Pretty depressing isn’t it and when you see links with guys like Field who Lam has spoke of knowing all about, making you think he’s recommended him and will be here next year, it all becomes that bit more depressing.

I see absolutely no signs that Lam knows how to turn this round.

It was predicted that the weather would be as it turned out. Lam should have known that a good long kicking game was essential. TL doesn't have one, Hastings has one as does Smith. He would also know that our great asset of speed would count for nothing if we didn't go wide and quickly. He should also have known that in those conditions he should have started with older and more experienced props than a 20 year old and a 19 year old. Bullock and Flower could have been selected in those conditions. They have played in them many times before and know exactly what's required. Lam didn't take into account the conditions and change his squad selection accordingly. Hence we were beaten very convincingly by a team who did note the conditions and played them extremely well.

If he means what he says by improving then he has to change his starting front row for Friday. Hill and Cooper are excellent props who can make ground and land on their front. They are capable of making large metres and have to be stopped. Wire will have a good kicking game, they usually have. We need one just as good if not better. Instead of having one main kicker go for two to confuse their attack and Powell kicking from dh. Salford had a game plan, ok it just worked in the last five minutes but that's what mattered. Our coaching staff have to have a very good game plan from minute one.

If Lam is serious about recovering then this is just as hard a test as they come. Wire are coming off a semi defeat as we are so who reacts to that adversity will be interesting to see.

Another big game, another defeat. Chokers-r-us.

It's always sack the Coach when we lose, but never sack the real people who are to blame for the decline over the past 2/3 seasons.

Perhaps, why Wane who was 100% Wigan threw in the towel!

It ultimately is the coach who is to blame ! He picks the team and does the gameplan . Cant be blaming anyone but the coach and players for effort

Exactly.

I doubt there's a coach in the world who, given the chance, wouldn't hesitate to strengthen his squad.

Of course there's a debate to be had about the makeup of the squad - is it balanced right, do we have the right kind of players to help others do what they need etc.

That being said it's a coaches job to get the most out of his players and get them playing consistently. A measure of a good coach is the difference between a teams worst and best performances imo. Teams will always have bad and good weeks, but there shouldn't be drastic differences between the two. If the team are capable of a Catalan/Hull level performance then that's around the level we should come to expect most weeks.

If we then get beat by a better side, fair enough. That's when you point to recruitment, but until we're seeing consistency the blame is pointed mostly at Lam imo.

Is it?you a weather man? It was a lovely day yesterday and although it might not seem like it we average more dry days then wet days in October and November.
Saturday was garbage and hard to take but to write the season off is a bit drastic to me, we bounced back well from the mauling to Hull KR and I think we could again. I’m not predicting we will win the grand final but stranger things have happened and to just give up on it seems daft to me and I have no doubt that they won’t be doing that.

One of the recurring questions in one of my group chats is; what's our gameplan? No one has any idea, including the players as far as I can see. My best guess as to the answer is to try and score about 24 points, then switch off and try to hang on for the rest of the match.

He asked the team after the match if we're "just a semi final team?" Well, we were reigning champions when he took over.

So frustrating as I thought we looked smooth as silk in the first half against Hull. The opposition was very weak and we were gifted countless opportunities but we still looked impressive.

Attitude may have played a part but as I said on the day those conditions are like kryptonite for Wigan. Take away a fast ruck and the threat of French and the other outside backs and we're in trouble, particularly with a pack lacking in size and experience.

Put simply as; if French doesn’t play well, we don’t play well. Our over reliance on one player is embarrassing for a club of our stature and recent history. How far we’ve fallen is scandalous.

We are not in with a chance of winning a GF.

I don’t believe we were before the semi and I don’t now.

You need forwards who can grind it out in the wet to min a GF. We have a pack who can play fast rugby on good tracks but it is nowhere near capable of grinding down a strong opposition pack on a heavy pitch in Autumn conditions.

There’s no guarantees it will hose it down during the play offs or the Grand Final in fairness and the pitches tend to be heavy in early season, not at the back end of the season but ultimately it matters little. I don’t think we’re good enough under Lam to win on dry nights, wet nights, bowling greens, bogs or whatever else may be thrown at us. We tactically do not look like we have a clue what we’re trying to achieve and the conditions on Saturday only magnified that. We got a couple of good results against Catalans and Hull but those teams are flaky at the best of times.

We’ve got to make the top four first and I don’t think that’s a given at all.

Look at the tries we scored in the 2010 Grand Final. That certainly wasn't 5 drives and a kick stuff. I think we're physically capable of beating anyone in the league on our day bar maybe Saints. Even in those conditions, if we had our best playkicker on the field and weren't down to two subs early (one of which being a halfback) we would have stood a better chance. We were also facing a team playing a pretty flawless game, which won't usually happen.

The bigger concern for me is that we aren't finding a way to peak for these big knockout games the way we did under Maguire and to a lesser extent Wane. I don't know if that's psychological, physical or tactical, and I bloody hope Lam is just saying he doesn't know to the media.

I firmly believe he doesn’t know. One thing we had under Wane was honesty in every interview, perhaps ironically too honest. There’s not a chance Wane stands there at the end of a mullering and say “I don’t know what went wrong”. There’s not a chance any coach worth his/her salt says that.

This very much feels like our ‘Cunningham’ moment where we have to be brutal and do what’s best for the club and forget about personal allegiances. Adrian Lam IMO will always be a club legend as a player but will easily be forgotten about as coach.