Personally, I think he's been very accurate in his predictions, I just wish the early pain had been a tad less We went from a team that could not score to a good attacking team and won 7 of our last 10 matches to make the possibility of relegation almost seem foolish. Relieved we did not make the 6. Not sure what he has but IM clearly has something that gets players playing for him, I feel he works to the strengths of his players whilst encouraging them to play how he perceives the game should be played. Well behaved at Wigan too.
I think if Millward had not arrived we would have finished lower than we did.
The only reason we would have avoided relegation was that Widnes self destructed after threatening to show some form about the time he arrived.
I agree with what you say about him seemingly getting players to play to their strengths.
Before he arrived the team played to a pattern that required players to comform to it. So Moran, for example, was trying to be Andrew Johns attempting to chuck out huge passes which he can't do.
Since has has arrived several players have looked better and the game plan is different.
I think it is down to his influence and he appears to have a winning formula as a coach and isn't afraid to to get the players to play his way rather than the way they may always have played at Wigan.
I also like the way he has rotated the younger players taking a look at them all and making sure they don't get burned out or battered by being exposed too often to the rigours of SL.
I hope he can keep out of controversy so he has a long Wigan career.
the think about I.M. is that when he,s with you you,ll love him but when he,s against you you,ll hate him. i like to see him jumping about during the game because it prove,s he cares and he also still behaves like a fan. THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT ,THE FUTURE IS CHERRY & WHITE
With the inuries weve had and overall quality to win 7 of our last 10 games shows he can coach a team, slow start but we were in freefall when he joined. Over time though he has turned it around, the players looked alot more confident and showed alot more when we had the ball. The players repond well to him it seems and his love of the game rubs off on the players and fans alike, I think he has done well with what he has had to work with. I think we will be up there again next year, maybe we wont get silverwear but we will push the big boys again every step of the way.
Another plus is that he has taken over the recruitment, the 4 players he has signed are all under 30, of which 3 are under 25. They are all proven talent and will improve the squad massively.
Overall I think he has been a success even though we havent qualified for the play offs, hes come in and steadied what was a very shaky sqaud, got them playing well and believing in themsleves and eachother, and handled recruitment very well indeed.
Doc Warrior posted:
Chairman Mo's interview on BBC website was interesting he says basically that the loss of Faz was a major contribution to Wigans very poor season along with massive injury list.
Fair point i thought...
He also cites the loss of experienced players like Craig Smith, Cassidy, O'Connor, Connolly....
HELLO?
Who let them go, Maurice? All five would have walked into our first team this season...even Gazza at his age!
I don't think we have to wait until next year to judge him, we (or I) have seen enough to make up my mind already.
IMO we are very fortunate that that megalomaniac at Saints engineered the situation which saw IM's demise. They have replaced him with a far inferior coach and I honestly believe we have the most talented coach in Superleague.
The way he has made progress towards the end of the season with a squad getting steadily worse has been astounding.
It feels like ages since we had a genuine heavyweight coach - well IMO we certainly have got one now. I just hope we get 4 or 5 more yrs out of him before he move on.
We went from a team that could not score to a good attacking team and won 7 of our last 10 matches to make the possibility of relegation almost seem foolish. Relieved we did not make the 6. Not sure what he has but IM clearly has something that gets players playing for him, I feel he works to the strengths of his players whilst encouraging them to play how he perceives the game should be played. Well behaved at Wigan too.
