Norway are...

Officially getting sheep-shagged!

Officially getting sheep-shagged!

I thought Wales were brilliant today

Officially getting sheep-shagged!

Lol,

I thought Norway were crap!

Well done, Wales!

The Norwegian team is made up by a few class players, such as Hangeland, Riise and Abdellaoue, but the rest is utter shite. The star is supposed to be Portsmouth winger Huseklepp, which pretty much says it all. A normally tigth defence is the key to why we're ranked where we are by FIFA.

But, all credit to Wales. This was the first time under Egil Olsen's command, being some 110-ish matches(!), that any team have scored four goals on us!

- Norwegian bluebird!

Well done, Wales!

The Norwegian team is made up by a few class players, such as Hangeland, Riise and Abdellaoue, but the rest is utter shite. The star is supposed to be Portsmouth winger Huseklepp, which pretty much says it all. A normally tigth defence is the key to why we're ranked where we are by FIFA.

But, all credit to Wales. This was the first time under Egil Olsen's command, being some 110-ish matches(!), that any team have scored four goals on us!

- Norwegian bluebird!

Abdellaoue was the guy up front who hit the post, right?

Abdellaoue was the guy up front who hit the post, right?

Yeah. Eight goals in nine matches in Bundesliga is his record so far this season.

All this being said, Wales have got players like Bellers, Bale and Rambo. Why aren't you doing better? Rubbish back four?

Abdellaoue was the guy up front who hit the post, right?

Yeah. Eight goals in nine matches in Bundesliga is his record so far this season.

All this being said, Wales have got players like Bellers, Bale and Rambo. Why aren't you doing better? Rubbish back four?

Interesting.

I'm not sure how we could be doing any better to be honest. 4 wins in the last 5 isn't too bad I reckon. The one we didn't win was against England and to be honest we battered them! Should've at least got a draw!

Our back four is pretty solid. In terms of right-back, Chris Gunter (Nottingham Forest, formerly of Cardiff City before we sold him to Spurs) is good enough for the Premier League really, but we have an abundance of players who can play at right-back. Sam Ricketts (Bolton) has been out for a while with a bad injury (achilles tendon I think), but Gunter has pretty much got that position nailed down. Adam Matthews (Celtic, to whom he moved from Cardiff City in the summer for nothing), a very gifted player as we know all too well as Cardiff City supporters, is a right full-back predominantly, but is versatile enough, like Gunter, to play on both sides. He only played on the left today as Neil Taylor, who plays in the Premier League with Swansea, had a knock and wasn't risked as Swansea have a pretty big game against a certain Manchester United next Saturday. Taylor is first-choice left-back and again, like many of our players, is a naturally gifted player who came through with Wrexham before Swansea bought him for a couple of hundred grand back in summer 2010. Back to Matthews - he reminds me a bit of Gareth Bale as regards to his defensive quality. Likes to get forward more I reckon, but still a solid enough defender, as he showed today

Centre-half is interesting. Ashley Williams has been a regular for Wales ever since he joined Swansea from Stockport (yes, Stockport) back in 2008, and is very good defender who is comfortable on the ball (which you need to be playing the way Wales play under Speed) and an extremely conistent perfomer, underlined by the fact he has been Wales' club player of the year for the last 2 or 3 seasons. Also very rarely injured/suspended.

James Collins would be the obvious candidate to partner him. Very rugged centre-half who used to play for City until we sold him and Danny Gabbidon (another of our centre-halves, who has struggled terribly with injuries during the last couple of years with West Ham, but now seems to have regained form since moving to QPR in the summer on a free transfer) in a combined £3.5m deal to West Ham. Has captained Wales on a few occasions and seemed to have established a good partnership with Williams. He has, strangely, never really replicated his club form for Villa when playing with Wales, and made a costly mistake early on against England back in March's Euro qualifier which resulted in him conceding a penalty, one which Frank Lampard duly converted, setting England on their way to a comfortable 2-0 win. This was just the latest in a string of errors he has made whilst playing for his country.

He pulled out of the August friendly defeat to Australia (a game which saw Gabbidon start alongside Williams, before going on to have a pretty miserable time of it during the first half and making way for Darcy Blake at half-time, but more of that in a moment), was suspended for the Montenegro win as a result of that mistake against England, was kept out of the side against England in the game at Wembley due to Blake's form during the Australia game (in which he scored after he came on) and the Montenegro game. He then pulled out of the double-header against Switzerland and Bulgaria despite playing 90 minutes for Villa the previous Saturday, and again withdrew from today's game even though he played 90 minutes for Villa against Norwich last Saturday. It's just that when Blake got his chance against Australia, he grasped it with both hands, no messing. He and Williams have been great together and this has led to a couple of clean sheets and Blake keeping Collins out of the side despite him not being a regular for Cardiff City and the fact that Collins is playing for Villa a league above him.