He did but even then I was on here calling for him to go because I could see straight through him and see he was utterly useless. His game plan all along has been ‘give it to Hastings/French see if they can do something’. We’ve never had clear structure or an organised attack it’s been a total mess from the start. He should never have been kept here for so long

Agreed, I’ve been thinking it all year.

Bevan French’s unbelievable form in 2020 was the reason for our success.

i posted something very similar on warriors fans in a discussion as to whether SW would get more our of the current squad than AL

one of my points was that when SW brought kids in they knew the structure of the plays, so at times it looked seamless, yes it wasnt perfect, but it worked. Can anyone tell me what our current attacking structure is, and thus it is surely more difficult for them to be brought into the side, when it is clear that we dont have an attacking structure. We relied so heavily on JH / BF last year to pull some individual moments of magic to get us where we got to and it looks like AL doesnt have a clue what to do about it

Exactly this. I just hope his injury isn’t his Amos Roberts’ injury moment

The first couple of months under Lam in 2019 were alarming and I kept telling myself ‘give it 6 months’ to see if I could work out what the game plan was, what we were trying to do in attack but it never came. I’d have pulled the plug after 6 months. The worst thing that happened to us was we started to scrape together a run of extremely close victories. It was boring, it was all just effort based and we got absolutely found out in the play offs (in fact we were embarrassed). He should’ve gone at the end of 2019.

Agree

This 100%.

Nearly every big game we played in 2019 we didn't turn up, culminating in the pitiful play-off performances at the end. The alarm bells were ringing then but having messed up the Edwards situation the club had no plan B.

The game down in London was for me where the alarm bells started,something about the way the team played and it’s selection raised a couple of issues,hard to put into words what it was but from that day the team selection got odder,his fabled attacking rugby didn’t arrive.

He should have gone by now

Lam's highlight was probably a 8 -12 week run towards the end of last year. It wasn't however anything major - more just the team playing close to what they are capable of. People talk about us being a pen kick from winning a GF, well I'd argue that's where a team with Faz, ZH, Hastings, French, Gildart etc should be.

That run masked the other 95% of performances that we saw under Lam. That carried into this season and he should have gone after the Catalan game imo. We'd already capitulated again in the cup and all signs pointed towards us going back to type.

We could instead have been sat here with McDermott as coach & a new prop to lead the charge. Personally, I'm confident that we'd have all been a lot happier. There's one person to blame for that not happening and it isn't Lam.

The Wigan job is pressurised enough without heaping extras on yourself. He came in and promised a couple of things that have not even come close to coming off-

1-keeping the good parts Shaun Wane had brought but improving on it.

And

2-For us to play this attacking brand of rugby that would put burns on seats.

Expectations are high enough here already without giving people the rope to hang you with. Any coach would be happy to achieve half of what Waney did here and whilst you don’t expect them to admit that, you don’t start shouting your mouth off. I always remember an interview when Hastings first came where he said Lam could talk under water with a mouthful of marbles. I’d say less chat and more hard work is needed if he wants to be a success anywhere.

Without a shadow of a doubt.

Add in not playing players in their correct positions too. Absolutely criminal that he played Tommy when he was busted, but kept Hastings at FB rather than play Hanley.

His handling of fringe players too. Clarke plays and scores, but gets dropped. O'Neill by the sounds of it, he got dropped for having a bad spell in one game. I wish Lam was as ruthless with Clubb.

I think his time as head coach has just been an odd one and one that we'll all be happy to forget about.

Field at fullback on Wednesday was another strange one looking at how we played. If you have a plan to use him in a role from fullback where he’s coming in to the line and getting involved as an extra pivot than great but it just looked like we’d thrown him there and said ‘do what you want’ and forgot to practice in the week. I’ve never seen a fullback as uninvolved as he was or one look as lost. It may also be in my mind but I watched Hardaker in the warm up and obviously the game and he looked like there would be a hundred places he’d rather have been.

The best rugby we've played under Lam was on the handful of occasions he was forced to start with Sammut at half back, not interested in all that "he isn't Wigan standard" rubbish, he complemented Williams brilliantly and if someone could do the maths I'd bet good money we were averaging 30 pts a game with him starting.
I'd kill for numbers like that now

I have to admit, I was excited when I saw our backline on Weds. We had three HB's on the field, plus our strongest centre pairing of the year. That backline also had two former MOS players too.

With Field, I was expecting him popping up out the back for 'the move'. He's a HB by trade & has pace etc, so you'd expect him to be running that type of game. Like you said tho, it never happened. A lot of times he wasn't in position to get it out the back, or work the ball.

Part of me however, won't lay all the blame on Lam for that. We've got enough experienced guys in that side to change it on the fly. Field, whilst being inexperienced, is also best mates with our HB. He should have been getting into those spots and demanding the ball more too.

It's just poor all around

Took Cas apart until he went off injured.