No, he's not correct ,russell makes the same mistakes every week ,smith is the coach he should drop him but he won't

And replace him with who?

I have a slightly different view.
The O'Loughlin kick was top draw - credit where it's due.

Wire played a compressed defence and did all match.
Wigan exposed us on the edges.

For Russell to be out near to Burgess would leave a massive hole to the inside man (Brown or Hughes). The players have to work as a team and adjust as a team.

We got away with it a few times (the 3rd 'try' from their winger when Lineham got his foot into touch.

I think - like the way we go for charge downs - the defensive structure comes from the coaches.
I don't know if it's just Wire that play such a compressed defence but I'd have though with our pack we could hold the current Wigan 13 without the need to compress so much.

I'd have thought the instruction might have gone out to change the structure but obviously not.

I'm not a coach and never really played the game but just my thoughts after 40 years of watching

So we play a "compressed defence" against a side, who's winger scored a bagful of tries against us, 2 months ago. He scores another two, nearly a third (bar a video ref), and we STILL don't learn.

"Love" structures. JUST TACKLE WHAT'S IN FRONT OF YOU. It's basics.

I was always told as a winger to stay on my winger the line should shift over if a gaps created. Lineham is the victim of his centre he was unlucky not to score tonight another ten yards and he scores that try you know the guy who has no pace and was as fast as the Wigan winger after a game of running it up the middle, he has improved massively from last year and the prospect of him having a passing centre inside him would surely =points

Browns desision making at times is horrendous why would we look to kick to Russell when we have lineham and Atkins on the other wing it absolutely unforgivable

Our forwards are just not doing it for us this year not one of them can hold their head up barring philbin and sims none have really performed as we would have wished for

But the annoying thing is we have 3 players that arguably should have been in the team today who were not in the 19 savellio Patton and penny who if fit would have been an improvement on the team we put out today

Gidley it's a shame his body is not doing what his head is telling him anymore and I think a lot of the criticism on him is unfair he certainly puts in the effort every game and some !!

It's getting tedious having the same problems weeknon week with no consistency in team selection and no consistency in performances there's only one person who we can look to for the reasons for this and he needs to turn it around or walk away at the end of the year

watching that i had steam coming out of my ears for several reasons.
1-brown utter bilge fluffs up every move..
2- russell another weak link cant catch,may make a few yards with his scoots,wow
3 smith stood by the fellow out of loyalty cos of what hes done,but why do you drop young dec he plays we`d of won
4 the pace in our backline.when russell broke thru ratchford was in support how slow did ratchford look even farrell caught him.
5 this was against a wigan team that brought their reserve set up and we couldnt bully them..again..christ help us in the cup game..not a chance we`ll beat em
6.does smith actually know his 1st choice half back pairing or team for that matter,if every player was fit tomorrow id love to see what team smith would pick.
7 will smith ever drop brown like he`s done with patton for our next borefest..

rant over...from a frustrated wire fan

As I've said earlier in this thread, the fact that Russell has such a long contract is criminal. Ask yourself if he would get into Wigan Leeds or even this season's saint's team. The answer to that should indicate whether he should be in our team.

Never mind the 3 Super League teams you have quoted, would he get a gig in any other Super League team?.......
Maybe Widnes?

Farrell is one of the fastest non-wingers in SL

Number of Wigan academy lads in the Wigan 17 = 14

Number of Wire academy lads in the Wire 17 = 4

Number of Wigan academy lads in the Wire 17 = 4

I think it is 5
Cooper - Jullien - King - Philbin - Dwyer
Overseas players Wire 1 - Wigan 3