Wigan lose to wire

[Wigan_forever1985]

We lack key players in key positions. Tommy is never a 7 in the memory of man. He plays cameo parts where he can be excellent but in terms of driving a team around the pitch and creating play he is very poor. Throw in the biggest waste of space to pull on a shirt in many seasons at 9, Piggy then you lack a 7 and 9. You also lack a playmaking fullback. So you are left with lots of players working incredibly hard but with no playmaking and a system of play only fit for amateur RL.

Wigan under Noble need a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

THink your right, Riddell is Fat and lazy and brings nothing to the squad we slowed down dramatically when he came on. THing is the young fellas sam and mm are creating things that the rest of the team just aren't ready for

[robjoenz]

A short time ago Geoff posted some stats showing how well Wigan did on various measures so I said there must be something statistically we are bad at to explain why we are where we are in the league.

• No rescue plan when things go against them.
  Inability to convert pressure to points (as CP said in his post).

[turf]

Thaler was pretty decent Matthew. I am sorry to disagree but he was. Thaler gave us more penalties in 30 minutes than Silverwood did in the entire 80 last week.

Thaler continues the to imitate his master with his ineptness

I would have said the above comment is very harsh on possibly one of the best referees in SL.

Thaler's name should be replaced by Silverwood for last weeks debacle. Interestingly enough, Silverwood has got the televised game tomorrow, so that should be extremely interesting to see how he goes on.

[mickh]

I only saw the second half, so cannot comment fully (sick of the hot and cold performances while still keeping the coaching staff), what I saw was Fielden trying his heart out (that laying on penalty under the sticks which led to their overtaking try was pathetic refereeing), Coley, a liability, Feca, insignificant. Warrington were focused on targeting them by a coach that is a better coach than what we have, Roberts, a good team player, who needs more space to work something, play him at fullback even. Richards, never beats his first man, O'loughlin tackling everything again.
I didn't see Leului, did something happen to him?
Riddell, the less said about him the better, send him home.

As someone has mentioned regards Mathers, he's improved now he has got someone to coach him. He had a good game (I never thought I would say that), but everyone of the downfield kicks were down his throat.

[cpwigan]

We lack key players in key positions. Tommy is never a 7 in the memory of man. He plays cameo parts where he can be excellent but in terms of driving a team around the pitch and creating play he is very poor. Throw in the biggest waste of space to pull on a shirt in many seasons at 9, Piggy then you lack a 7 and 9. You also lack a playmaking fullback. So you are left with lots of players working incredibly hard but with no playmaking and a system of play only fit for amateur RL.

Wigan under Noble need a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

A couple of great points you've made there.

I've said for ages now that Tommy is a 9 not a 7.

I had great hopes when Riddell signed for the club as whenever I watched him for Parramatta he seemed to be one of their go forward players, sadly it doesn't appear to working out at Wigan and he seems way off the pace.

I think the young Piggy was okay at St George etc but remember Parra since Pig went there have been in the doldrums. You cannot live the life of a slob and be a professional RL player. You can mask it when you are v young but as you are older it finds you out big time. His passes were sluggish and at times forward. He rarely runs. his tackling is fine but he does not kill himself to get involved. Awful signing. A bad example to younger pros.

Wigan is full of willing players but the brains trust from coach to playmakers is so very limited. Masses of indians with no chiefs. Lions led by donkeys.

It must be sould destroying for the players because they do bloody try so hard. Stitches galore v KR. You have to look at Roberts with his try ration per game in the NRL and Gleeson with his try ratio per game in SL and say if such players are not scoring tries why and it boils down to opportunities being like rocking horse poo.

[turf]

Also another point about Thaler, he also gave us more decision in the game than Silverwood did last week. Example, Feka reefed it out, Thaler gives a knock on against Warrington.

Silverwood would have given a penalty to Warrington.

[100% Warrior]

I thought our fitness levels looked poor again, after 60 minutes we appeared to be flagging when Warrington who had made more tackles seemed to chase the win more.

Can't expect to win matches if our fitness levels can't last 80 minutes.

[waterside glens]

just a couple of points Thaler was pure poo to both teams but slighty worse to us and our kicking game was rubbish.Why has Noble not told ainscough to get his body between attacker and ball on those kicks and piggy played like a quaterback some of his passes where so far forward

[cpwigan]

I thought our fitness levels looked poor again, after 60 minutes we appeared to be flagging when Warrington who had made more tackles seemed to chase the win more.

Can't expect to win matches if our fitness levels can't last 80 minutes.

Serious questions need to be asked re conditioning because for example Feka looks less powerful than in the past. It is a science and I am not sure our conditioners would pass a GCSE in it.

[GeoffN]

Thaler was pretty decent Matthew. I am sorry to disagree but he was. Thaler gave us more penalties in 30 minutes than Silverwood did in the entire 80 last week.

Thaler continues the to imitate his master with his ineptness

I would have said the above comment is very harsh on possibly one of the best referees in SL.

Thaler's name should be replaced by Silverwood for last weeks debacle. Interestingly enough, Silverwood has got the televised game tomorrow, so that should be extremely interesting to see how he goes on.

I have to disagree turf, although I've not watched the video yet, I'd guess the penalty count at something like 12-6 against us, many of which were blatant con jobs by the Wire players. Yet again, we have the inconsistency showing; tonight's "offence of the week" was the PTB, while ignoring high shots and forward passes.
Not blaming Thaler for the loss, as many of his errors were in our favour (especailly the forward passes we got away with).

Yet again, as many have already said, we were out coached. Nobby's Bradford style up-the-middle plan is never going to work against a pack as good as Warrington's - the only breaks we looked like making were out wide, Gleeson & Roberts especially. Ainscough had little chance with Phelps inside him, though to be fair there was little alternative for left centre.

I'm surprised no-one has yet mentioned our dismal long kicking game; just about everything was right down Mathers' throat, and no-one within miles to put any pressure on him.

I've sdaid it before, and will probably say it again - we invariably lose the low-scoring defensive battles, the games we win are the high-scoring shoot-outs when we chuck the ball about.