any injuries from the other night, and no changes are being forced. You recognise the need for more international experience, but these first team players would have more caps if you used games like tonight as opportunities for them to gain experience. It's time to go Ryan, easily the worst national manager I've seen us have. He has no understanding of tactics or international football whatsoever and the sooner he goes the better. The FAW is to blame for appointing him, Osian Roberts was the man for the job.
Well we got the win, and that was due to us playing a much stronger side than we have done in previous friendlies. The team selection wasn't too far off what it should have been to be fair, which only makes Giggs comments mid week even more confusing. We were a lot more fluid with more of a natural midfielder alongside Allen, and Morrell has done well to be fair to him but I'm not sure why Matt Smith, who's two years younger and playing at a higher level, hasn't got a look in at all this week. I also don't see any reason why Bale shouldn't have started, as for me he should play as the number 9 in this side. We have so much quality out wide and only an injured Tyler Roberts up front, and this would have been a good game to experiment with it. Great finish from Dan James to win it, but I do think Giggs is relying on magic from individuals to get us a goal rather than anything tactical. The performances of Ben Davies and Danny Ward only cement my opinion that they are the clear first choice options at left back and in net. Joe Rodon is showing that he's our strongest centre half, and I'm thankful he eventually got his opportunity as he's needed massively. The main thing that I've learned from the players this week is that despite all his injuries, Jonny Williams is becoming the player we all thought he would be.
Uefa has ordered Wales' Euro 2020 qualification game in Slovakia to be played behind closed doors after penalising the Slovak Football Association for racist chants by fans.
Welsh fans have been shafted here. The games in less than three weeks, anyone going is going to have already shelled out for this and thousands of people will have travelled. Gutted for them, absolute farce by UEFA. Why should it be the away fans that are hit the hardest?
He's good going forward, not as much defensively. If he isn't too badly hurt then he's got a run in the team with Jake Bidwell suspended for the next three games, but I think he'll end up as a left winger.
