Concentrate on your own shambles

The back end of the first half flattered us in truth. I think we had 4 penalties in a row at one stage which led to our first try. I’m not suggesting we got a leg up from the ref, just they lost all discipline. Without that, it could have been curtains in the first half.

Then, a bright spell while they were down to 12. But, as always, it’s the hope that kills you. We find a way to turn a convincing win into another ‘plucky’ loss.

I can't honestly see us wining another match. I think even Toulouse would even turn us over.

I wonder if we are already past the point of no return when it come to finishing in a very dangerous position. We have some tough games coming up & very little scope to pick up any wins . Never mind they will soon be touting 2023 season tickets.

Hiya mate, just on us then…..we’ve been going downhill from a CEO perspective for 5 years now (see other thread!). I think Powell coming in was a decent idea, he just seems to have come in like a bull in a China shop though and blown everything up completely. Too much too soon. He’ll see the season out, but he’ll be judged VERY early on in the 2023 season that’s for sure.

Next week is a wild card, which could favour us. Being at home isn’t easy at the moment, with the pressure and atmosphere. And being away, obviously the home team are excited to get us and kick us while we’re down.

But next week, we could fly under the radar a bit, I wouldn’t expect a huge crowd for the game before us, and even so, neither of them are “anti-Warrington”, so the crowd could be really sp and quiet, to let us get on with the job.

But, not confident of beating Catalan at all. Cas could be a tough away day, for obvious reasons, then it’s Hull KR (winnable) and Huddersfield (unlikely but not out of the question) before Wigan away. Tough couple of weeks coming up

Is anyone honestly surprised, the season was gone 7-8 matches ago, if we win happy days if we don't it's no surprise. Nothing we can do, we won't get relegated i honestly believe that. We're not good enough this year across the entire board, we'll be in Super league next year and i'll give Powell 6 games before i start calling for his head. But i am expecting a dramatic change next year for the better.
I'm a massive Powell suporter but i'm even having doubts now.

I was expecting a bit of bounce within the team with the new signings, but my heart sank when I saw the team sheet.

I read the reserves match report and it sounded like Nicholson, Dean and Longstaff had big games so to see the starting halves, plus Davis in the starting 13 was a very negative selection.

So you are not allowed on any other forum but your own?
It was a straight forward question and in no way meant as sarcasm.

Fair point.
We`ve had similar with Hetherington taking his eye off the ball and Sinfield coming in and giving contracts to some players who should not be at the club.
Powell sounds like Brian Clough when he came to LU trying to weed out players far too quickly.

I've not come away from a game so frustrated in a long time. Absolutely unforgivable to lose after being 24-8 in front. Our game management is terrible, giving away cheap penalties in crucial areas.
I'm backing Powell for now but he makes some strange decisions having players like Holmes and Currie who clearly are either not good enough or don't want to play for him. Surely Widdop and Dean would have been better in the halves.
I'm no expert on the technicalities of the game but when I watch Saints attack they have a man run at the gap between two defenders who both commit to tackling him. Half a second before he's tackled, he passes the ball to someone behind him running at speed. Same move x2 then the outside backs have a two against 1 and usually score. We just seem to make square passes to someone half a yard off 2 defenders. Occasionally there will be a fluke or a mistake resulting in a try. Not good enough.

I was ambivalent to the appointment of Powell, but I've seen precious little so far that encourages me to believe that he's the right man for the job.
Our owners must be seriously questioning how were proceeding in such a backwards direction, conceding 30+ points in four of our last five games.
Powell was supposedly going to improve the squad as both individuals and as a team, while recruiting a pack that we desperately need. However, I think that he's created more bad apples than he started with, by tinkering around with the team selection, especially in the backs. For me, I wanted to see Powell build for the future by forming a team around our rising talent, with the established first team players who want to pull their weight. A new era with a meritocracy doesn't appear to be part of Powell's agenda, when we have Holmes, Mat'utia and now Minikin that he brought with him all in the starting 13, two of which have shown little to give any feint impression they deserve a shirt, and a third who is maybe less questionable on merit, playing out of position. The main objectives may be getting some attention, but the changes have caused mass disruption to the organisation we had in defence, and were start pretty appalling with ball in hand.

