Tonights performance

Quote: Jukesays "Not comapring like for like are we though Dave? IMO last year we had a better Option on the Right Wing than Ainscough in Amos Roberts, Yes he did have a few defensive problems but absolutely nowhere near as many as Ainscouhg. As for attacking ability then unless you compare how many tries on the Right Wing Ainscough scored to Roberts on the Right Wing then it's a waste of time!

As for Phelps, have we got a better option, and being quite serious here, if we have then let's play him there. But not if it weakens other areas of the team!
If MM thinks that Richards is a better FB for the team & Brings Ainscough onto the Left wing then fair enough.
But he hasn't has he? So I suggest he thinks Richards is a better left winger, Roberts a better right winger and Phelps as the Best option we have at Full back?
Do you agree it must be MM's thinking or not? Or is he just doing that to spite you?

Roberts is Far Superior defensively than Ainscough, if you can't see that then fair enough. I agree Ainscoughs defensive problems were blown out of proportion but just remember it was the fans that did that Not Nobby!
As for Piggy, He had a pretty good 1st 30, but was poor in the last 20 when he came back on!
His contribution in the 2 x pre season games at Wakey/Wire meant he was the right person to start the game on Friday, do you not agree? Sorry, only category 1's may have an opinion on that!
Dave, your obiously far better than me at this quoting lark as last time I tried it took me Half an our! But here goes!

You were drawing paralels between the Phelps situation & The Ainscough situation of last year, I was pointing out there is 1 subtle difference.
Last Year Noble thought that Phelps/Richards/Roberts was a better option than Ainscough ousting any 1 of those 3. At least for now, so does Maguire. Where does that show that I am ignoring the "Positives outweigh the negatives" Argument when it suits?
So in short last year we had a better option than Ainscough, this year I was asking do we have a better option than Phelps, if we do then fair enough, lets change it.
Thats not me being hypocritical, that is me not comparing Apples & Oranges so to speak. You comparing the 2 situations is the problem because the 2 x situations aren't the same.
As far as I am concerned that means that unless we have a better option at Fullback for this year then for me Phelps plays, do You agree?
That also applies to every position in the team as every player has strengths & weaknesses & his selection will be based on the Merits of those & if we have anyone better to replace them.

As for Ainscough last year & This I agree with, that his positives outweigh his negatives, Never have disagreed with that,unfortunately for Him The coach of last year & the coach of this year thinks that Roberts/Richards/Phelps combination is better. If Ainscough were to play next week or at anytime over the next season I would be over the moon for the lad and I don't think it would affect us that much. It's just that ATM Certain people think Roberts (And I'm saying his name only this time cos I know what your trying to get at) is a better player.
That does not mean that They, I or anyone else thinks Ainscough is rubbish etc it's just that they feel He isn't the best option at this time.

As for saying that Roberts Looks like a different player this year, that's an opinion that I'm sure a few will have. However, I don't totally share that opinion as as far as I'm concerned Roberts was a better player last year also. Again I'm not saying Ainscough is no good etc etc but Obviously Noble felt the same. I take on board what yu say about different wings but FACTS show that our left wing pairing got far more ttries between them than our right wing for the past God Knows! Was that a failg of Noble's coaching? Probably, but we will never know if Ainscough would have scored 1/2 as many if any at all playing on the right or if Amos would have got double what Ainscough or Rivhards did.

Dave, you say "What the Hell am I on about now". 1st thing's 1st, there were a couple of people involved in the Phelps conversation at this time and maybe my response would have been better served up to them. Their view on the subject is that Phelps shouldn't be playing at all for us at FB this year, I was only pointing out that MM must have had some input into the resigning of Phelps as he was also advising us as early as last May on what props Not to sign!
My opinion is that he's better for theam than any other optiobn we have at the moment and until we have another option or unless MM thnks he can get us a better option then I think we stick with him.
I do agree that if we can get a better value £for£ FB from someshere then we should, but I also think there are other cogs in the Wheel that may need sorting first and not all can be changed at once.

I totally agree with your comments about finding 1 or 2 Marquee Named superstars and I do think we can get them, I just think that until The Fielden Salary stops to weigh us down we need to make sure we do the best for "The Squad".
My only slight argument is that when you quote Mo doing what he did he did it without the salary cap hanging over his head & when it did he didn't make the best job of it.
Also at the time he did pay out more to the likes of Gregory/Lydon/Goodway etc but then once we became the Top club he didn't need to entice players as much because they were clamouring to play for us as we were the Top Team.
IL doesn't have the benefit of either of these 2 x option ATM.

As for Piggy, my point Dave is that no matter what the situation, you can't resist bringing Piggy and/or Amos into the argument.

I thought he was OK 1st 30 (We were 20-0 up and looking good) and I thought we actually looked less organised when Tommy went to 9 (We won the next 30 12-6). Now I am not saying that the individual is responsible for the overall scoring patterns but I threw some stats up for Higham about 2 years ago when it looked like he wasnt staying. It showed that when Millard started we were in an arm wrsetle or in front 95% of the time after the 1st 20/25 minutes. When Higham started we were very often blown away in the 1st 20 and 95% of our good hidings we got in 2006/2007 were when Higham Started. Higham as an impact "Off the Bench" Hooker, fair enough, I don't think theres too many better (Maybe 2 or 3 IMO) but as astarting 9, I'm afraid not for me.
That is why I felt that we had to get a better starting 9, I think Piggy is that. Maybe he hasn't been all I thought he could be yet but he is certainly an improvement IMO. Now again, that is my opinion, I don't think it's that much of a crime especially when many others have that same opinion.

Now finally on the point were you think my comment about Roberts defence is "far superior" and you saying it "is IMO ridiculous".

Your entitled to that opinion, but I don't think it is Ridiculous. I'm just stating that I think Roberts is a Very Good All round Winger that reads the defensive side of the game "Very Well". If you think otherwise then fair enough. But if Ainscough is again so much better in attack but not much worse than Roberts in defence then why do Wigan coaches continue to pick Roberts?
That again just for clarification, does not mean that I think Ainscough is poor defensively, I just think that Roberts is Far better.

Quick question, Why do you think Maguire picks Roberts over Ainscough? & Who would you pick?

I am concious that words written down can often come across in a very different way than if they were being spoken so again Dave, I'm not looking for any kind of argument here, just stating my opinion that with the current squad, Phelps/Richards/Roberts is the best option we have.
And Unless you have the best 13 x players ine ach position then there will always somewhere you can improve by replacing them with someone else next year. I'm not so sure that doing too many of these changes in a short term period is the best option for this club under the restrictions the recruitment has to be done under.

Sat 2nd Nov

MINT2024

England M

Samoa M

WINT2024

ENGLAND W

WALES W

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