World Cup 2022: ‘Brains in the middle, legs out wide’ – What Wales need against Iran

Playing 4-4-2 is the key to getting the best out of Aaron Ramsey too. He didn’t have a great game against the US and gave the ball away more times than I’ve ever seen him do before, but he eventually tried to find a different way of affecting the game and started running beyond Moore to try to move opposition players about.

We really want him on the ball against Iran, though, or arriving late in the box after Moore and Gareth Bale to get on the end of those crosses I was talking about, because he is the master of that.

Ideally Ramsey would be starting his runs far deeper, in a similar position to Jude Bellingham’s for England, and we saw how that worked out.

England’s 4-3-3 became a 4-2-3-1 when Bellingham got forward, and he got their first goal in the same way we have seen Ramsey score so many times before.

I’m confident that the players I’ve mentioned so far will perform but, for all of this to work the way I want it to, we need Joe Allen as one of our men in midfield. We just won’t be able to control the game as well without him.

I talked about his importance to the team in my column before the US game and although he won’t be fully fit yet, this has to be the time to risk him. Even if he can only play 60 minutes or so, it is worth the gamble.

We play England after this, and we really need to have four points going into that game to have a chance of getting out of the group, so there is no point saving anyone now.

Let’s go for it, and give ourselves the best chance of beating Iran by picking the right players and choosing a system that suits their strengths.

Danny Gabbidon was speaking to Chris Bevan in Doha.