Or some use the extra pivot at 9!

Really good teams have them at 6,7,9,13 and 1..but depends who you have in a team

and FC could have all of those, so long as Gentle is more open minded than some on here.

By who? (Not a dig, genuinely haven't seen it mentioned)

Do you not feel that would be too many pivots? If the best teams in the world have pivots at 1,6,7 and 9 surely it's a working method?

it was, apparently, the position he put on the questionnaire from Gentle

Ah ok. I thought he meant it had been mentioned on the official website or in a HDM article.

don't think so

as for the question about too many pivots, it would be nice to have options next season, we've had too few in the past.

We have had pivotal players just not played them in the correct positions imo

apparently mentioned by Gentle at the forum (think Wilf said it in the diary)

that is what happens when "percentage rugby" is the mantra

Yes. I think the problem has not been too few pivots on the pitch, they just haven't been good enough.

In 2010 we had Tansey, Horne, Long, Berrigan as our pivots. Tansey was very erratic, Horne and Long were very injury prone and Berrigan was moved around to compensate for that but never lived up to the billing. This led to Whiting playing full back at times and Washbrook covering the halves (I know).

In 2011 we had Phelps, Horne, Long and Houghton with Westerman providing a good option on the edges. Phelps wasn't that creative (IMO), Horne isn't that creative (IMO), Long was usually injured and was replaced by Obst who isn't that creative (IMO).

In 2012 we have McKinnon, Horne, Seymour and Heremeia/Houghton with Westerman on the edge. From what I've seen the 3 incoming pivots are all creative players so let's hope for better.

That's right. Hence my use of the word 'recently', and not 'last season'.

The 3 coming in maybe well be good pivots however Houghton is not that creative imo (good solid hooker, with a good work-rate), so when Houghton is on the pitch we will only potentially only have 2 pivots on, as I agree with you that Horne is not that creative, hence the argument for Westy to take the 13 as an extra pivotal position. Though if Ellis gets the gig we will indeed have more pivots on the pitch.

it could be argued that we don't know if Houghton is creative, if we're saying people have a clean slate then it applies to him, I think he is capable of more than he was allowed to display in recent seasons.