I could pick out quite a few woeful individual performances last night personally, but rather than having scapegoats from the players, it is about time we started blaming the coach.

He is struggling to get the best out of players other than big names. Without his first choice he looks lost.

His selections last night were poor. Not with hindsight, it was commented on before hand. And it came home to bite him on the bum.

I said on another thread, I do hope that young McShane's got good support around him, because his treatment last night was shocking. The lad could have made a difference in that game, as proven when he actually got on the field, giving us some impetus. But to be taken off 10 minutes later was just ridiculous. The lad looked so peed off, and rightly so.

There was comments in the week about juniors getting peed off with our set up and leaving. I do hope they are just rumours. But from last night if I was McShane I would bite off my nose to spite my face. Also as I commented yesterday, if I was a junior winger in that set up I would be mightly peed at those selections last night.

Therefore I am going to reserve my critisism for the coach, who needs to step up to the plate and start doing his job. And I don't accept injuries as an excuse for last nights selections.

And please see the difference between this and a get rid of the coach thread, that is not what I am saying.

My mate got a tip to back KR last night at 7pm, came from a bloke called Hetherington, he had a couple of hundred on, hope McClennens employer lumped on aswell.

It would be interesting to hear McClennan's reasoning on his selection.

On McShane I agree entirely - he made Diskin look pedestrian and 10 minutes is an insult - especially given the game given to Amor. I wonder if this is a clash of personalities or he doesn't want to lose face over Buderus?

Talking of Amor - his shortcomings were exposed big style in the real world.

Of the others Clarkson and Coady didn't let anyone down and I fail to see how Bush's inclusion would have improved matters.

Delanney did well to see the game out given he could hardly run at all.

To only lose by 7 was a creditable effort - the players out there gave it everything and bar some poor handling by senior players they should have won. They kept KR tryless in the second half - not bad without Sinfield, Ablett, Bailey, Buderus, Hall, Donald, Watkins.

It will interesting to see what side lines up against Wigan?

I agree with most of that David, but I didn't want to go down critisizing players. Although I would say, I thought Coady's shortcomings were exposed also, he offered absolutely nothing going forward. So in that respect I still think a recognised winger would have been better.

He had no service either as the centre didn't trust him some and starved him of the ball - understandable I suppose - he hardly touched the ball in the second half. Delanney looked disinterested the whole night - although only being 60% fit didn't help.

The frustrating thing was the performance of the likes of Senior who should have stopped their first try not once but twice, JJB's inability to keep hold of the ball, Burrow's kicking game, McGuire dropping the ball from the scrum, Peacock knocking on line at his mercy - It was the errors and poor play of the senior players that cost the game

Certainly don't dissagee with that. But you missed off another major player in Diskin, but I don't want to get into individuals.

But again to call the coach into question. You go in at half time losing and not playing well. Most fans expect their team to come back out with a spring in their step, up the tempo and do something different. We were completely the oppossite. Highlighted no more than the drop out we had to do on something like 50 minutes, where we took an eternity to pick up the ball and get someone to kick it. This despite losing the game. Did the coach inspire his players at half time?

Just out of interest Gotcha WHO should of been picked and do you blame the coach for pi$$ poor handling and too many senior pro's being way below par?
I think we can list the number of players who didn't perform but i don't see how the coach could of prevented them making basic errors.
Back to the selection if the powers that be deemed the other young wingers not ready then so be it i personally think the established players blew that match.

The coach makes the selections. These pi$$ poor handling you talk of is nothing new this season, the same players have been doing it often.

But anyway regardless of that, I made my view clear yesterday on the pre match thread. Picking the wingers he did was always going to be a problem, and it came back to bite him on the bum. Neither failed with effort, but neither looked anything close to a threat, despite chances been there. Infact I would say Clarkson looked more composed than Coady. A true winger out there may have provided a different finish to some chances.

My main gripe is as I put above, the treatment of McShane, despite a particularly poor showing from Diskin. That treatment and poor selection was down to the coach, not the handling.

I think the Mcshane point is spot on but like i said these are seasoned pros and there is no way that the coach can be blamed for their poor completion rate imo.
1st half especially i thought Coady did well coming out of our half and as for Clarkson his effort was there no doubt about it.
My other point is that these 2 were picked and deemed good enough to do the job so what makes you think any of the others kids would of faired better?.

Look I don't want to get into critisizing the players, which is why I chose to blame the coach. I think the debutants will get better.

But there is no doubt in my mind that a natural winger with pace would have improved last night enormously. Coady looked scared stiff to run. He had the space, had the touchline twice in that first half from two brilliant passes from Webb and Delaney, but looked lost both times. Not the lads fault, he isn't a winger. A natural winger would have gone for that chance, and one with pace would probably have took it.

Glad you agree on the McShane situation, I really can't see many dissagreeing with that. It was shocking treatment from the coach.

To be fair to Coady mate both those situations started in our 20 and imo his space was shut down pretty sharpish and i thought he carried the ball well and stayed on the park when he risked getting put into touch.
That's how i saw it maybe we'll have to disagree(AGAIN ).
I'd just like to add that i've seen "natural wingers" make more mistakes and butcher easier chances that were on offer last night so it's a bit harsh to categorically say that those chances would of been taken.

I text G. Quagmire at half time saying 'if they were natural wingers the outcome would be different'. I offered him 1/5 odds on someone saying it on here.

I thought Coady did some good running, didn't want to take too many chances of going down the outside. Both Coady & Clarky looked abit anxious in the first 20 or so, with a few missed tackles and coming out of the line abit eagerly. Clarky put some good efforts in, but you could tell he looked better when Keith went looking for work and Chris slipped into the centres. Thought they both did the job they were asked to do. Steady, describes both performances.

I have to agree the treatment of Mcshane was dreadfull, the 10 mins he had comletely overshadowed discos efforts and showed him how to pass from a ptb. He also seems to be a better infield kicker of the ball than Mcguire or burrows and his tackling was superb. Though Coady and Clarkson did ok but were let down by the senior players Amor did ok, a lot to learn though but first game an all that. was very dissapointed with Kirkes efforts has I have been todate rated him last year but so far is not running in to the collision.
Robbie and Danny seem to be getting a lot of stick but when they are trying to create nobody is running the angle/gaps for them and they are then reduced to taking on defenders, energy levels seem down to me

I posted this on another thread



There is something not quite right with the Leeds junior set up.