It's already begun

[MrDave]

Goulding's defence has been suspect all season, players like Barrett may have had one or two bad games in defence but if you have a player is unreliable in defence then it effects the whole defence because you have players trying to cover other players leaving caps everywhere.

Hopefully Noble will help Goulding with is defensive positioning and if he can get is positing right the he is half way to becoming a good defender.

And yes is lack of passing is a problem especially since he is a centre and passing is probably one of the most important aspects. Barrett isn't going to give the ball to Goulding if he know it just going to end the move so he looks for something else.

[The King]

Goulding didnt even play against Catalans at home as he was injured. It was Colbon that played centre and who had a shocker in defence.

Goulding's defence is actually good for a centre of his age, especially considering the amount of times he is left exposed by the defenders inside him. This often means he gets the blame for things that arent even his fault such as 2 man overlaps or people making breaks on his inside because people arent drifting. His defence is certainly no worse than Carmonts who is pretty poor at times in defence. However as he is the current flavour of the month everyone seems to ignore it.

I agree Goulding's defence is much better than people make it out to be. When he first came into the team he seemed to be a really good defensive player. In the game against Leeds he put in a really good defensive effort.
The MM game against Saints is a good example of what goes wrong. Goulding looked out of sorts on more than one occasion but looking at the bigger picture the defenders inside of him (especially Barrett in that game) were shocking. Every player needs confidence, and when the defence is so week down the middle how can you expect a young centre to make the rights decisions if other players can't make their own decisions beforehand.

His passing is the only thing that lets him down and that seems to be a confidence issue, but also you have to look at how often he gets the ball. With Bailey at second row our centre/winger down the right are starved of possession. He gets the ball and either drives straight, or heads to the right and cuts out the space. How often does Goulding get the chance to run on angles like he did last season and benefit from Barrett's cut out passes? No wonder he's so keen to hold onto the ball if he hardly ever gets it in the first place.

Exactly. There have been some games this season such as against Leeds where he has not got one pass of the ball in open play. Even then some fans on here and rlfans blame him for not passing to his winger. It is laughable at times and I wonder if people actually watch the games.

In some other games he may have had one or two passes, on the rare occasions where Bailey has actually passed the ball, but they are usually in such bad positions where he can do nothing but take the tackle.

If he had half the quality ball that Carmont gets then everyone would see a different player. At the moment in this Wigan team he is on a hiding to nothing.

[cpwigan]

I have to agree with King. Goulding's defence has improved as he has gained experience. When he hits now 99% of the time he sticks whereas when he first came in he was a speed bump.

To be fair when he first came in he would hit a hole and Trent would find him. Likewise when Hock played on the right he hit a hole and made a break superbly off hock. It is his decision making having made a break that needs to improve.

To be frank our attacking line is a mess. Versus Catalan, players were blocking each other and Bailey is certainly one of the worst for that. I actually think in part it is because the line is too flat and the team pass too close to the oppositon defence.

[DaveO]

Barrett isn't going to give the ball to Goulding if he know it just going to end the move so he looks for something else.

Good point. Players like Barrett have the time that all top sportsmen have to think what they are doing. While a lesser player would simply make the obvious pass someone like Barrett has the time in his head to decide if its worth it.

Dave

[cpwigan]

God I do not think we do play to our stronger side. Trent prefers the right side, he's even had Hocky moved to that side several times this season. I think what does happen is the ball gets passed direct to the runner moe on the left side. On the right, Trent will often go alone or he has topass to Bailey.

The attacking line is awful with players blocking potential passes.

[turf]

God posted:

i do know that some dummy runners do block potential recievers

Doesn't that constitute a penalty for obstruction then????? :conf: :conf:

[cpwigan]

The line we form and the distance we play from the defence is a major worry for me. If you look at Saints, close to the opposition line. 2 props stand very flat offering crash balls close to the POTB. Long and Pryce stand several yards further back and they pass to players 2 yards sometimes more from would be tacklers. We seem to have a single line which tries to go right to the defence before passing. The crazy thing is we have the best selector and deliverer of passes in SL in Trent. He should have 2 or 3 options every time he has the ball on the outside and somebody trailing him on the inside if needed.

The only time you should be stood flat is on a short blindside and then and close to the line you should maybe take crash balls almost in the defence line.

My anger is that I believe we have the players to do well but sadly I have no faith in those players doing well because the systems used to attack and defend are so poor.

[mike binder]

were playing to the rules as any other club would ,i beleive o carrol as been offered a new contract ,they have just negociating the time of the contract ,think he wants a longer 1 than is on offer