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I would give it to Danny Gabbidon and Scott Young
But neither of them alone. Danny in a suit, Scott a tracksuit.
Two penalties really, as Poland scored all 5. Even if James' penalty hadn't been saved I would have still bet on Poland to carry on scoring.
Keeping them to no shots on target over 120mins was a far better achievement but other than Davis' disallowed goal Wales just couldn't put pressure on the Polish defence . It will be interesting to see if the new manager finds a way of better accommodating Johnson, Moore, Brooks, Wilson and James (with players like Harris and Koumas coming through too) into a system that can score goals.
Yeah, we're a completely different team now. We did have a truly world class player, backed up by a few very good international players and then finished off with good players. We haven't got that any more but we've got good enough players that if they're well drilled and know what they're doing under a tactically astute manager, should be able to consistently get to major tournaments, which for a nation of our size is what success looks like.
That's exactly my feelings. Most fans would accept fairly regular qualification, especially since the numbers qualifying have increased. And having a go when we get there. That would be enough and should be within our reach.
The Euro qualifiers were such a missed opportunity in what was a decent group for Wales. Armenia was obviously a disaster. But it was the play off v Poland which showed up Page's tactical cluelessness for me.
Excellent if overdue decision from FAW, the recent friendlies fiasco gave them the cover they needed to act after the Page player power nonsense last autumn.
We'd have been one of them, I'm sure. I'm not sure many other managers would get much more of a tune out of us, I don't think we have quite got enough quality in attack. Our next manager will have quite a job to do, though getting rid of Page I think was the right thing to do.
Osian Roberts is the clean winner to replace Page.
What he architected for Morocco and Como was superb: quality football and punching more than their weight and decent results against the odds.
He knows the FAW very well and is highly respected within it. He is highly respected by youth players and was respected massively by senior players such as Ramsey and Bale.
He was No.2 and the tactical brains behind the rise of Wales under Speed, Coleman and Giggs.
He is massively respected by top European players such as Viera, Fabregas and Thierry Henry who chose to so their coaching badges with Wales FA not England, when there was no reason to do so as they all had clear affiliations with the French and Spanish FAs, who are ranked way above Wales. There are clear reasons why - Osian Roberts was the Welsh FA Technical Director who had taken what Mike Rigg did and improved it in spades. Why else would they chose Wales? These people have admitted this publicly - the Welsh FA coaching is pretty special.
So you have Welsh person, massively respected by European coaches, popular with players, highly tactical and technical and has success with Wales architecting Wales’ relative success in recent years and that isn’t enough for some fans?
Why? Because he didn’t play high grade football? Well that didn’t block Mourinho and Wenger did it? Or because he hasn’t managed a big club? I don’t recall Giggs nor Speed having done so but they got a free pass from fans?
If Osian Roberts were to get it we would have a passionate and motivated coach who has all the skills to get the best out of the squad. Whether or not the squad is good enough for major tournaments is an aside - I believe he would get them playing good football and be tactically intelligent. That is his trademark and right now that is just what we need.
Genuine question. Would fans generally be happy with Giggs back? I would. We had a fantastic nations league campaign with 5 wins and a goaless draw in Ireland. We conceded 1 goal in the last game home to Finland. Coming top helped us further down the line. Many would say we should be beating Bulgaria and Finland home and away - and we did. He then qualified us for the euros after that poor 2 defeats early on the campaign. We comfortably won the Hungary home game to qualify and I thought he was making great strides. The football was not breathtaking but bloody hell we were well drilled. I would re-appoint him. Am I on my own?
Lots of fans want Bellers, bookies have
Osian
Bellers
Allardyce
Hughes
Thierry Henry
https://m.skybet.com/football/manage...nager/33797027
https://m.skybet.com/football/manage...nager/33797027
I'd love to see Roberts given the job, but would he want to leave Como having just achieved promotion?