By Paul Jones
Ryan Giggs has said he wants Wales to try and play in a similar style to runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool when international football resumes.
The Wales manager has been forced to revise all his plans for 2020 with the postponement of the European Championship finals and the scrapping of all his team’s warm-up fixtures for the tournament.
But with football due to return behind closed doors on June 17, Giggs is turning his attention to the lead-in to next summer and the evolving playing style he would like his young team to develop.
Giggs models a lot of his management on Sir Alex Ferguson, particularly when it comes to standards and discipline, and learned a lot working as assistant manager to Louis van Gaal.
The Manchester United great has highlighted the work being done by Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp at the club’s rivals, with the latter on the brink of an impressive Premier League triumph that has the Wales manager making notes.
“With the obvious pause in the season because of Covid-19, I think there’s a lot of questions still to be answered,” said Giggs.
“But I think what we have seen this year is Liverpool are a fantastic team, managed by a great coach Jurgen Klopp and, it pains me to say it as a United fan, but they have been fantastic this season.
“Obviously they’ll go on and, whatever way it is, they’ll win the league and deserve it.
“They’ve had two brilliant seasons actually, last year pushing Man City all the way. They’re a great team to watch.
“There were certain things that I’ve taken out of the way that Liverpool play, and taking it on to the way that I want to do with Wales.
“Hopefully United will bridge that gap and catch them up. But you have to give credit where credit is due and Liverpool have been fantastic this season.”
Giggs remains a regular at Old Trafford, where he takes great pride in the progress of homegrown talent Marcus Rashford, plus the impact made by Wales youngster Dan James in his first season at the club.
Assistant manager when Rashford broke through, Giggs is excited by the England international and other young talents in the game.
“I’ve seen him coming through the ranks, such a talented player,” Giggs said in an interview with Laureus.com to celebrate the organisation’s 20th anniversary.
“And you have Jadon Sancho at Dortmund, a young player who’s made the bold decision to leave Manchester City and go to another country at a young age. And he really has made a difference.
“His team-mate as well, Erling Haaland who’s scoring lots of goals.
“And I’ve got a lot of good young players in my Wales team, the likes of David Brooks, Dan James and Ethan Ampadu.
“It’s great when you see young players burst onto the scene and they’re just fearless. They just, don’t think too much about the game and just express themselves. And you think back to when you were like that.”
Nobody made more appearances for the Old Trafford giants than the 46-year-old Giggs, having represented the club 963 times between 1990 and deciding to hang up his boots to focus on coaching in 2014.