Or.... Rumours of finch, or another half back coming in next year are true, and lance is going to mutually agree to leave. Only way he will agree to this is if he starts every game at half back this season? If he is dropped in favour of Gaskell, would any super league, or nrl club touch him? Unfortunately, Gaskell gets screwed as a consequence.

absolutely, its only a matter of time before the fans really get on Lance's back, which isn't good for anyone.

Fortunately, we have 3 away games now, so gives Lance chance to do some good work out of home spotlight a bit.

That's the bit of this interview that I find most alarming. We ended up with a decent amount of possession and territory because Wigan had the butterfingers, but we were clearly outperformed up front. If Wigan hadn't had an off day with the ball we would have been given a proper schooling.

Whilst I think we're all judicous enough to realise Johnny's far from a complete or rounded half back, there's simply no denying that he can perform that 1st receiver role very well when placed in the correct set up. He proved that last year.
Lance, on the other hand, has proved very little. We needed an half back to run the show,but what we appear to have bought is an older, slightly inferior version of Lomax himself.

As the weeks go by, Nathan Brown must be becoming more and more excited by how good he's going to look next season.

Drop them all, that would show em.

Our approach in the wigan game (both with the ball and in defence) was of more concern to me than the abilities of the players on the pitch.

The issue is deeper than one of chopping and changing, it is one of structure and attitude - both of which are the job of the coach. I said that when Royce was in charge and I'll repeat it with Rush/KC.

We need to replicate the desire and hunger we showed against Leeds/Wire, a desire and hunger which Wane has his Wigan charges showing every week. Our pack need to scrap for every inch with the ball and without it in the same way that the Wigan set do - that will go a long way to allowing Lomax/Lance/Roby to operate on the front foot. Wigan carried the ball almost a metre more per carry in the cup game, which came about through a combination of aggressive carries and the lack of urgency in our own defensive line compared to theirs.

We need to be less conservative with the ball too. I don't mean flinging it wide every time because that is easily dealt with, I mean looking for more offloads to create the broken field our halves would thrive on. Playing to the strengths of this Saints team requires looking to offload far more IMO.

That said, I would still prefer Gaskell in the halves to give us a kicking game.

With Saints even when they are not on form Im usually quietly confident they can win big games.

I honestly dont think we have a chance in hell against Leeds.
This is the first year im 100% convinced Saints will not win anything this year.

The fact they have won some of the games they have is showing how p!ss poor the league is this year

I don't have a problem with keeping Gaskell away from the first team for a short period - if it's to work on, say, the kid's physique. But I can't see any reason to drop him. It's not as if he was playing THAT badly anyhow. The mistakes he was making were purely down to inexperience and you could level precisely the same criticism at Lomax.

I am confused too about exactly why Gaskell has been dropped for so long. Whilst foster made some real howlers and was quite rightly binned, Gaskell was still making a big contribution to the team and was no more a liability than lomax.

Didn't you guys make this claim in your last run out against Leeds ? THIS time I do hope you're right. Leeds need the win.

Same here. Presumably he isn't in the present coaching staff's good books.

I don't think it's anything Gaskell has done wrong. It's just to build his confidence which will in turn improve his decision making

He'll be back in the team soon I reckon

Dropping someone when they've done nothing wrong is a strange way of building their confidence

It's more likely to dent his confidence.

Just as the comment made in the press by Mike Rush a couple of weeks ago about Wheeler earning his way in the u20s (due to Josh Jones playing well) probably won't have done [ihis[/i confidence much good either and may well go some way to explaining what was his worst performance of the season so far against Wigan.

I see no problem with dropping players for any reason, even if it's you think we are under using a key signing like Lance.

However my problem is that when you have tried that out and seen what we have, there comes a point where you have to recognise that the change has not improved matters and infact in games like Wigan puts us in positions that Roby alone can't get us out of.

In a way Roby has become a problem in being Roby. Against poorer teams his world class abilities are enough in themselves to create tries for the Saints. They just cannot contain him. However this has lead to us directing pretty much the majority of our attack through him leaving the rest of the team underused. So we only see the rest of the team exposed when we hit a competitive team.

I don't think we where dramatically different when we played Wakey, to when we played Wigan. The difference was that Roby could run riot against Wakey. Against Wigan he got 1 or 2 oppertunities off his own efforts.

Lance was as poor against Wakey, did nothing till the last 10 minutes when he tried a kick through, same at wigan nothing bar a chip in the last 10 mins.

Lomax against Wakey, lots of inside passing, lots of running along the wakey line, but no creation. Same for Wigan.

We are a very consistent team that will hold most teams out, even Wigan struggled against our defense 2nd half, but going forwards unless Roby or Wellens pulls something out the halves offer no options. Hope TP recovers as he offers another strike option.