To be fair to Radford, he's not alone in this.

I was interested in hearing the Carvell interview stating that players mentality from the last training session to the game.

Why doesnt Pearson employ a Sports Psychologist? - we change players, change the Head Coach - but the symptoms are still the same.

We just go round in circles, we have a clearout of players - but performance wise -nothing changes.

I haven't heard the interview. What did he say exactly?

Maybe looking at how Leeds Saints and Wigan ran their clubs might help in finding that formula instead of this local pride claptrap?.

Basically, what are the differences between his stay at Wire, than Hull, he was asked ,
Why he thought, the performances against lesser teams dropped?
his own opinion, was that from the last training session to the game, the mentality of the squad, went awol.

Don't think that is just his opinion! Ha ha. I agree that they should be hiring a sports psychologist but I'm all for them doing anything that they can to improve things.

More worryingly, there are no cap restrictions on employing coaching staff, but Pearson won't/can't
utilise this to our advantage.

This is a point I don't understand. All the top clubs spend to the cap, so additional benefit can be found on what you spend on coaching staff, equipment and sports science. Just makes no sense for FC to be so light in this department.

The only reasons I can think is Radford has made the call as he feels he wants control over these areas, very misguided if true. Or Pearson isn't being genuine about investment in the club, its very easy to spend to the full cap, all the top clubs do so you can't hide from this fact and it allows you to say look we spend what Leeds and Wigan do. Where you cut costs is having 5 back room staff instead of 15 and hope the fans don't notice.

Didn't Pearson visit Wigan last season to see how there systems worked ?

Yes he did, said he wanted to address Sports Science at Hull FC, but AFAIK -he hasnt.

I've just watched a video, regarding Wigan's Sports Science Dept. There is no wonder, they are streets ahead of us. This is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhcgJSHUOu0#t=305

I've just watched a video, regarding Wigan's Sports Science Dept. There is no wonder, they are streets ahead of us. This is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhcgJSHUOu0#t=305

The galling thing is Dave - Pearson knows about Sports Science.

Finding little to disagree with through the whole thread , but I'm not sure what the answer is.

On Friday we missed tackles, left gaps you could drive a bus through, had little clue with the ball in hand and capitulated. AGAIN. Yet only a few weeks previously we played the 2013 league leaders off the park. It's either rocks (more) or diamonds (less) and the blame for that lies equally (IMO) with the players and the coach.

The players are either not bothered, unable to understand or play to the game plan (or unwilling to), or just not good enough. There is little or no off the cuff play as we don't have that kind of flair player now. For all that he's playing well and is currently the heartbeat of the team, Westy is pretty much playing as a battering ram, spinning into the tackle and looking for an offload or a break. Its becoming as predictable as Tickle's drop off back into the ruck last year and beyond. Miller moves across the line looking for a runner and most of the backs seem to be having a cig behind the posts. We get good go forward from the forwards (often playing one out rugby again), but rarely struggle to get up in the tackle, letting the defence dictate. In defence we still wait for the attack to come at us instead of getting in their faces. Teams like Saints and Leeds will have a field day with so much space. Its been like that for as long as I can remember too. My personal view is that Miller and Rankin are the short term future for us, but they are inconsistent and only played inconsistently (has anyone yet confirmed that Rankin was injured on Friday?). Only Ellis really seems to be on Miller's wavelength when he has the ball and we all know why that is.

We've also gone back to the "heads down when we go behind" mentality and there doesn't appear to be a leader on the field reading the riot act or geeing them up when it does happen. It is so frustrating to see - one try can quickly become 2 or 3 because the response is all wrong.

The coach hasn't proved that he was the right person for the job yet either. His preseason was baffling. His chopping and changing of the side has meant a lack of consistency in our starting side and I wonder if this is good for the players. I'm still struggling to understand why the coach that got us to the cup final was unceremoniously dumped like he was (in 2008 we didn't even get to the playoffs yet Agar stayed). Yes I'm a Gentle fan, but accept he's gone and we have to deal with what we have. So, why do the players not respond to the coach's game plan? What has happened to the "bawling out/arm around the shoulder" approach to players? Is it actually doing anything? Ben Crooks seemed to benefit from this approach when he was sent to Donny, but went backwards on Friday. Another trip down the M18? And why so soon?

I seriously think a sports psychologist is at least part of the answer to our issues. Leeds were always the bridesmaids, consistently good but always falling at the final hurdle. In comes the psychologist and bingo, more grand finals than you can shake a stick at. Consistently good became consistently successful. A team to fear in terms of potential performances. We need help to become consistently good and then who knows...

On Friday we had the wings so compressed in that Wigan were running outside us all night. It was like the Agar days again. Why? Have we learnt nothing? I presume we're training the house down again , although I guess that leaves nothing left for game day.

I really am at a loss to explain how we can play so badly when we have the players we have. It appears the coach doesn't know either. I walked out on Friday with 10 minutes left as the effort simply wasn't there on the field. Shipping players out isn't easy mid season, and sacking the coach isn't the answer yet, so where do we go from here? Apart from another drubbing by the enemy (trailed by numerous press articles about how much the derby means and we know the fans want it too, blah blah blah) ?

Answers on the back of a season pass.

I don't know what the answer is to these but agree that if it is the Radford scenario that it is misguided. With AP I'd be inclined to say that it was also a misguided thing rather than anything misleading. He has invested in the club and improved facilities. Maybe he feels that is enough or was advised by someone that there is no need for a large backroom staff. I don't think it's a case of him hoping that the fans don't notice. If that was the case would the club go to the bother of listing the coaching staff on the website?

The funny thing is that we probably wouldn't be having this discussion if things were going better than they are at the moment. But we're all feeling low about how the season is going so far and we're looking for answers on how things could improve. And we're starting to look beyond just questioning the players attitudes and their abilities or the quality of our coach.