I'm not sure what sort of revolution you were expecting in the short time Lam has been here. The attack was typical of the team last year under Wane and that's absolutely no surprise. We won't get miracles in the space of a few months during the off season.Southern Softy wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 2:49 pm I can't quite believe how sanguine fans are about last night which was beyond awful.
The only players who can hold their heads up today are Marshall (excellent, despite having no service); Flower (awesome and on the pitch for so long(; Greenwood (tried hard as ever); Bullock (big yards and looking very good) and Hamlin (always went forward with force).
As for the rest, Powell may have tackled all night but was a walking penalty; George had a shocker; Tommy looked off the pace and not really there; Sarginson missed every tackle bar one and stropped his way round the pitch achieving nothing and Hardaker seemed to have no idea about defence. Where was he when the tries went in, particularly in the first half?
As for the rest - distinctly average.
Tactically it was a disaster. even slower than Wane's attack - whoever was nearest kicked on the sixth - move every ball to the right and then Faz cuts back inside and gets clattered - I never thought we would score in the second half. Even our two tries were down to individuals. Ben Flower being brave and smart, using the post as a decoy and Liam Marshall intercepting and proving to be the fastest man on the park.
It made no difference but Hicks was as incompetent as ever and decided after 50 minutes that Saints were going to win so he could wander off miles from the action. Percival rearranges Hardaker's face - no penalty. LMS puts his hand on every Wigan player at the PTB - no penalty.
Please get Morgan into the halves and Tommy to hooker or Morgan at FB and Hardaker on the halves (possibly). Failing that get Ben Barba now that he's available (joke!) And try Greenwood on the right with Faz in his normal position.
Still cross at what I saw and thought I might have calmed down but I haven't. And I don't see how Sammut is going to make a difference either.
You say you're not sure how Sammut will make a difference but the one thing Sammut has been doing well in the pre-season games is putting in good last tackle kicks (and good kicks across the field). You mention whoever was nearest the ball kicking on the last as a problem, so surely that's somewhere that Sammut could make a difference. Many wondered why we'd gone for Sammut, but if he has one strength in particular it does seem to be his kicking game and maybe that's why Lam has brought him in. He looked at Williams, Tommy, Powell and Hardaker and thought there's a desperate need for a good kicker and he got whoever was available. Now of course one solution is Escare at fullback, but Lam will be encouraged to pick Hardaker by those above him. Escare in the halve is still a dodgy option because he struggles in defence and players can struggle to read what he's doing.
Sarginson missed 2 tackles out of 20 as opposed to every tackle bar one and did cause problems at times with ball in hand. Not that I'm convinced he's the answer at left centre when you consider how good Gildart was alongside Williams and Farrell and with Budgie or Marshall on his outside. Sarginson still seems to be an awkward player in that he's dangerous thanks to his footwork and his carries but still seems a poor fit at centre and just doesn't seem to get into the same try creating situations as Gildart.
One of the few opinions that seemed fairly unanimous after the game was how good Hardaker was in defence so I'm not sure why you thought he had no idea about it, but people see things differently. I don't think you can expect too much of Hardaker straight away. It's the attacking aspect of his game that concerns me more, as in how well he can fit into whatever style of attack Lam is wanting to play. We seem a bit bereft of creativity at the moment and I'm not sure how much Hardaker can bring in that situation.
Powell comes in for a lot of criticism but I'm not sure he was one of the biggest under-performers on Thursday. His discipline was a bit of a problem but you tend to find that it's the experienced, hard working players in the middle that give away the most penalties. They'll be the ones involved in the most tackles, doing the most work, getting more fatigued and having more decisions to make. I'm still not convinced he's a top class hooker but with the reduced interchange his ability to play 80 minutes is probably going to be important.
In the long run I'm not sure how we'd accommodate an interchange hooker (or Escare) and O'Loughlin in the same side. Lockers doesn't seem able to play long minutes and is always an injury risk. A hooker on the bench would now seem like weakening the pack unless they could also play at 13, which I suppose is an option for Tommy as long as our pack is big enough.
I don't think last night was beyond awful. It was poor, but I don't think you can make any effective judgements based on that one performance alone. Saints were certainly on their game and we'll get a better understanding of where the team is at against Leeds. It's going to be a tricky game because there's bound to be focus on the following week but a win is important otherwise we'll be 6 points behind the leaders after just 2 games.
