True but even if we were in the top 4 one thing you could guarantee is the difference between our best and worst performance would still be huge. There is just such a lack of consistency that so many coaches have had a go at changing, all have failed. However long you spend on a training field doesn't make up for proper nutritional and mental preparation. It is all I can see that hasn't been looked at.

Out of interest does anybody know who looks after diet and nutrition, is it just the strength and conditioning coach, Sean Rush, because if so its just to big a job for one man. Correct nutrition can have such a bearing on more than physical performance, without proper balanced diets at correct times things like mental fatigue plays a massive role. For example our two poorest performance this year have come on a Sunday, are diets and supplementation being monitored, or do we just eat the same way all week, which works better for Friday nights rather than Sunday's.

Sean Rush from what I understand has a history in football, has he any knowledge in the different preparation needed in RL, if FC bothered to fill in his bio on the website I would have more idea.

I could go on and on with questions I have regarding the preparation of the team, which all points to FC doing it on the cheap.

This one absolutely baffled me last week and Radford doesn't come out of it with any credit in my eyes when I try to figure out his reasoning.

Was Rankin dropped for poor form? There were other players that should have been ahead of him for the chop.
Did Radford feel Horne was the better option on Friday? If so then it was a tactical error on his part. Horne was poor. I'm not saying that Rankin would have done better but I don't think he would have done any worse.

Whatever Radford's reasons though it seems to be yet another bit of squad tinkering. Gentle was criticised last year for having different tactics every week instead of settled tactics. This is just as bad IMO.

All these things should have been started during pre season, its hard to believe that a squad of 30 have so few people looking after them physically and mentally, I cant imagine things changing half way through the season, unless a new coach comes in and as team of people he brings with him! Season over, can we start on the rumours thread now!

Easy to say after the match. Horne was as bad as everyone else - not what you might have expected, to be fair.

Exactly, they should start before pre-season where each player is given a diet and supplementation plan tailored to the needs of that player, that they have been following before they report back.

I wasn't really saying sack the coach and all this will improve. More asking why we aren't well staffed or experienced in this area, we are a professional sports club after all, if you don't look after your players then what do you have.

A further question I have never understood, as far as I am aware we never train at 20:00 the night before an evening game. The so called Captains run. I don't think we ever train on an evening under flood lights. Therefore in February and March when it is dark by 17:00 how stupid does it seem we haven't trained under those conditions.

We honestly portray the image of a SL club on a championship budget.

In The Dugout bar before the game, Rankin said he'd been carrying an ankle injury since the Huddersfield game and shrugged off his dropping by saying it would be good to have a week off to get the ankle right.
The way he was prowling the touchline spoke volumes to me. He was mighty d off to be dropped. Rightly so, when you look at Mr Experience Horne's display.

It is easy to say after the match but I was questioning dropping Rankin on here prior to the game as well. I'm not the coach though, Radford is and he needs to get these decisions right if he wants to succeed. Admittedly not even the best coach in the world will get it right all the time but right now Radford seems very hit and miss with his tactical selections.

So you didn't believe what he told you, but made up your own version afterwards.

So if Wigan deem it necessary to have a back room staff more than twice the size of FC's to look after 17 players that take the pitch against 17 of our players we should just think they that's Wigan we will be OK doing it our way.

Not being negative just asking questions, a team of young blokes made seasoned experienced professionals look slow, lacking in energy, lacking in motivation, lacking in skill and worse of all lacking in hunger to win on Friday. I know which coaching team I would want to train under.

For balance Wigan also had Mcilorum, Smith and Green as three of their four 'spine' players. Any or all of those players would walk into our first team with their eyes shut as each of them is way better than the equivalent incumbent in our team.

This talk of sports science is interesting and despite not really knowing the actual facts about staffing levels at Hull I think there is definitely some ground that we can make up there. What worries me far more is the physical difference between Wigan's young players and ours. I haven't been to U19s this season as I can't justify the travel required, however I did go to the Fev friendly where many of our youngsters figured. The difference in physicality and fitness between what I saw from our youngsters then and what I saw on Friday from Wigan can be measured in light years.

All I'm saying is establishing staffing levels using the club's website is unlikely to give you an accurate comparison.

The backroom staff on the website is correct.

rlrl

True those three are great players, I was thinking more about the energy and skill in general and the way they played rather than Wigan winning the game.

I agree the younger players are great examples of the way they have been coached and their attitude seems first class.

I understand that it could be an issue to do with some staff not being listed and FC might even prefer to bring in people as consultants that would obviously not be listed. But at least keep the staff info up to date. If the strength and conditioning coach is good at his job tell us about it. What qualifications has he got, who has he worked with, what are his specialties and how does he feel he can improve FC. He is new in his job after all. Professional pride would want your credentials visible, it just looks like we don't really care about the back room operations when it looks the way it does.