Bale a big loss to Wales but other players will be ready to fill the void
THE loss of Gareth Bale to Wales is a major gamechanger before Tuesday’s Nations League re-match in Dublin. But it is not as significant as the absence of Christian Eriksen from the Denmark team. Wales do not have a great return without Real Madrid midfielder Bale. Their record with him in the team is close to 50 per cent wins. It drops to half that amount when he is missing.
And he is such a massive player in the Welsh team that of course he is bound to be missed this week. It can make a huge difference, as we saw in Cardiff last year for the 1-0 World Cup group win which put us in the play-offs against the Danes.
There were other factors which went in our favour too that night. The injury to Joe Allen in the firsthalf was an enormous blow for the home side and made a big difference.
It was easier to contain the Wales team without Bale and then Allen in the side and they undoubtedly missed that world class player who can produce a moment of magic in a flash.
If Bale does not play on Tuesday night it will be a big blow to Ryan Giggs and his team but Wales have better players throughout the squad who can cope when he is absent. Players like Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey and Allen, who take more responsibility when the main man is not there.
Those two, and others beside, will want to prove a point, and prove they are not totally Bale-reliant, when they meet Ireland again in Lansdowne Road this week.
One player who has emerged over the last few months is the young winger David Brooks, who has made a very good start to life in the Premier League with Bournemouth following his summer move from Sheffield United for nearly £12 million.
He certainly caught the eye in the game last month and looks like an exciting prospect who is getting more game-time from Eddie Howe at Bournemouth and settling into life there.
What is also interesting about Brooks and Ethan Ampadu, who also played so well against Ireland last time, is that they have both chosen to play for Wales above other countries, including England and, in Ampadu’s case, Ireland too. I don’t know the full details of their stories but it seems to have been pretty a seamless journey to the senior Wales team.
They may have been given reassurances about their game-time with Wales, they may have been taken with new manager Ryan Giggs and his coaching team, or maybe they just felt some loyalty and commitment to Wales.
They feel Welsh and they want to play for Wales, regardless of the manager or the set-up and that is the most important thing. Every individual case is different but Declan Rice obviously doesn’t have the same feelings about playing for Ireland.
It also looks like Ampadu is not going to recover from injury and also will be missing following his excellent, man of the match performance in the first Nations League game in Cardiff last month.
The start of that game was Ireland’s downfall. We conceded the first goal so easily and it visibly calmed Wales who did not have to work too hard to score the next three. They didn’t have to throw bodies forward or go chasing for goals. From the moment Wales scored that opener, it was a case of damage limitation for Ireland.
In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, we were much better organised and solid and looked like we were never going to concede, even if we had carried on playing for two weeks.
Last month’s debacle could not have been more different. We looked like we were going to concede every time Wales went on the attack.
It is difficult to put a finger on why, but from one to 11, we went from a team which was well-organised and difficult to play through, to one which was all over the place, easy to break down and made really basic errors. And we allowed a 17-year-old boy from Chelsea to dictate the game.
Ampadu is clearly a very good footballer but he has yet to get anywhere near the first team on a regular basis.
You do not expect one so young and inexperienced to have such a major influence on a fixture like that, which has the feeling of a local derby. But if you fail to close down talented footballers, and give them a licence to play, that is exactly what they will do. Regardless of whether Bale and Ampadu play or not, we have to see a very different Ireland on Tuesday.