The other issue that Wales seem to have found is their troubled back-line. With 22 year old Chris Gunter having already amassed 30 caps, alongside James Collins who appears to be the main central defender of international quality, it seems that the issues could stem from the conceding of goals, as the likes of Bale and Bellamy cannot show their quality without the defensive line keeping their opponents out.
The issue with International sides is that it is not simply a matter of ‘signing’ new defenders, therefore new steps must be taken in forming new defensive prospects for the future, or finding steps to improve the defensive capabilities without drastic action, for example, playing Joe Allen or Jack Collison as more of a defensive midfielder, playing as a deeper lying playmaker, perhaps surrendering their attacking mentalities in order to aid the team’s success. This in turn would allow the attacking options, which are vaster, to advance with the knowledge that their defensive line won’t concede and cancel out their efforts.
Unfortunately for Wales, it seems they do not have a large amount of players to choose from, considering the relatively small size of the country and the relatively poor quality of the Welsh league. Again in contrast to England, they have managed to use the players they have available to the best of their abilities, whereas the England team appears to have an abundance of players with exceptional quality and skill, yet appear to be lost in finding a formula to use them all in tune with each other.
Despite the fact that this European campaign may well be as good as over for the Welsh, it is important to finish off the remaining games with great desire, showing ambition to finally break the recent failures to qualify for the finals of major competitions. With the 2014 World Cup on the horizon, and in a group alongside teams of good quality including Serbia, Belgium and Croatia, it seems that they may have trouble advancing further once more.
However the squad has good, Premier League quality within its ranks, which will hopefully allow the Welsh national team to push opposition teams all the way to the final games, meaning it won’t be long until they are climbing back up the FIFA rankings once more.
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