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Ampadu in Wales squad

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sign of the chimes

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Wales really are a poor side. Too many players past their best. Bale especially has been a passenger.

Feel sorry for Ampadu. One of their better players. Been moved around the side, making up for the deficiencies of others. Now playing at right back!
While I think they've probably underperformed over the past week and a bit - they'd overperformed by qualifying.

They did really well to get in to a play-off from a group that contained Belgium and the Czech Republic, but were lucky that the other two teams in their group (Belarus and Estonia) were absolute dross, though think they still dropped points to Estonia.

To get past Austria and Ukraine in the play-offs was really impressive given the lack of depth they've got in their squad.

I also think they landed in one of the tougher groups - whatever opinions on England are they're generally a good bet to go further.

The US are limited because their national sides since 1990 have tended to reflect the personality of an Excel spreadsheet and a project management course (they usually include one player with either a haircut or style that is intended to overcome this), but have a decent squad to draw from; and Iran are one of the stronger Asian nations who have a bit more experience.
 

Memphis09

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Was switched to full-back, which was probably why his presence was less obvious than it has been in Wales' other games.
Don’t think he has had a good World Cup
Looks to me like he has lost way to many loans needs to go to club that will play him. Probably championship and restart his career
 

denzel

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I think Amps had a good tournament. He was probably the man of the watch against USA (though predictably Bale got all the attention), and was then asked to play all over the place. I didn't think he let them down and suspect he will be one of the first names on the team sheet in the next campaign.
 

Egg

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Don’t think he has had a good World Cup
Looks to me like he has lost way to many loans needs to go to club that will play him. Probably championship and restart his career
I don’t think you’ve been watching carefully enough. He’s had a pretty thankless task and yet has been one of Wales’ best players in all three matches - this isn’t just my view, but evidenced by the various player ratings after each game. Has definitely had a good World Cup and advanced his cause.
 

Spanks

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Don’t think he has had a good World Cup
Looks to me like he has lost way to many loans needs to go to club that will play him. Probably championship and restart his career
This record is on repeat.
 

tom_ecfc

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Every Wales player had a poor tournament. None of their ‘big guns’/experienced players stepped up. Bale was a shadow of the player we know (injury?). Ramsay has lost his way ever since he made his move to Juventus (injury also?). Joe Allan was never fit, but like others have mentioned before, lack of experienced probably forced Page to put him on over other players. Wales did so well just reaching the World Cup. Once the trio of experienced players make way, there will be some young fresh blood waiting in the wings. It will take time to gel but feel Ampadu will be key to this new team. Also agree that he would benefit from playing regular football in the Championship. Will he realistically be a regular in the Chelsea XI/squad? No from me.
 

andrew p long

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Every Wales player had a poor tournament. None of their ‘big guns’/experienced players stepped up. Bale was a shadow of the player we know (injury?). Ramsay has lost his way ever since he made his move to Juventus (injury also?). Joe Allan was never fit, but like others have mentioned before, lack of experienced probably forced Page to put him on over other players. Wales did so well just reaching the World Cup. Once the trio of experienced players make way, there will be some young fresh blood waiting in the wings. It will take time to gel but feel Ampadu will be key to this new team. Also agree that he would benefit from playing regular football in the Championship. Will he realistically be a regular in the Chelsea XI/squad? No from me.
I agree with this, but there is a middle way in between being a) a regular for the European and World Champions and b) playing in the Championship.

Nathan Ake is (hopefully) the example to follow. At the same age (22) Ake had a similar handful of Chelsea starts and busy loan seasons elsewhere. Sold to lower premiership side Bournemouth where he flourished and, of course, now at Man City.
 

Antony Moxey

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I don’t think you’ve been watching carefully enough. He’s had a pretty thankless task and yet has been one of Wales’ best players in all three matches - this isn’t just my view, but evidenced by the various player ratings after each game. Has definitely had a good World Cup and advanced his cause.
He’s coming from a pretty low starting point though. Wales will probably end up being the second worst side in the tournament behind Qatar with one goal - a late penalty - to their name and have shown time and again that they really are a one man team who only really do well when he does well. I genuinely suspect the top L1 teams would give them a really good run for their money so Ampadu doesn’t really need to perform much better than average to stand out in that squad.
 

andrew p long

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Time to close this Wales World Cup related thread (which brings the tally of Ethan Ampadu threads heading into double figures) ?

And return to the main Ampadu thread that has nearly 5,000 posts instead.
 

John William

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I agree with this, but there is a middle way in between being a) a regular for the European and World Champions and b) playing in the Championship.

Nathan Ake is (hopefully) the example to follow. At the same age (22) Ake had a similar handful of Chelsea starts and busy loan seasons elsewhere. Sold to lower premiership side Bournemouth where he flourished and, of course, now at Man City.
As I see it, his problem is his versatility - jack of all trades and master of none. He doesn't have a position where he would be a first choice for any PL team. RCB, DM, where? So IMO he's destined to be on the bench for any top team and will only be a regular pick lower down.

With 5 subs etc the days of a player like Paul Madeley, who played every position and was invaluable when squads were smaller only one sub was allowed, are long gone.
 
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