Robert Page and Wales looking at USA match to fill the void left by Aaron Ramsey

Robert Page will be relishing the opportunity to manage Wales in the absence of Ryan Giggs in a week of exciting and crucial fixtures which sees Aaron Ramsey unavailable yet again.

Ryan Giggs will not manage Wales this international break and has passed on his duties to former Welsh captain Robert Page and his backroom staff.

Page is currently Giggs’ assistant but has experience when it comes to management with spells at Port Vale, Northampton and Wales’ U21 side. Having managed Wales’ youth system in previous years, Page will have had a hand in some of the current first-team players’ development such as Tyler Roberts, Joe Rodon and Connor Roberts.

With some uncapped players at his disposal, Page will be looking forward to seeing some of Wales’ new-found talents with Josh Sheehan getting called up for the first time.

Sheehan’s Newport County teammate Tom King has previously been called up to the Welsh squad but remains uncapped. Another player familiar to the squad is Brennan Johnson who will be very disappointed if he doesn’t win his first cap this week after some great performances for League One’s Lincoln City, who have had a storming start to the season.

Unfortunately, for Wales, Aaron Ramsey’s unavailable for the national team after picking up a knock in Juventus’ Champions League match last week. This means that the midfielder will have only played three of Wales’ last eighteen matches.

Wales have not found the creative spark they seek when Ramsey isn’t on the field but the match against the USA will be a great opportunity to see what Brennan Johnson can bring to the squad. Dylan Levitt is another creative midfielder with bags of potential but not playing consistently for Charlton could hinder his development.

The only player that has shown real creativity in Ramsey’s absence is Jonathan Williams. The attacking midfielder came off the bench against Bulgaria back in October to score his first-ever goal for Wales.

Similar to Ramsey, Williams also has injury problems of his own on a regular basis but has had a clean bill of health for quite a while which has seen him get regular first-team action for Charlton. Welsh fans love Williams and want to see him play as much as possible because he gives 110% everytime he puts on a Welsh jersey.

Wales will be looking to end this international break as winners of their Nations League group and gain promotion to League A with Europe’s elite footballing countries. In their way are the Republic of Ireland, who are always a challenge and Finland, a team that have won every game since their loss to Wales in the opening matchday of this year’s Nations League tournament.

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