I May Well Be In The Minority But

" I May Well Be In The Minority "

But I really don't think that the performance of the Welsh team last night was that bad and neither was the performance of our manager.

When you consider that last September Holland,WC Seni-Finalists only a few months ago, played a World Cup Qualifier in Andorra and won 2-0 thanks to a brace from Robin Van Persie. Also last year Turkey managed the same scoreline against Andorra in the same stadium and both those matches were played on a grass pitch. Compared to those results was ours really that bad If you look at thier record in the qualifiers for Euro 2012 then Macedonia, Republic of Ireland, and Russia all won by 2-0 in Andorra whilst Slovakia managed just a 1-0 win.

I find it amazing that some people think you just have to turn up for these games and win as you want but those days have long gone.

In a game where Wales had 71% possession, completed almost 500 passes during the game, ( Andorra completed just 48 passes), Wales had 8 corners to none for Andorra and all of that against a team happy to park the bus, waste time at every opportunity and that before you consider that pitch which did little to help flowing football.

As regards Chris Coleman he got us the result which was only marginally worse than Lious Van Gaal achieved with Holland so, in my opinion, we should cut him some slack.

We have got off to our best Euro qualifying campaign in 12 years and now, in my opinion, it's about getting behind our national team and manager.

I agree with you mate, good post.

If they didn't get their goal, which let's be honest, was just a very soft penalty, then they would have had to open up after we took the lead. From that scenario we would smash them on the break with bale.

I'm sure if lots of better teams conceded a stupid avoidable goal then they'd struggle like we did, especially on that dire pitch.

I was a bit puzzled by Coleman's set up but apart from that thought that it was a war of attrition after they went up from the "penalty" (which the ref missed but was tipped of by one of his assistants). The pen was, as you said, soft at best. The stats speak volumes.

The pitch was appalling!! The ball was slowed down and this benefitted the Andorrans who had less mobility and skills.

At CCS, we will smash it.

Brilliant post. At our ground I'd expect us to put at least 6 on them, all down to the pitch yesterday IMO

Interesting stats there

I thought Andorra looked like a pub team, and if it wasn't for Bale we may have come away with nothing. Their goalkeeper wasn't exactly overworked, although their goal came from a dubious penalty decision. The three points were the main thing, but personally, I was disappointed with our performance whatever the state of the pitch.

The pitch should not prevent you from passing in the general direction of a team mate,nor does the pitch force you to over hit at least half a dozen needless long balls.
Lets be realistic we have the potential to be an average international team that may sneak in to a tournament if we get an experienced international coach.
At the moment we are headless chickens with an idiot manager

The pitch should not prevent you from passing in the general direction of a team mate,nor does the pitch force you to over hit at least half a dozen needless long balls.
Lets be realistic we have the potential to be an average international team that may sneak in to a tournament if we get an experienced international coach.
At the moment we are headless chickens with an idiot manager

Our pass completion % last night was over 92%, as a statistic that hardly suggests we couldn't make a pass in the general direction of a team mate.

Quite the opposite I would say.

The pitch should not prevent you from passing in the general direction of a team mate,nor does the pitch force you to over hit at least half a dozen needless long balls.
Lets be realistic we have the potential to be an average international team that may sneak in to a tournament if we get an experienced international coach.
At the moment we are headless chickens with an idiot manager

Our pass completion % last night was over 92%, as a statistic that hardly suggests we couldn't make a pass in the general direction of a team mate.

Quite the opposite I would say.
How many of those passes were defence splitting passes though,and how many were little passes sideways or backwards. Have to remember how limited the opposition were, which means space easier to find and all helps with ball retention.

Castleblue, I think you should move on now.
Your much too sensible for this forum!

The pitch should not prevent you from passing in the general direction of a team mate,nor does the pitch force you to over hit at least half a dozen needless long balls.
Lets be realistic we have the potential to be an average international team that may sneak in to a tournament if we get an experienced international coach.
At the moment we are headless chickens with an idiot manager

Our pass completion % last night was over 92%, as a statistic that hardly suggests we couldn't make a pass in the general direction of a team mate.

Quite the opposite I would say.
How many of those passes were defence splitting passes though,and how many were little passes sideways or backwards. Have to remember how limited the opposition were, which means space easier to find and all helps with ball retention.

No doubt that a huge % of those passes were played in front of Andorra but Ithink sometimes you have to give some credit to a team like Andorra who make it difficult by denying you space in the last 3rd of the pitch.

That's what they did last night and it was frustrating to watch and I'm sure it was frustratimg for our players as well, just the same as England & Croatia who only managed 2-0 wins out in Andorra during qualifying for the 2010WC.

I really don't think that the performance of the Welsh team last night was that bad and neither was the performance of our manager.

When you consider that last September Holland,WC Seni-Finalists only a few months ago, played a World Cup Qualifier in Andorra and won 2-0 thanks to a brace from Robin Van Persie. Also last year Turkey managed the same scoreline against Andorra in the same stadium and both those matches were played on a grass pitch. Compared to those results was ours really that bad If you look at thier record in the qualifiers for Euro 2012 then Macedonia, Republic of Ireland, and Russia all won by 2-0 in Andorra whilst Slovakia managed just a 1-0 win.

I find it amazing that some people think you just have to turn up for these games and win as you want but those days have long gone.

In a game where Wales had 71% possession, completed almost 500 passes during the game, ( Andorra completed just 48 passes), Wales had 8 corners to none for Andorra and all of that against a team happy to park the bus, waste time at every opportunity and that before you consider that pitch which did little to help flowing football.

