Excuse for asking but am I missing something here. Didn't the Good Doctor already assemble a squad of players that he himself considered to be good enough to finish top 4 this season?

I think the phrase is he was given a bum steer.

In fairness I think Noble also made decent signings.

For him to get every signing right would have been near impossible considering he signed 14 new players. His biggest mistakes was failing to identify that he needed a goal kicker and an obvious lack of pace in the backs. I think Noble's style from his bulls background has always been about size and power over pace. It's still very much a work in progress and I'm fully expecting us to improve over the coming weeks.

What is absolutely vital now is that we start to improve and gain some momentum to take into 2015.

Oh yeah as I do think in Tasi and S'au we have a couple of the best imports we've seen play for Salford, I think a big miss from Noble was that the aging Gleeson would need replacing and to also bring in a player around the same age in Meli was never going to work. He'd have been much better spending the money Meli is on (I've been told what he's on and the mind boggles) bringing in a couple of hungry young backs eager to make a name for themselves.

The pace (or lack of) this season is obvious but 2015 for me could be.
Locke/Mullaney.
Johnson.

S'au.
Dixon.

Depending who gets the second centre spot that back line as power and pace aplenty.

If Sa'u could find another couple of yards he'd be brilliant for us but he's too slow to play centre for me. As Red John commented recently, he looked like Eric Pickles chasing a Pizza delivery bike at Leeds over Easter.

It's nothing personal, Junior comes across to me as a really top bloke.

have to disagree: I think his power is causing gaps that an astute winger could exploit
Imagine Broughton outside him to hit some of the holes he punched through in both Widnes games so far this year.

Couldn't agree more (sorry same old record from me) but can you imagine the tries Dixon could score when S'au is scattering defenders and passing to someone with frightening pace. A dream ticket would have been to prize Carney away from Cas but find it highly unlikely he'd A be available or B go anywhere else but the NRL.

If we're looking for speedy backs and a quality kicker we could do much worse than have a look at josh Mantellato, not getting much first grade with Newcastle at the moment but when I've seen him looks a cracking prospect who possibly if we are going to release players you could get in this season and he would eat a massive amount of the cap up either.

I think you have to look beyond a few powerful tackle busts and understand that teams are targeting and exploiting our lack of speed out wide.

I think the speed out wide is an issue, but it only becomes an issue in broken play. I'm also wondering how much the lack of speed is to do with a general lack of fitness in the three-quarter line. Of course, Sau or Gleeson when super fit are not going to be speedsters, but the I can't help feel that the broken play problem is more down to guys being knackered first and foremost. Sau certainly offers more than Gleeson at the moment with sheer power and go forward. Something that Gleeson had in his youth but has lacked for a while. Meli is no speedster either, and looks lazy as anything but he scores tries for fun because he's big and powerful. It's a balancing game, for sure, but I would suggest that simply replacing these players with all out speedsters may not be the answer either, rather a balance is probably required with a big improvement in fitness.

I agree with a lot you are saying Butcher but is it age or fitness with some players? Let's not forget the club brought in two highly qualified strength and conditioning coaches from Leeds and Huddersfield.

Perhaps some battle weary senior players are as physically fit as they can be considering they are in their twilight years. I think the pace issue problem is compounded because there is lack of it on both the right and left, plus Johnson is injured as we know.