Hi there Wigan fan here in peace. From what i saw on the t.v. and previous games. It is not the Manager that is the fault it is the players
that are not good enough. I think Williams is playing for you for the money. There is about 5 or 6 players that are good and about 7 that are there just for the money. I think getting rid of around 7 players and signing 7 would be the start

Totally agree. I'm 100% behind Powell and if he bins the lot, I'm behind him. If you compare the track record of our players versus the track record of our manager Powell, there is one clear winner, and its not the players. A bunch of half d, over paid let downs who've been, in most part, a huge disappointment over a number years.

The coach picks the players.

A clear winner?

We’ve gone for being a consistent top four team, with the core of that squad still remaining, to an absolutely dross outfit who are heading for a relegation scrap, rather than a tilt at the play offs, if we’re not careful.

Powell’s future may be a subjective one, with giving him time probably winning out, but to completely absolve him of any blame here would be very wrong too as he’s as culpable as anyone and needs to take some sort of responsibility for what we’re watching.

Okay then, let's say it's not Powell's fault but it's the players.....explain the useless lump wearing the 12 shirt, a certain Ollie Holmes, brought in by Powell. After 10 mins tonight his hands were on his knees and he was blowing out of his ar5e - player rebellion or useless signing by the coach???? Hmmmmm.....

I'm disappointed and puzzled too by Holmes. But it's easier to be influenced by 15 half d players who are part of the club fabric, than by one newbie member of that club, albeit him being the coach. And being new to the club, he's going to want to fit in and make friends and unfortunately these friends are part of this shambles. I honestly don't think you could bring in any coach to unwreck this shipwrecked boat without offloading half the crew.

Of course, most things aren't black and white and I'm sure Powell would have dealt with certain situations differently if he'd had his time again.
Is a top 4 team good enough with the financial outlay our club have made though? A top 4 position with no progress past any of the 1st round play offs in the past 3 is failure. This team, bar the CC Cup final, have regressed from the days under Tony Smith yet the spending on player salaries, I imagine is relatively similar as we spend up to the cap. So compare the record of these players from the end of Tony Smith's rein (bar the trip to the bottom of the league) to the track record of progression in Powell's teams and team members, then you have opposite lines of trajectory. Powell's teams improve, our players stay the same or get worse. Name me one player who has improved in the past 6 years apart from the younger players who will have improved through the academy.

Also, with any team that needs root and branch change, like Man utd, there's going to be some upheaval resulting in bad performances while systems change. Its quite common for professional sports teams under new management to suffer initial bad performances and I seem to remember this being the case for Sir Alex Ferguerson spanning at least 2 years before the ship started to head in the right direction.

I didn’t say it was good enough, but it’s a fact. We’ve been taken from a top four club, competing on all fronts, to a club who are heading for a relegation scrap with largely the same spine as we have had for the last couple of years.

We’ve gone from a team solid in defence and hard to beat, to a team who is conceding 40 points on a regular basis.

There’s been no improvement. New coaches / managers usually put their mark on a team relatively quick no matter how subtle the signs are. He’s had zero impact pretty much and we’ve gone backwards rapidly.

There might be a culture problem. A clear out may be required. But to just absolve the coach of all responsibility, when he is the one picking the team and leaving out several better options, is just plain wrong.

The players are culpable and so is Powell.

(I just added some to my previous post while you posted this and didn't check this post)

I agree that Powell has not been blameless in this but I still appoint much more blame towards the players.

The defence problem though, isn't so much to do with Powell being a bad defensive coach (Powell won the league leaders trophy and nearly the grand final after turning around a relegation threatened Castleford a few years back), but more to do with players attitude. The previous week's performance against Stains shows this to a large degree.

You say: 'New coaches / managers usually put their mark on a team relatively quick no matter how subtle the signs are. He’s had zero impact pretty much and we’ve gone backwards rapidly'. Fergie took over 2 years to see positive signs (he was nearly sacked after a couple of years), I'd say it took Klopp a season for his Liverpool side to show signs of bearing fruit. Yes, it appears things are going backwards under Powell, but I'd argue he is having to make more radical changes, in addition to the playing style, in order for us to achieve the ultimate grand final.

Even during the wonderful early to mid years of Smith, the club culture wasn't truly sorted or we'd have won at least one grand final. I believe he's identified culture/ethics at other successful clubs such as Stains, Leeds and Wigan and wants to replicate it here and sees that if players won't take it on board, he needs to get rid. This will cause a lot of friction and is profoundly impacting our performances. Will you and others have the patience for him to see it through? Do you see what I'm seeing: that he's identified this player complacency to varying degrees since Moran took over (no disrespect at all to Moran) whereby players saw this club as a money and lifestyle club over achievements. He's a brave manager to do it this way, but fair play, I'm right behind him, even if we finish 2nd from bottom and rid ourselves of the dead wood, its worth it for a longer term better chance of achieving success.

I back Powell but even if I didnt sacking him now would prove the players have too much influence and that would be calamitous. What wont help Powell will be if he plays the same side next week. Drop them, send the message. We are losing games anyway.

To be clear, as I’ve said on other posts, I don’t blame Powell. He just isn’t the man for the job. Finishing outside of the play offs is a disaster for Warrington, but common for Powell. His track record is a wash of inconsistency, often mitigated by lack of resources. Now he’s got all the money in the world and is bringing in players no better than what we had.

Price couldn’t get a group of players over the final hurdle, and that wasn’t good enough. But, they were consistently in the fight. The same group are 10th.

#KissKamOut

From the outside it appears that certain players are playing to get rid of the new coach. The shining lights appear to be the youngsters who seem to perform well on a regular basis. Powell needs backing while he sorts out the miscreants.

Agree with backing Powell but he’s already said Widdop will be playing full back so potentially no place for Thewlis. Dean is on loan. Longstaff gets overlooked.
Thought Widdop was the best of the 3 last night but he’s rumoured to be leaving.