But then look at Atkins. His try scoring is exceptional for a centre. Only Keith Senior has more tries as a centre in the last twenty years.

But then Atkins can’t pass so either never passes even when he should or throws it behind Russell or into touch through abysmal technique and decision making. If anyone else had played the last four years outside Atkins would they have faired much better?

Russell can break a tackle and get away from the defence. He does it every week. He did it at a hugely crucial time in the game on Friday.

I can’t find stats from last year for some reason but in 2016 he made 81 tackle busts and made 1979 metres.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t think he’s a great player. I don’t think any of our outside backs (maybe bar Goodwin) are great specialists for their position and could all be replaced with far greater quality quite easily. But the amount of stick Russel gets is unwarranted and is just one of those lazy, easy scapegoat, situations.

I think Ratchford is too quiet and doesn’t organise the defence enough, he isn’t a good defender, he’s poor at bringing the ball off the line and is lazy and makes silly mistakes. I think Atkins is sometimes brain dead, and he can’t pass. I think Lineham is positionalky questionable in defence and attack and is also sometimes brain dead making stupid mistakes. None of the three are specialists of the position they play in our team. Two are out of position (Ratchford and Atkins) for me and Lineham has only played the game a short amount of time. They are all as good or bad at their positions as Russell (who isn’t a winger by trade neither) is for me, whether they are all better all round players is another matter.

For me I’d have Ratchford at centre or loose and have a proper specialist full back brought in. I’d have Atkins in the back row as he’s a good defender and a good runner of the ball and replaced at centre by Ratchford or a specialist. Then you could replace our two wingers with most wingers in the league who had played there since U10s rather than a few years.

I also think we’ve nearly got as many holes in the pack. I have no idea how Westwood is still here, I think he’d struggle to get into Championship teams. Ratchford or Atkins should have his place in the back row. Our props are slow and don’t have blistering power, we hardly ever see any tackle busts from our props.

The whole squad is lacking quality and specialism and certain qualities. I’d argue only Currie and Clark would get into any team and the whole rest of the squad is fairly average (I’ll wait a little while before seeing how good Goodwin and Roberts are, they may well be two others).

There’s a reason why we’ve had two poor seasons in the last three (one good one being when all the decent sides had injuries or lost the plot). It’s not because we have great players all over the pitch. It’s because our long term building of the squad, recruitment, selling or ending contracts, since the superstar team of 2010-2013 left, has been haphazard at best, poor in reality.

Lineham Riley have done much better he is only outside atkins this year so what's his excuse for previous seasons?

Atkins is not Russels problem, Russel is limited to say the least, IMO we need a new winger to replace him and I would play anyone we have in reserve over him to see if they are worth keeping. We need as much b cap space as possible next off season.

Well if Russell keeps his place another week, it's one he'll of a game for him to prove himself in.
In at the deep end vs Pies.

He won't prove himself though, wouldn't be surprised if they rip us apart down his wing again. I know people think there is more to come from him but I am definitely not in that camp. His inclusions have left me scratching my head since the start of last season.

The real question should be, is there a better winger in the squad. If there is thenplay him... however the fact that he is being selected by a new head coach with a new assistant would suggest there isn't. Selecting a player knowing he is more limited than Russell would be pointless.

I really doubt that steve Price knows the answer to that question and won't until he feels that he has given Russell a fair crack and then explored other options. Playing Matty Russell every week won't tell him about whether potential other options would be worse/ better and I really don't think it will see Matty Russell improve either.

But what he might see in training is that the alternatives have even more fundamental flaws and that Russell is as good as it gets in this squad.

That's just speculation though, you can't say that is definitely the case or what Steve Price actually feels and besides so what if someone doesn't shine in training? In reality its game day that counts and he is responsible to change the team if he thinks the match day 17 needs to be/ can be improved. To be fair I doubt Steve Price is closed minded enough to write everyone but Russell off based on what he has seen in training for the short time he has had the squad together. He has said before he knows what he is getting from Mitch Brown, he almost certainly can't say the same about Russell and so is possibly giving him a fair chance.

I think we should consider that with hours of video analysis, training practices etc. that the coaches involved with Wire i.e. Price, Henderson, Briers, Smith & Agar will (would have been) be well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each player. I think one or two on our forum show a complete lack of understanding of how coaching and selection works. In addition some are just very repetitive and exceptionally critical considering that it is a forum designed for fans of the game and in particular the Wire.

Blind faith in the coaching setup is dangerous. Also, your theory would mean that no coach ever fails, due to extensive research undertaken. So care to explain why we ended up in the middle 8's last year?

Is this not a conversation by fans about wire player(s)??

I think one or two on this forum show lack of understanding of how online forums work.

Of course I'm speculating, as I have no idea what goes on in training. I HOPE that our coaches know what they are doing and that if there is a viable alternative they would use it.
As for"blind faith" the idea that a player exists in our squad who is an improvement on Russell but the Coach refuses to play for unknown reasons...

Feels like this board hasn't moved on from last season.

Just to illustrate the speculation point.

What id give to see Russell replaced by Tom Johnstone .... Now there's a proper winger!

It isn't at all.

I want my winger to be a good finisher and score lots of tries rather than make a lot of metres. Nobody doubts he's a good metre maker but I want more from my wingers. We have lads in the forwards who can make good yards.

He's nowhere near good enough to be starting on the wing for us.

I said this a few months ago before the season started and was shot down as he was just coming back from an ACL.

Well, class is permanent and that's what Johnstone is. Ben Currie looked ok on Friday after coming back from his ACL.

SL tries scored 2014-2017 for our main wingers and centres.

Joel 28 17 x x
Penny 1 12 13 x
Atkins 14 11 17 10
Ormsby 12 11 x x
Lineham x x 14 16
Russell 3 4 9 6
Evans 16 1 6 4
Bridge 11 x x x

The stats are a little harsher on Russell as he played FB in a few of those seasons, but I agree with LTS and others - his try scoring, which is what I personally want in a winger, lets him down.

Even the unfit, not d, out of favor, dropped by the end of the year, 2016 Lineham showed exactly what a "proper winger" can do.

With the exception of Joel, Atkins, Bridge and Lineham our 3/4s over time have mediocre. No wonder we drooled when we got Hiku for a bit.

Who do you think had more than a helping hand in Joel and Hicks tries? It want all Briers.

Go on..

We seem to have been particularly bad scoring tries on the right hand side since we lost Briers. I have not got any stats but I would guess that with all clubs (in recent years) more tries are scored on the left wing than on the right and that this might be more evident if we look at tries which rely on handling as opposed to kicks.
If you think about Castleford with Solomona & Eden (on the left) this backs up my thoughts.
At the present time if Solomona or Eden played on our right wing they might just find try scoring a bit more difficult.

Morley Deckchair can tell you who.

Most of Lineham’s appearances have been on the right wing and he’s scored plenty. Not connecting the two facts or having a pop at Russell but our attack hasn’t focussed on the left as far as I remember. For whatever reason he hasn’t scored as many tries. If he has a nightmare against Wigan I’d like to see something else tried, and if that’s not M Brown then maybe we should try Hughes at right centre (he’s been one of our better performers this season) with Atkins on the wing. Hughes can pass and as was seen with the disallowed try at Widnes he has the pace for it... credit where it’s due he’s turned himself around this season.