people keep on ranting about him and how awful he is but how do people expect a young, new 7 to come into a new team with a new coach and expect to be fantastic ?
he came as a stand-off and has been expected to play 7 like a superstar.
this wont happen if potter keeps on changing the bcakline....get the right backline and leave it and then some results may come
the whole moving BK to 6 in attack and FB in defence is tiring him out and leaving him dropping off tackles later on in the game.
herbert needs to be left with 1 partner at 6 for 3/4 games and things will work
just his critics get off his back because he has come to a new club , with little first-team experience with changing combinations. no one expected him ot be matt orford
and people calling for paul deacon need shooting..he lost form at the end of 2007 so stop rambling rubbbish
kicking game for herbert needs improving but that will take time as will the whole squad to gel properley

Unfortunately for Marc, a lot of the fans expectation is laid on his shoulders. I think he has shown some glimpses of what he can do but hasn't really found any consistent form so far. What we need is a general, someone who can organise the team and take control of a game. I seem to remember Mr Millward writing in his column pre season that a weakness in Herbert was that he is too quiet on the pitch.

I do think some of the criticism of Herbert has been OTT but he does need to improve a fair bit before we consider extending our agreement. At the moment he is the best we have got, so I'll continue to get behind the young lad. He'd look x10 the player with his fellow players running some decent lines to give him more pass options.

the thing is there s extended pressure when whoever is playing 6 isnt doing as much or making he wring decisions..(sykes yesterday)
the lad doesnt play well under pressure at all....answer ? forwards make more yards and backs run better lines to make it easier for im to play his game
as soon as Marc Herbert plays pressure-free rugby i GARUNTEE that we will see his best

Like you said Kearney (as good as he his) cannot physically play 2 positions. So Royston at FB, Kearney at 6 and Herbert at 7. Now that is our strongest partnership.

Herbert and Sykes are without a doubt this years scapegoats.

Like him or not if Herbert doesn't play you can forget us being the second lowest try scoring team because no one else is creating anything.

This is precisely the problem we have. Marc is quite capable of putting players through holes and creating tries for our team, as evidenced by his his impressive try assist tally to date.
But you need to look at how our team sets up when we have the ball in hand. It's shocking to say the least. We have hardly any dummy runners, as a result teams like Warrington are well disciplined enough to be able to read such basic plays and they were simply waiting for our players to receive the pass, and then smash them.

Teams like Warrington, Wigan and Huddersfield are constantly using dummy runners and even specific plays where they overload either the left or right hand side of the pitch. Then it is simply a case of passing along the line, a few cut-out passes and they waltz in untouched out wide. You might think it's poor defending, but if there are more attackers then defenders, more often than not such a move will result in a try, unless they make a mistake or a defender manages to read the play in advance.

The thing is, Herbert seems to be a 2nd fiddle half back. Not meaning that to knock the lad, but he seems to need a main play-maker to take the creative load off him and to provide him space and time to play his own game. And I think this is the problem with Briggs as well.

How can he play good footie behind a pack that's losing the collision? We are always on the back foot

On the Mason thread you claimed the pack wasn't an issue?

yes marc maybe a 2nd fiudlde half but cmon ....it would take some doing to take Terry Campese's spot in a team.
respect to the lad for coming acros the world and trying to better his game etc and im sure he will put in some game winning performances in the near future

It is, and it would be the same with Leon Pryce who is similarly a six rather than a seven, and whilst he's very good taking on the line etc, anyone who thinks he's an organiser that can direct a team around the park is being overly optimistic. Similarly whilst Kearney is a good substitute six, he'd be a lot better playing at fullback and chiming into the line as an extra creative player. A good quality creative half back is difficult to come by and I think Leon is another gamble that is unlikely to pay off. Weren't we interested in Sutton at Souths not so long ago, if we want a replacement at six he'd be a much better option, although I'd prefer Chris Sandow, now there is a creative player and a great kicker - seems he's going to the Eels though.

Sutton re-signed with South until 2014 a couple of weeks ago!

We'll not get a ready made NRL player in his prime. We'll either get a player coming to the end of his career or someone who's either not getting a game or a youngster. Shame we didn't pick up Scott Dureau who's just the sort of player we need.

That said we could have Andrew Johns at halfback and he'd struggle behind our pack at the moment.

Exactly Bullseye. It's the pack that's the problem.