Should Tosh stay or should Tosh go?

Steve Ahearne 14 October 2009

Should Tosh stay or should Tosh go?

So yet another qualifying campaign ends with yet more disappointment for Wales.
John Toshack asked us to judge him on the 2010 qualifying campaign; here's the judgement – we suck. Still. And in John's own words 'We have gone backwards'.
The whole issue of youth development has been touted as his saving grace but this smacks of hypocrisy. Toshack inherited a squad of current internationals at their peak and promptly alienated and forced the retirement of more than a dozen of them. Yes, one or two were getting old anyway but many left due to clashes with Toshack and his over-inflated sense of importance. John your days of being a respected manager are over, left behind in the Jurassic period with the other dinosaurs, besides winning trophies with Real Madrid is like winning fantasy football, almost anyone could do it, and yet he still got the boot.
His man-management skills clearly leave a lot to be desired, but hey!, it's a chance to develop the youth right?
Well yes...
...and no.
Yes the young guns are gaining earlier exposure to top flight international football and gaining experience (of losing time after time), and no because the youngsters need the experienced heads around them to learn from in the first place. The current Welsh crop have no real senior players and thus no real leadership or example on the pitch.
Tactic-wise Wales look more a throw back than a nod forward. 5-3-2 is a formation shunned by modern managers due to the fact it has too many glaring faults: little room for building good attacks or counter attacks, a midfield swamped by the opposition, the desperate need for a 'lump up front' target man and five defenders marking the now customary 'one up front', rendering the only real course of action to be to push our fullbacks up to knock in hopeful crosses. All well and good but with our main attacking outlet being the dwarf-statured Craig Bellamy, utterly pointless.
As was witnessed in the dire shambles (particularly in the second half) against Finland where our endless long balls resulted in nothing more than cheaply giving away posession. How Wales could do with another player in the mould of 'Big' John Hartson (I wish him well with his battle against cancer by the way, a true legend) to knock those hopeful crosses down for someone like the fleet footed Bellamy to tap in.

So where then, is plan B? Oh that's right, we don't have one. To quote the great philosopher Homer (Simpson); 'Doh!'.
When Wales find themselves under the cosh and looking out of gas and ideas like they did against Finland, Toshack takes off Simon Church who showed some good movement and spirit and brought on Sam Vokes who instantly disappeared into the background. Not so much a 'Plan B' as 'Plan 9 – Alien grave robbers from outer space': “Gee whiz sheriff, I'm sure we had two strikers on the pitch a moment ago. Where did they go?”
How was Toshack going to turn the screws on Finland's talismanic playmaker Jari Litmanen? By not bothering to mark him at all! Good plan. The three centre backs did a grand job of watching him play from afar though.
The game against Liechtenstein is now a moot point, nothing is at stake, our international seeding can't be improved and the chances are it will be a painful 1-0 win (if we get lucky and the Liechtensteiners don't really fancy it either). So what should Wales do in this situation? Well most nations would use the game to blood a few youngsters but even Toshack won't call up our U-12 squad. Maybe then, he should use the game as an opportunity to call up the retire-ees for one last hurrah before he takes his leave and lets Brian Flynn take over. What's that I hear? Toshack has recently signed a new contract? He's going to be about for several more years? Damn. Do me a favour and ask my great, great grand kids how it feels to qualify for something, because it won't happen for another century or so at this rate.
Sepp Blatter the wily old smorgasbord lover that he is must be rubbing his hands at recent Welsh developments. Dwindling attendances and poor quality matches just strengthen FIFA's position on team GB. If the people of Wales continue to fall asleep in their droves and stay away from internationals what would be the point in fighting for an independent Welsh FA? Who will be left to fight for it anyway?
Finally it's time to talk about England. They celebrate piling up record breaking wins and qualification by losing, but hey ho!This is a team Wales could learn from (gulp).
The ageing Beckham is clearly still valuable to Capello despite not being 12 years old as seems requisite for the Welsh squad. They have awful trouble filling the left wing spot, so make do by playing a versatile player there (Steven Gerrard) who has actually done a marvellous job cutting inside and causing havoc. Wales already have a very decent left footer called Gareth Bale who seems to be under strict instruction to rarely venture forward (like he's very good at) and to defend at all costs (which he's not very good at).
England don't have a keeper as confident or as promising as Hennessey but manage to soldier on by playing a formation the defenders understand thus making them a little more sure of keeping a clean sheet. The best part is that they only need four defenders to defend thus they can commit an extra player to midfield to help keep the ball in the first place (the best method of defence is to not give the ball to the opposition via the 'donkey punt' Wales favour and instead try passing it about a bit). Should the English run out of ideas they can always rely on the last resort long ball because they actually have a choice of target men (unlike Wales) in Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch (both of whom fairly tower over Munchkin Bellamy).
Yes, England have a bigger and better pool of players than Wales can muster, but even the English can see the value in respecting experience, playing 4-4-2 and blooding youngsters when appropriate with the experienced heads along side to hold their hands during those first baby steps.
Please Tosh, this isn't about you, it's about Wales, the Welsh fans and the Welsh players on the pitch. Check that ego before we become the new San Marino.