Hard job to follow a great coach like Madge.

Its gonna be a tough task as madge took a bunch of talented but under achieving players and turned them into a formidable side.

Where does Wane go from here with what is, imo, a weaker squad.

Once your at the top the only way is down! Investment keeps you at the top and can we honestly say we've got stronger after losing Coley, Joel, Gleeson and Hoffman?

I cant believe the over reaction on here, as well as the other Wigan forum, following Sundays defeat. There seems to be quite a lot of anti Shaun Wane bile from some, for whatever reason, and I simply cant believe that people can react like this after just one game. It seems that certain posters on here would rather Wane fail than to succeed just so they can say I told you so.

There were quite a few games last season where we were as bad, and some in which we were worse, than we were on Sunday. Some people seem to be making out that everything was perfect week in, week out under Maguire and things were far from that. At times last season we were awful. People seem to be attacking Wane for any little thing that they can think of and much of it is simply unfair with people throwing wild accustaions and just presuming and guessing much of what they are writing. Wane can only do so much and once the players step onto the field it is up to them. Wane didnt have an awful kicking game, Wane didnt miss easy tackles, Wane didnt keep losing the ball, Wane wasnt a forward that was dominated by a weakened pack. The players did this.

Did Wane underestimate the opposition? No. Have we played any less friendlys this season compared to other years? No. Have we played less friendlys than other teams? Again no. Was our kicking game any worse than previous years? No. Unless I am mistaken Bitcon is also our conditioner so why is Wane getting all the blame for what they see as a lack of fitness? Do you really give Bitcon that little credit and think that Wane has just totally changed the conditioning without Bitcon's say so? We have played one game of what is a very long season and we will get better. No team should be looking to peak in week 1 and I am sure we will build and get better as the season goes on.

His comment after the game says that he did why else would he say 'i didn't see that coming'?

2 We have brought in more new players than other seasons and we have a new coach i think playing a full strength team in all 4 would be the smart choice

I presumed he meant that he didnt see such a poor performance coming. I really cant believe that people think he meant that he didnt see a good performance from Huddersfield coming or similarly some other demeaning comment towards Huddersfield.



When have we ever played 4 friendlies with a full strength team? Never. What does a full strength team battering Leigh really achieve? Absolutely nothing. If we played a full strength team in 4 friendlies then I would guarantee that the moment the team looked tired in the season then the same people that are blaming him now would be saying it is his fault that the team are tired because of playing so many meaningless friendly matches. Also I dont see how it is really wise to play the likes of Carmont in 4 friendlys when his body isnt going to hold up for a full season as it is. The spine of the team is the same and most of the players that have come in are squad players who arent even in the first choice 13 so they wouldnt have been playing anyway if we went with a full strength team.

Famous,
You are correct, when Wane said that he didn't see it coming he was referring to Wigans performance, not Huddersfields. He said that Wigan had trained really well in the week leading up to the game. The amount of lost ball and poor last tackle options were the killer, but to be fair the warm up games at Wigan, Salford and Leigh did follow a similar pattern.

One thing I hope doesn't become diluted under Wane is the mentality of togetherness. That IMO was one of the great strengths of the Maguire regime, it was never all about him or his tactics or any individual performances. There was always a big emphasis on winning as a team or losing as a team.

I still fancy us to turn it on against Leeds and most of this will be forgotten next week. I hope

No, it is down to Wigan fans wanting to see the best and expecting it given that they've currently got the Challenge Cup in their cabinet and only recently had to hand over the Championship. It's nothing to do with Shaun Wane 'talking big'. What crap that actually is. What do you expect him to do, talk us down? How would you feel if he told a reporter that he didn't think we had much chance of winning anything this season?

At the end of the day, colourful language like yours was all over the Saints board at the start of last season re. Simmons. "He doesn't talk like a coach. He doesn't even look like a coach. Let's face it, he ain't a f*****g coach!" And yet now I doubt they'd swap him for anyone.

People don't have the right to question Wane after one game, regardless of what you think. First games are notoriously difficult to call. If we're still seeing the same crap in a few weeks time, then it may be a different matter.

But

Just O/T does anyone know the last Wigan coach to lose his first competitive game in charge?

Early days, Saturday will be interesting.

And even more fascinating, would it actually mean anything ... apart from giving those who have already decided that Wane is not the man a great soundbite?

John Monie lost his first two, and he was cr@p wasn't he!!!

Exactly (and during that year as well). I think this is very true and given we have Farrell out for a game and Carmont out injured my thoughts on the squad (to get back to the title of this thread) is it is simply not good enough. I'd be astonished if we beat Leeds on Saturday.

I feel sorry for Wane because of this poor recruitment although Lauaki is supposed to be a player he wanted isn't he?

That said he has not IMO helped himself with a mishandled pre-season and a poor team selection whereby we end up with Lockers at stand off. That should only be happening if we have loads of injuries/suspensions not as par for the course as TL moved to 9 and Micky Mac goes off.

The signings in 2005 and 2006 couldn't be less like the signings we've made for this year.

Expensive, over the hill imports compared to young players with potential.

Thats not to say that I don't agree that our recruitment hasn't been good and the squad isn't up to the standard we would want but the recruitment strategy is completely different.

What the hell are you going on about colourful language like mine? Where have i used colourful language?