Frank Tomkins gives us his breakdown of the Cymru’s game in Iceland, and some ideas on what Bellamy’s approach might mean ….
Reykjavik is a stunning place. The city flanked by icy water and snowcapped mountains. By day, the sun keeps you just warm enough through the cold breeze that snakes around the city from the harbour’s waters. Come the night and when the sun has disappeared, the temperature drops and the breeze stiffens. For all the warm glow that Craig Bellamy and Wales experienced in a positive and controlled first half performance against Iceland, he will be wishing he’d packed something extra to deal with the second half struggles as the temperature fell.
Wales started without the help of Joe Allen who didn’t make the match day squad which did strike me as odd. Why pick him and travel with the squad if he won’t even make the bench? I can only assume he was being saved for Monday and Montenegro. Other than that, the starting XI was as expected with Ollie Cooper being the man who filled an Ethan Ampadu shaped hole. Wilson was there to pull the strings whilst the pacy threat out wide was provided by Sorba Thomas and Brennan Johnson.
Cymru opened brightly and retained the ball well albeit without creating much other than some balls into the box and some shooting half chances created on the edge of the Icelandic penalty area. The control of possession was however central to the performance in the opening 45 minutes as Wales moved Iceland around waiting for their moment to pounce.
With Wilson orchestrating the game and the Icelandic moving side to side, Neco Williams had the ball and he spotted Wilson’s run from deep. Our opponent’s high line was breached and the King of Corwen timed his run to perfection. He brought the ball down expertly and poked past the onrushing keeper. Though Valdimarsson recovered to push the ball off the line, Brennan Johnson tapped home and continued his brilliant club goal scoring run. 1-0 Wales and frankly in control already, beyond the scoreline.
The glee of the away end was extended further by a near identical pattern of play as Williams picked out a perfect run from Wilson who didn’t need Johnson a second time. Wilson smashed past the Iceland keeper putting Wales 2-0 up and in further control. I excitedly messaged our Wales away WhatsApp group “this will be 4 or 5 I reckon”. I should have known better.
The irony is, it could have been close to that if a deflected Harry Wilson shot hadn’t struck the post or if Sorba Thomas who emulated Wilson’s run to once again beat the offside trap, had buried his chance. That would really have been game over and it probably should have been.
Wales looked controlled and Ward was fairly under employed in the Welsh goal. Bar one superb clearance off the line by Neco Williams, it felt quite easy for Wales. In the away end some chants spread across the stands as the beer and confidence continued to flow. Whilst I won’t reproduce everything said on these pages, it’s safe to say Gylffi Sigurdsson won’t be visiting Wales any time soon.
My personal highlight was the Iceland thunderclap being started to our left and, whilst our Icelandic counterparts were shouting their traditional “oohhh” as they clapped, those of us in red preferred something a little more linked to our own heritage and “sheep” was used instead. As the chant grew and so did the tempo, the clap was finished off with Welsh fans declaring their fondness for sheep, in the traditional fashion. Between that and “you can shove your northern lights up your arse”, it was a very entertaining first half.
The more observant of you may have noticed that I’ve quickly shied away from talking about the football here and with very good reason. The second half started in a very different fashion to the first as Iceland went more for a man for man approach and it saw us undone. Johnson was brought off at half time for Burns, and with him our ability to threaten seemed to evaporate.
Wales couldn’t keep the ball and long balls became the order of the day. We need to find a solution to playing a short goal kick only for us to be pressed and hump the ball away. We need to find solutions to how to deal with that press in general and we need to find solutions to how we deal with a change in approach from our opponents at half time.
Iceland frankly looked faster and more focused than they had first half. Less willing to sit off and more committed to the press and a front foot approach. An approach Bellamy would have liked to see from his own players no doubt.
A couple of fine saves from Ward preserved the Cymru clean sheet but this could only last so long. After a corner was dealt with but only to the edge of the box, Iceland had time to take a touch and smash a perfect strike with the outside of the foot around the fairly static Welsh defenders and beyond Ward into the Welsh net. You could ask questions as to why the Welsh defenders didn’t press out quickly to close the shot down, but I do think it misses the point. It was a great finish and the tide had turned.
The comeback was complete soon after as Iceland wriggled along the extremes of the pitch. Firstly Roberts was turned at right back and was beaten with ease. As Iceland cut in and drove along the goal line, the danger was very much lurking. With Ward neither up or down, the ball was played across him and struck the arm which was holding the keeper up. It bounced into the back of the net and the game was all square.
A team who had scored all of their goals in this Nations League from set plays and a manager who’d never had a draw in his stewardship of the team, had scored twice from open play to level the game. Peak “Wales” really.
Iceland will consider themselves a touch unfortunate not to win the game following late pressure whilst Cymru will have been delighted to hang on for a point all in all. Wales’ first half performance meant they deserved something from the game so honours even was probably the fairest result.
As the hours were whiled away post match in the lovely RVK brewery, hands were heated and toes were warmed, conclusions were made and unanswerable questions were pondered. My personal “hot take” is that Bellamy is treating these games as friendlies. He’s got a plan he wants to test out and will stick to that plan come what may, even if it doesn’t work properly.
He is giving the players a chance to fail in an environment which doesn’t really matter so they can learn from it and make better decisions themselves in the future without the manager having to control everything during a match. He’s teaching them something, not controlling them. All of this is building to the World Cup campaign where we will see if this preparation will have the desired effect. For now, I’m happy to follow the process.
I think the idea of him having set plans to experiment with players and formations, will be born out in the starting lineup for Montenegro. I expect to see Koumas, Harries and Brooks starting in front of Wilson, Allen and Sheehan. They will likely protect an unchanged back 4 though I wouldn’t be shocked to see Rhys Norrington-Davies start at left back and Neco switched to the other side. Darlow will likely start in goal too and get his home debut.
Whilst I think what I’ve said there is the most likely scenario over this window, I do have a few questions which need to be asked in the coming games. The biggest one is why are our second half performances so different to our first halves? Is it because players aren’t playing much club football and are tired? Is it because the opposition work out our attacking plan and we haven’t got another plan to implement once that happens?
Or is it that Bellamy is so convinced “plan a” will work, he feels he doesn’t need to make a change? Is it the uncomfortable truth that a squad shorn of Ampadu, Ramsey and players like Dan James, means we simply don’t have the depth we need to consistently perform to a high level in challenging matches.
Maybe it’s all of these things. Maybe it’s none of them. One thing is certain however, and that is there is room for improvement in Bellamy’s emerging plan and whilst the outcome of this individual game is frustrating, it is also fairly inconsequential. That won’t be the case come March however and these experiments do need to come to something.
To conclude positively, Bellamy is the first manager in our history to start their opening three games unbeaten. You also can’t avoid the fact that the way we want to play is exciting and daring and a million times more fun than the Rob Page era. We have to trust the process for now and that whilst the players are learning to play “Pêlamy”, we have to believe that the manager is also learning from these experiments. That can perhaps lead to a level of pragmatism which can be built into this front footed style in certain situations.
I am confident we will beat Montenegro on Monday and that will take us to the final two group games with our promotion related fate in our own hands. I’m also confident we have a manager who knows what we need to do to get to another World Cup and I’m excited to be part of that ride!