Quote: BigTime "I was working on the assumption neither Butterworth or Rogers would play for us in the cup. Jones I suspect might be with us for the season one way or another. For those two we swap in Davis and Stock with perhaps Davies and Hughes on the bench. I think Butler needs and perhaps Lovell too, a rest, both important players and it’s pretty obvious we have kissed off the cup so that would bring in Williams and ? Perhaps one of the young kids.Then there is Boafo I think he could add something. Perhaps best to give Kershaw a rest as he’s also an important player for us. Basically our squad’s too small- which we all knew before season started. Not at all clear what our aim is. We need to improve our home form or bleed support and to do that we need new players. I can see why they weren’t keen to do it but losing by 40 every week will negatively impact on any fixing up we’ve done with respect to our off field activities and we’ll never get out of the Championship and I agree with others that being inSL is a draw for occasional supporters where the Championship seems to eb of no interest at all.'"
Couldn’t agree more. I heard that Lovell apparently has a 10% ACL tear and apparently Butler didn’t train all week due to the back injury he picked up making that try saving tackle against Wigan, not to mention he’s also had is knee heavily strapped for however many weeks now, no idea what he’s done there.
On the whole, I think we will improve when players are back, it’s just a shame that I think it will be too late by then. We seem too soft defensively on the left especially, don’t run the ball in and play with the intensity required at this level (highlighted massively on Sunday when compared to Warrington)and I don’t feel like we are getting the best out of our better players due the lack of quality else where. Take Butler for example, we know he can be good, he was brilliant for us in 2019, made England knights squad etc etc, but we don’t get the best out of him because he’s having to make up defensively for others and constantly playing when he could do with a week off because we are so thin. He’s in almost every bloody tackle when he’s on the pitch, and then when it comes to go forward, he’s too bloody knackered to do what we need from a middle of his size. Compare his tackle count to the likes of Paul Vaughan and he’s making over double the tackles Vaughan is almost every week…. We get back Bienik, Waine, Sid, etc and I think we will start to come good and get the best out of our better players, But it’ll be round 15 + by then and the season could well be over for us at that point. I do genuinely believe we have a good squad, good enough to be competitive in this league, but just that quality is not deep enough and a couple of injuries ruin us.
One thing I can’t fault is effort. I genuinely believe those lads give it 100% every week.
