If you go through our squad, how many players would you say have the X factor ? What i mean by this is how many of our squad would concern the opposition enough to be labelled as possible match winners ?

At the present time i can only come up with one player and that is Martin Gleeson who wouldn`t look out of place at any level, Micky Higham at his best is a deffinate match winner but we need to see more of him in a Warrington shirt to form a better opinion on his all round game and consistency.

Lee Briers isn`t the force he once was and this will probably be his last season, Adrian Morley gives nothing less than 101% but i`m sure even he will agree that his better days are behind him now and i wouldn`t say that he is the enforcer he once was, Paul Rauhihi is close to retirement and isn`t the force he once was for the Cowboys and the Kiwis.

Ben Westood plays with his heart on his sleeve and again you won`t get anything less than 100% from him but i wouldn`t say he has the X factor about him, when you talk of 2nd rowers with the X factor then you are talking about the likes of Anthony Watmough and Gordon Tallis at his peak.

Chris Hicks is a consistent performer but again he isn`t a Darren Albert of any kind or a Martin Offiah, Hicks is one of those players that won`t let you down but he is never going to do a Scott Donald and be a threat from anywhere in his own half, whats the furthest range he has run in a try from as i can`t remember more than about 20 yards ?

Stuart Reardon`s performances and appearances speak for themselves, Paul Johnson is another where his best days are probably behind him and suffers from regular niggling injuries. Paul Wood is a player that has always promised to deliver but to me he has never taken the next step and again he is another that suffers from injuries.

The 2 Andersons are both inconsistent and one is a penalty machine, both have suffered from injuries especially Vinnie and his best form hasn`t been seen for a long while. Simon Grix is another that suffers from niggling injuries. Jon Clarke has always been Mr average where most of what he does is slow and predictable, his effort isn`t in question but to me the level of his ability is.

I`ll be diplomatic and describe Matt King and Michael Monaghan as non settlers where were carrying 2 passengers virtually every week.

I havn`t commented on all the players but if you go through our squad its no suprise to me why we are struggling on the pitch as a team and thats on top of the rumoured off field issues.

Tony Smith has certainly got a job on his hands in sorting out the culture of the club along with building the team into one that has more than one dangerous strike player, he will need at least 3 yars in my opinion to sort this mess out and build his own team.

Kevin Penny obv. Yes, I am a fan btw. See try against Saints in CC last year.

great try too

lucky to get beat but thats wire 4 you , we have got loads of match winners but they aint performing atm , hopefully it will start this sunday

One of Wires greatest problems over the past few years is the acquisition (through large of sums of money) of these supposed 'X-Factor' players. Rather than building/buying players that would form a co-cohesive TEAM.

A lot of coaches started to target our left so i wouldn`t say Kevin Penny worried the opposition, i`d say they saw him as a weakness more than anything along with Matt King.

Not many kickers would target Darren Albert or Martin Offiah as they knew that would be a big risk to give such potent attacking forces time and space to run into, its the opposite with Penny as kickers target him.

Kevin Penny, the most dangerous weapon in SL.

Said before that Penny wasn't the major factor in leaking tries - I blame all inside him, most notably Briers (for disappearing when needed) & Louis (for flying out of the line) leaving King and Penny totally stiffed.

Very true, just unfortunately plays for a team that don't appreciate that fact. I've said before, if we released him tomorrow you can guarantee that he would end up at Saints or Leeds. Don't even try to argue that fact, cos saints sniffed around him when he first burst onto the scene. One reason why we tied him up to a long contract very quickly.

That's True

When he had a centre that passed he was fine and give him a centre that tackles as well he would be fine, interesting to note that over the past few weeks I have seen Ainscough, Hall and Briscoe all make a few errors yet they escape mass criticism, that's probably due their fans getting behind them and having a coaching team willing to work with them.

There always has to be a replacement for Wainwright.

i'd describe matt king as an x-rated gesture player.

Gleeson.

Since we've moved into the new stadium we haven't signed players with X factor other than Gleeson and Johns.

Don't confuse big names with being X factor players, Reardon, Johnson, Rauhihi, the Andersons are not players who can break a game, neither really are King or Monaghan, even if they'd played up to their reputations at former clubs.

By X factor player you need someone like Leon Pryce, or Jason Robinson. Warrington have had all too few of these. Jonathan Davies had it, Iestyn Harris had it, Allan Langer, Nigel Vagana. We had other players who had X factor at first but then lost it (Henare, Toa, Appo).

Ainscoughs made some Shocking errors but Eddie And Stevo love wigan youngsters dont they (not in a gay way btw) thats why he's escaped criticism

Does he get criticism from the Wigan fans? That's probably the main difference.

This is the point i`m making, if people look at our starting line up for most games then Martin Gleeson is the only player that would really worry an opposition coach where that coach would try and take extra measures to contain the threat of that player.

After that we only really have Micky Higham but we don`t know enough about him yet to judge his consistency, your spot on with your comment about so called big name players and comparing them to players that genuinley have the X factor.

To me our present backline is awful, i would only keep Martin Gleeson out of the current backline and possibly Hicks at a push but he is getting on now and he certainly isn`t an X factor player.

Would you have Michael Shenton Rob?

Without any shadow of a doubt, i think he`s the best english left centre we currently have in this country and he wouldn`t command NRL type money.

You could even off set a transfer fee for Shenton and he would still probably command less money than King over the same period, He`s a very good prospect and your talking of a centre here that can beat players, King couldn`t beat an egg.

He'd be good with Penny as well, another poster gave me the idea but these are the players we should be targeting, young british players.

Durr...me sorry me not clever like you...

The point I am making is Wires bought players that showed hints of this elusive' X-factor' at previous clubs (and yes I DO include King and Monas in this), in the hope it would continue.

By the by, I despise the term 'X-factor'. It's lazy media speak.

This post imo is spot on, and looking at it like that i would say throughout the whole of super league, that there are only a handfull of these players at best. Maguire, Pryce, Gleeson, Barrett was for wigan last year and scott Donald is a definate game break player for me.

These are players imo who can be a matchwinner in the blink of an eye or just take a game by the scruff of the neck, i would also include Sinfield in this too.

So maybe a fairer question considering the lack of x factor players across the league would of been.
Out of all of our squad, how many of our players do you think last years top 4 would gladly have in their teams . i reckon the answer would of been a fair few more than just Gleeson.

I'd say our problem is we buy players but we don't build a team. Well we do build a team just an underperforming one. We have built one around Briers for the last couple of years and now his playing years are over we need to start thinking of building another team, nearly from scratch. Tony Smith needs to say to players that if they aint gonna put 110% into every game then there's the door.

I like Tony Smith - OT I know and I think he has got the X-Factor when it comes to dealing with our lot.

What teams in SL have these 'X-Factor' players though ? Hull KR's backline isn't full of danger, they are going well. Wakefield don't have speed to burn neither, Catalans had Raguin & Croker in the centres last year and finished third.

X-Factor isn't the be all & end all, gameplan is far more effective.

In 2005 when we probably were as exciting as we've been for a long, long time we had a backline of Grose, Fa'afilli, Gleeson, Toa, Bridge/Barnett which wasn't an 'on paper' exciting backline.

There's just not many of these players around, the Jamie Lyons of this world, and if you get one your lucky, and the cost you, alot.

I think if you were looking for an exciting backline in SL, that you could realistically get, given the odd transfer fee, slice of luck, contract renewal etc, I'd be happy with

Greenshields, Fox, Lee Smith, Shenton, Penny, Bridge, Dobson