Three Lions Squad Depth Called 'Ridiculous' - Welsh Boss Bellamy

• Published 60 minutes ago

International friendly: Wales vs England

Venue: London's Wembley, London Date: October 9th Kick-off: 19:45 BST

The Wales head coach says the English squad depth is so impressive that a boxing promoter wouldn't match them with his Wales side.

The Welsh squad face England in a non-competitive match at Wembley on Thursday before their important qualifying match against the Belgians next the following week.

England manager Tuchel has left the likes of Bellingham, Phil Foden and Grealish out of his selection for the Wales friendly and their qualifying game against Latvia.

"England have a ridiculous team, similar to France," the coach remarked.

"England have a transfer market value of 1.4 billion pounds, ours is £170m. Were you a fight promoter, you would not match us up. It wouldn't be allowed."

He explains making sure Wales can face the star-studded opponents is a "driving force".

Bellamy continued: "We don't go off market prices, but the reality is England don't just have one team. They possess multiple and France and others are similarly stacked. They have many great players and that's the honest truth."

"A defender was ruled out injured the other day and there's only two dozen others to go! They have over sixty players. I'd love us to be well-equipped similarly."

The neighbouring countries last faced each other at the 2022 tournament in the Middle East, when England ran out easy victors in a group match before Gareth Southgate's side made it to the last eight.

The new manager is Thomas Tuchel, a European and Fifa Club World Cup winner at the London club who has won domestic titles in France and his native Germany.

The Welsh boss was previously an coach at Anderlecht and Burnley to Kompany, who replaced Tuchel at the German giants.

"He's an outstanding manager - his achievements is proven," Bellamy noted.

"I possess some sort of understanding because the team he departed I know individuals who have joined. I get a bit of an insight there of his methods and it's very impressive. "

"His tactical detail is top level and I aimed to be up against that - see how you're going to adapt because he will. I can learn from that. I'd love to get to that level."

Goalkeepers: Darlow (Leeds United), Adam Davies (Sheffield Utd), King (Everton).

Backline: Ben Cabango (Swansea City), Jay Dasilva (Coventry City), Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur), Kpakio (Cardiff), Dylan Lawlor (Cardiff), Chris Mepham (West Brom), Rodon (Leeds United), Neco Williams (Nottingham Forest).

Midfield: Ampadu (Leeds), Brooks (Bournemouth), Jordan James (Leicester City - on loan from Rennes), Sheehan (Bolton), Thomas (Stoke City), Harry Wilson (the Cottagers), Joel Colwill (Cardiff), Rubin Colwill (Cardiff City).

Attackers: Broadhead (the Red Dragons), Liam Cullen (Swansea), Mark Harris (Oxford), Koumas (Birmingham City - loaned by the Reds), Brennan Johnson (Tottenham Hotspur), Kieffer Moore (Wrexham), Isaak Davies (Cardiff City).