Something needs to change between now and the end of the season for leeds to be safe from relegation.

Relying on injured players returning is flawed. More injuries may occur and as pointed out at the start, all bar ward have played or been available. In the past the likes of wakefield and wigan brought in new players and coach to change their momentum.

GH has already stated the coach won't change. So SOMEONE is going to have to be signed to spark leeds in some way or give them a new impetus.

If you keep doing what you've always done, you can expect to have the same outcome. However if the quality of the players you have to work with suddenly declines (fault of the CEO) and you don't change the way you approach the game (fault of the coaching staff) then you must reappraise the way you want to play or suffer the consequences. I'm yet to see any positive impact on performances due to a reappraisal of the way we play to recognise the difference in the quality of the players. Of course it goes without saying that players missing or not performing to their potential will gave a negative impact, but the fundamentals are missing from the way we are trying to play this year, so it's hardly surprising that players are making more and more mistakes as the pressure builds. It's the specific job of the coaching staff to ensure that players are able to perform to their best and this simply isn't happening.

Games played:
Briscoe 4/19. 21%
Moon 10/19. 52%
Hall 7/19. 36%
McGuire 7/19. 36%
Falloon 8/19. 42%
Ablett 8/19. 42%
Ward 0/19. 0%
Delaney 10/19. 52%

8 players that Mac would surely have in his starting 13, and only 2 have got anywhere near half of all games this year. Then look at the others. JJB has missed 6, Cuthbertson has missed 5, Singleton missed 5, Garbutt missed 5, Ferres missed 5.

Our first choice 1-5 (arguably the most devastating back line in SL has played together TWICE.
1-7 (if you're still playing the squad numbers game) have played together ONCE (the opening day.)
8-13 (excluding Ward) has played together THREE times.

Aside from Watkins who has been ever present, the next highest appearance makers are:
Sutcliffe- 18 games(number 14- remember the squad numbers game)
Lilley- 18 games (number 25)
Handley- 17 games (number 22)
Hardaker- 17 games (number 1, but he wants out)
Burrow- 17 games (number 7)
Mullally- 16 games (number 20)

No team has been affected as badly as us with injuries.

Good post.

These stats and analysis clearly show our horrendous ongoing injury list has been a major factor that has affected performance so far this year. Even when some of the long term injured have returned they need a few matches to get match fit so the effect is even more prolonged. With so many sitting on the sidelines and others unable to train between matches must have made the coaches job impossible to have truly effective practice sessions too.

Having had to play without our main playmaker for 12 games (more if you factor in getting match fit) has hit us hard too especially in the tight games we lost due to poor last tackle options. While opponents have won tight games due to having their playmaker(s) available.

I agree that no other team will have been as badly affected

Yawn zzzzz....... yadda yadda. Poor Mr.McDermott ...too many shiite players that are too stupid/deaf/disobedient to carry out his excellent game plan and instructions on tightening up the ruck defence (that is what you're saying isn't it? Effectively)

,

In your opinion yes (and it may even be true) but without the comparable figures from the other SL teams I guess we'll never know. I've tried with squad numbers which show Leeds being closer to their optimum 1 to 17 than their opponents in eight SL Regular Round games - eight where they are further away and one drawn, hasn't stopped them losing 14 of 17.

I thought you weren't keen on selective stats or is it just the selective stats that highlight how poor the McDermott record is now he has lost his two lieutenants.

1. Sam Tomkins 4/19
9 McIlorum 3/19. (and our reserve hooker, Luke Waterworth also out for the season)
11 Joel Tomkins 7/19
12 Farrell 8/19
6 Williams 9/19
13 O'Loughlin 9/19
8 Crosby 5/19
10 Flower 10/19
3 Gelling 11/19
Plus lots of others missing 5 or so games, Pretty comparable, I'd say. We've used 31 players so far.

That's a flawed method as that would assume that everyone from 1-17 is as vital a miss as others.

A - Saints are only missing two players Roby and Walmsley

B - Saints are missing 4/5 players but they aren't those two mentioned above

Think I'd prefer option B to be honest.

Just basing on numbers anyway only tells half a story because different teams are stronger in different positions, we for example will miss more when our back 5 is depleted than others because we have more match winners there imo.

I think this puts to bed the notion that Leeds have been more impacted by injuries than other sides, I bet if you did the same exercise for Catalans you would end up with a similar synopsis.

It begs the question why are Wigan/ Catalans near the top of the table and Leeds at the bottom?

And when we played Wakefield and Hull KR at home they had more players missing than us, but still beat us.