Squad for Leigh

[Johnone]

Re the debate about Liam Farrell I have thought that for the last 2 seasons that he seems to find or seek contact more than he has in previous seasons perhaps the it may be the way that the team is coached he certainly doesn’t find the gaps that he used to or may be that he has lost a little of his pace who knows , but he is still a fine player who gives 100% for 80 mins I wouldn’t be without his him has a player.

[Firestarter]

Faz isnt being used as the left edge gap runner he once was.Whether that is because we have more of a running stand off , or not, im insure.Hes definitely still getting through the workload and although hes possibly past his brilliant best hes still a machine.On keighran hes a completely different player to king and has started the season pretty similar to how king did. Even though he looks like hes beefed up i think king is still bigger and was like an extra forward coming out of defence.His offloads led to much yardage and his centre skills were fantastic.Keighran, for me, should be kicking atm( do it now before its panic stations in a tight game).He has more speed than king and his centre skills seem very similar.Obviously he played on the other side for cats but king is doing the same at wire.I think we will see massive strides with him once everything dries up and he does seem to have a step off either foot.Also dont forget our main right edge threat is still out( walters). Ill make my judgement when hes back and his height and size will add so much more to the team and keighran.The lads doing ok and will only improve

[Charriots Offiah]

Re the debate about Liam Farrell I have thought that for the last 2 seasons that he seems to find or seek contact more than he has in previous seasons perhaps the it may be the way that the team is coached he certainly doesn’t find the gaps that he used to or may be that he has lost a little of his pace who knows , but he is still a fine player who gives 100% for 80 mins I wouldn’t be without his him has a player.

How many times are our second row forwards put into a gap?

[Exiled Wiganer]

Re the debate about Liam Farrell I have thought that for the last 2 seasons that he seems to find or seek contact more than he has in previous seasons perhaps the it may be the way that the team is coached he certainly doesn’t find the gaps that he used to or may be that he has lost a little of his pace who knows , but he is still a fine player who gives 100% for 80 mins I wouldn’t be without his him has a player.

How many times are our second row forwards put into a gap?

10

[EagleEyePie]

Most of kings runs came on out sets where he took hitups. Keighran doesn't do many of those. However, I don't think you get away with that unless it's a coaching decision. For example Sam and jai didn't/don't take hit ups, although other fullbacks may do. The coaching team were/are happy with this because the player can impact the game more elsewhere. Is this what's going on with keighran, or is he shirking?

I think if the idea was for Keighran to have more impact in other areas we'd have seen the ball come to him more frequently. I'm not sure that really works for a centre though. For a fullback it makes sense because they will always be heavily involved in the attack but a centre can be pretty isolated if the ball stays in the middle of the field.

However, he only averages about 6 carries per game so far this year. That may suggest that Matt Peet is perfectly happy with other players doing more of the work if they are stronger in that area. We're also getting more carries from our middles to make up for what we've lost with King leaving.

Still, if I had to compare Keighran with another centre we've had it would be Gildart, who was also a smaller centre and more of a ball player than bruiser but he used to get involved as often as possible and his carries went from being a weaker part of his game to one of his strengths.

Having said that, if he starts making loads more carries in the next few weeks and those end up being really ineffective I'm sure I'll change my tune.

Re the debate about Liam Farrell I have thought that for the last 2 seasons that he seems to find or seek contact more than he has in previous seasons perhaps the it may be the way that the team is coached he certainly doesn’t find the gaps that he used to or may be that he has lost a little of his pace who knows , but he is still a fine player who gives 100% for 80 mins I wouldn’t be without his him has a player.

I think that might have something to do with playing alongside a halfback who primarily looks to distribute the ball rather than run with it. Smith can run the ball when he wants to but I still think it's not the strongest part of his game and one of the things he could possibly improve. When we're attacking I think most defenders will push wider when Smith has the ball because they see a bigger threat out wide. Previously Farrell has played alongside Hastings, Williams and Green (also Cust to a lesser extent) and all of those players were much more likely to run with the ball and were a threat themselves, so they would attract more attention when they had the ball. Maybe that's why he seems less effective at punching through defences, because defenders are more focused on the receivers out wide rather than the potential for Smith to take them on.

In terms of his form overall I wouldn't be too concerned. I mentioned last season when he was getting some criticism that in years gone by he was making 100+ metres and 30+ tackles every single game but often pick up an injury later in the year and sometimes that was really disruptive for us. I'd rather that was reigned in a bit, at least early on in the year, so we can try to keep him fully fit for the whole year.

[w.thomas]

Good win, facts are we don’t miss Bryne and hills a much better option, chan can’t make yards but makes plenty penalties, Nsemba is some talent for his age and Kieran is as predicted quite anonymous .Thought all the pack went well, why couldn’t they have done that against saints? That’s the question.

[w.thomas]

P.S so far Thompson has proved me wrong. He’s been a beast, engine on him like a fine rolls Royce.

[Mike]

Good win, facts are we don’t miss Bryne and hills a much better option, chan can’t make yards but makes plenty penalties, Nsemba is some talent for his age and Kieran is as predicted quite anonymous .Thought all the pack went well, why couldn’t they have done that against saints? That’s the question.

I think saints being a lot better than leigh has something to do with that?

[Blackpool_Pie]

Thought all the pack went well, why couldn’t they have done that against saints? That’s the question.

Can you not tell the difference between a Leigh pack missing most of their starters and a Saints side at full strength?

[Wiganer Ted]

Good win, facts are we don’t miss Bryne and hills a much better option, chan can’t make yards but makes plenty penalties, Nsemba is some talent for his age and Kieran is as predicted quite anonymous .Thought all the pack went well, why couldn’t they have done that against saints? That’s the question.

Against Saints our pack was a man short for over 20 mins. You can't lose players like that and expect to win games. Saints lost at home to Salford, purely due to Percival being sent off with most of the 2nd half to go. I don't think anyone reckons Salford would have won if Saints had been at 13 for 80 mins.