Ethan Ampadu has instantly become a crucial part of our Leeds United side as the midfield anchor, a replacement for Tyler Adams – but on Monday, he showed he can do a bit more than that, with Wales.
Ampadu, 22, won his 46th cap with Wales in a crucial European qualifier away from home at Latvia. He performed well, after 45 minutes against South Korea last week. Wales secured a comfortable 2-0 win.
Aaron Ramsey opened the scoring from the penalty spot after a handball, before David Brooks netted a second. Ampadu was given the entire 90 minutes by Rob Page, the eighth time he’s done that already.
While his Leeds performances have been centred around breaking things up, keeping his passing simple and picking up the odd yellow card if necessary – his role was slightly different with Wales on Monday.
With Rob Page’s side dominating and Wales looking to break Latvia down – while also preventing the counter, he was tasked by Page with being a bit more of a playmaker, than just a holding midfielder.
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Ampadu shows Farke he can attack as well with Wales display
WhoScored’s stats show he performed well in the role. Not only did he have four shots at goal, which included an early header where he should have scored – but also, Ampadu produced two key passes.
His passing was as impressive as ever – completing 36 of his 43 passes, and five of seven long balls. With Ilia Gruev and Glen Kamara on board, it gives Farke perhaps the ability to play Ampadu as a 6.
Using him currently as a 4 given Archie Gray’s attacking tendencies, chucking the defensive-minded Gruev in with Ampadu may mean Ampadu is the one tasked with going forward. He showed he can do it.