As regards Chris Coleman he got us the result which was only marginally worse than Lious Van Gaal achieved with Holland so, in my opinion, we should cut him some slack.

We have got off to our best Euro qualifying campaign in 12 years and now, in my opinion, it's about getting behind our national team and manager.

Good post. Inclined to agree!

We were awful. Chris Coleman and the team got very lucky. His set up was stupid. 5 defenders against Andorra? For f**k sake. Clueless.

I hate it when people obsess about passing stats. A big % of the passes hit were 10 yard ones between the defenders - pointless slowing down of the game which needed to be speeded up each time we had the ball. These meaningless, but stat boosting passes allowed Andorra to get all their markers in place and crowd out our attacking players. ets be honest, only Bale and later on George Willimas (who was a big positive) hurt them at all. Full backs as wingers/wing backs FFS - that meant we had 5 defenders on the pitch !

3 centre halfs with no striker to deal with passing amongst themselves then whacking it long was awful tactics sorry.

If we are talking stats, how many shots on target against a side whose players mainly play at the same level as Merthyr ?
How many efforts to test that keeper who looked parks standard ?

A BIG improvement is needed against Bosnia and Cyprus as there will be no excuses then. Let's just hope it happens.

As for the penalty - nailed on. Just like Ashley Williams' tug on Cowie last season and Skrtyl's on Campbell. The ref was spot on there - although he was poor at dealing with the time wasting and awful challenges.

Going with 5 defenders was strange against a very poor team. The performance was poor but I genuinely believe the pitch murdered our passing game, I know it's the same for both teams but we have players that can pass the ball and open teams up, where as it suited Andorra down to the ground, it killed any momentum we tried to get going along with their poor tackles and play acting. I echo what others have said at home on our pitch it will be different story.

We were awful. Chris Coleman and the team got very lucky. His set up was stupid. 5 defenders against Andorra? For f**k sake. Clueless.

Insightful post.

I hate it when people obsess about passing stats. A big % of the passes hit were 10 yard ones between the defenders - pointless slowing down of the game which needed to be speeded up each time we had the ball. These meaningless, but stat boosting passes allowed Andorra to get all their markers in place and crowd out our attacking players. ets be honest, only Bale and later on George Willimas (who was a big positive) hurt them at all. Full backs as wingers/wing backs FFS - that meant we had 5 defenders on the pitch !

3 centre halfs with no striker to deal with passing amongst themselves then whacking it long was awful tactics sorry.

If we are talking stats, how many shots on target against a side whose players mainly play at the same level as Merthyr ?
How many efforts to test that keeper who looked parks standard ?

A BIG improvement is needed against Bosnia and Cyprus as there will be no excuses then. Let's just hope it happens.

As for the penalty - nailed on. Just like Ashley Williams' tug on Cowie last season and Skrtyl's on Campbell. The ref was spot on there - although he was poor at dealing with the time wasting and awful challenges.

The important point that many cannot comprehend is that although there were five defenders on the pitch, it does not mean that they were all playing as defenders.

Completing a pass isn't the same as making a good pass. The performance was awful but considering the pitch understandable.

The formation lost me and the positions they played in.

At the end of the day though they are still defenders. If you are going to play 3 at the back pick 2 proper wingers.

How many decent crosses did the 2 of them put in ? How many chances did they create ?

I guess the result was the important thing, but I just wish he'd find another couple of strikers besides Simon bloody Church. Yes, we can play Bale up front, but what's wrong with getting Earnie back for his experience?

At the end of the day though they are still defenders. If you are going to play 3 at the back pick 2 proper wingers.

How many decent crosses did the 2 of them put in ? How many chances did they create ?

Have to agree with you, rarely threatened their goal, and although stats show a big percentage of completed passes, how many of those were incisive defence splitting passes. Easy enough to make loads of sideways and backward passes against a poor quality side who are not even pressing you in the first place. I think an average division 1 team could have managed similar passing statistics against a side like Andorra,

We were awful. Chris Coleman and the team got very lucky. His set up was stupid. 5 defenders against Andorra? For f**k sake. Clueless.

I can see what the original poster is saying and the pitch did hamper us but both teams had to play on it. The above quote is pretty much what I agree with. At times we had three centre backs and a DM in our own half and rarely did we have more than 2 men in the box.

I also found it amusing how people who wanted Pulis to take over from Coleman are moaning about that performance. That is exactly what life under Pulis would be like for Wales. 5 at the back, avoid the midfield, and lump it upfield. We have the best midfield in our history, we should actually use them!

We were awful. Chris Coleman and the team got very lucky. His set up was stupid. 5 defenders against Andorra? For f**k sake. Clueless.

I can see what the original poster is saying and the pitch did hamper us but both teams had to play on it. The above quote is pretty much what I agree with. At times we had three centre backs and a DM in our own half and rarely did we have more than 2 men in the box.

I also found it amusing how people who wanted Pulis to take over from Coleman are moaning about that performance. That is exactly what life under Pulis would be like for Wales. 5 at the back, avoid the midfield, and lump it upfield. We have the best midfield in our history, we should actually use them!

Both teams had to play on the pitch but the pitch helped Andorra, while it hindered Wales.

Agree with the second paragraph. Had that pitch on Tuesday night not been a 3G pitch, Wales would've been able to play the sort of passing football that Coleman has got us playing.