Over the top for me, we need him simply for the shirt. We are a little thin on the ground and him retiring now would be a massive upset for us.

I feel for Fielden, he never seemed the same since Mason copped him one, I haven't seen him shake a fist since. I think he places a lot of responsibility on his own head really, thinking he's got to lead the pack because of the money he is on or because he is one of the senier props.

Not time to refire but maybe a change of clubs would suit all parties.

It's hard to know where to start with Fielden tbh.

His form for Wigan at the moment is ok i suppose by anyones standards but by his own it's pathetic. He looks uninterested and not up for the fight yet still makes enough metres to keep him in that second group of superleague prop forwards like Leuluai, Griffin, Fozzard, Coley etc(the likes of Peacock, Morley,Graham being the top group).

That though isn't good enough for the money we're paying out but theres nothing we can do about it until he's off contract at the end of next season.

The worrying thing for me about Fielden is that since Hocks suspension the rest of the side has upped their games and intensity whereas Fieldens has dropped off

The forwards had a team huddle in the warm up before the Leeds game and he didn't get involved, he just stood at the back on his own. Thats not a good sign.

A year/period out of the game might do him well tbh
Let him assess what he wants to do and if he wants another shot he's got time on his side. Bulk up, let niggles recover, he only looks half the mass he was at bradford.
I feel sorry for the bloke and thats from a Wire fan.

I don't think he will bulk up though which is a problem.

I remember at the end of his first half season with us he did an interview on the Wigan website after he'd pulled out of GB duty to have an operation. He said Noble had told him to have it, have a good rest and to put his feet up and eat some junk food but Fielden said he respected his body to much to do that and wouldn't waste all the work he'd put in over the years.

I got the feeling he's a fitness fanatic who does everything by the book and wouldn't let himself put a couple of stone on.

Adding some bulk would really help his game imo.

Rogues Gallery you seem obsessed with the SL stats site. You are also very selective about the stats you highlight and who you compare.



For his supposed defensive quality why does Fielden miss 41 tackles which is more than any other Wigan prop, 11 more than Coley. More important than pure statistics is whether or not a player dominates the ball carrier and 'hurts' him. Fielden does not hurt opposition players with his tackling. It would be intersting to see how many times Fielden is the main tackler as opposed to be second or third tackler in which highlights the folly or relying on statistics.

We then look at attack where Fielden is the weakest Wigan prop with no clean breaks and very few offloads. The tackle bust stat is a ludicrous stat.

Fans know what they see.

Anybody can select stats to suit their agenda Rogues Gallery.

I decided to compare like for like. Two experienced highly paid prop forwards. Whose stats are better.

rlhttp://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player.php?hs1

It is a shame there is not a RL Top Trumps set

One telling stat that is very true is the Carries stat. The main one I noticed is his comparison to Feka in Rogues post.

It says on from the same number of games (21) that Feka has only made 3 less than Fielden.

Now when we all know Fielden is on the pitch far longer than Feka that is an embarrasing stat. Forget how many metres are made with these carries for this point but the fact Fielden is hardly making more drives with his additional time on the pitch is a sign he isnt putting the effort in in attack, even if he isnt making good metres in those drives he should atleast be taking the ball up and doing some of the work while on the pitch.

From that stat he looks to me to be hiding from the attacking work. Something no prop should do.

Very well observed. Look at Fieldens carries v Jamie Peacocks or Adrian Morley

I wouldn't say he hides from attacking work, there seems to be a reluctance from our dummy halfs and half backs to give him the ball at certain times

as i've mentioned earlier in the thread, if anyone has the game on sky+ or recorded, watch it back and in the second half on 6-7 occasions he was available for a carry and they passed the ball past him to someone else

It is obvious that Fielden is not the player he was. That's for sure. But the key question is: WHY?

Most - including myself - have cited burnout, but whilst it's an easy label to apply, the evidence supporting that disorder seems less than perfect. Which means whatever treatment is most effective for it can never be an absolute panacea. Psychological burnout seems akin to something along the lines of depression. And that cannot be fixed - only treated.

That leaves injury. Given the expert level of medical care available to professional sportsmen and the now considerable length of time Fielden has been underperforming it is unlikely he'll suddenly spring back into being the Fielden of old. I remember Paul Groves going from the being the best hooker in the league to one of the least effective and staying there because of a long term debilitating back injury.

If Fielden has a smashed back (something like what ended young Mark Welsby's career at Wigan), or a troublesome groin (Hanley) or a painful Achilles that's pretty much it as far as his career goes. Current medical technology simply hasn't reached the point where those problems can be rectified.

I think they count people not tackling him and by that I mean when he bumps off would be tacklers, which he does a lot.

That's true when you watch him he bumps off the first tackler nearly every time but instead of continuing forward he just turns 90 degrees and runs laterally, hardly making any meters at all.

Although it's not ideal, it does make the defenders work twice as hard.