I accepted that this year would be a write off, as long as there were going to be signs that it could be seen that we were on the right path and moving in the right direction. Were in July folks, and it isn't happening. Peet and Smith have had a positive effect on Wigan and Leeds, why aren't we saying the same of Powell. The answer could well be that bringing him in was a bigger problem than the ones we needed to fix.

The other problem is that Powell is not in the same class as Clough. Clough was a serial winner, Powell’s record speaks for itself.

Powell is a joke, and will not fix us. I think its gonna be a case of him taking the whole bike apart to fix the chain and then not knowing how to put it back together. The bike is well and truly in pieces now.

Previously, I'd gone along with the bad apples theory, albeit with a fair dollop of sceptecism.

After today, and given the revolving door that is the dressing room of late, I'm now convinced that Powell is so unpopular and that there is such a chasm between players and staff that the situation is rapidly becoming untenable.

I'm in the Powell camp atm get shut of the so called stars that don't want play for our club...the one gripe I have with Powell tho is play the young lads..Riley dean should be playing regularly so should longstaff..if we get beat so be it..were getting beat with this lot

It is easy to trot this line out when form is poor but there is a serious lack of trust between the players. It is evident in defence when we constantly fail to number up correctly with players picking up the wrong man because they dont trust the man on their inside to do the job.
It is also clear in attack when the bulk of the highlights were purely individual efforts with nobody else around ie
A) Clark's try
B) Ratchfords try
C) Bullocks break
D) Wardles break
Plus many other examples.
When the forwards carry the ball up there is no runner in support to take some of the defenders attention. When catalan or saints forwards take a carry then you have kassiano running alongside Dudson or Walmersley alongside knowles. With us were just over the moon when Cooper Carrie's 3 defenders on his back for 5 metres post contact.
Anybody know what happened to Davis? He came off in the first half but never seen again with D Clark staying on to play loose forward. Very strange because I didnt notice him injured
Salford didnt have bigger forwards or more skilful or faster players but they did play for each other and gave us a lesson again.

Agree. Give Thewlis, Wrench, Dean, Nicholson and Longstaff a place in the 17 for the rest of the season unless injured. I don’t see the point in playing Matt Davis etc. if they’re not going to be here next year. Still plenty of experience in the 17 even with those 5 included.

Who’s left? Those without Powell’s endorsement (signed or resigned) today were Widdop, Mulhearn, Clark, Cooper, Currie & Davis.

Clark was our best today, Cooper is gone but is still being picked, probably still out best prop. Widdop was lively again, not sure he could have prevented any of the points we shipped in. Still, he was rushed back at the expense of Dean. Mulhearn, Davis & Currie, not great but absolutely will not pick Longstaff no matter how well he plays in the reserves, J Clark is the forgotten man, remember Powell resigned him so he could displace and of those bad apples.

This excuse has ran it’s course. He’s had free reign to ship out players all year regardless of stature, and been backed to bring in his own men, 10 in total, 11 if you count Billy 6 weeks.

Could it be, that those “bad apples” are simply annoyed at seeing the club they’ve worked so hard for over the years being stripped down like a retired cruise liner and sold off for scrap on the whim of an under qualified and underachieving coach.

How was Wardle?

Obviously didn't have much to work with but made a nice break which resulted in a try in the second half. Probably too early to judge but I would say no worse than King which is of course damning with faint praise.

Missed a tackle very early on allowing them to make a break, and was stood on his heels when someone walked past him for their 2nd(I think) try.

Well a CEO signs the players and appoints the coaches.

Price and Powell (currently) have been disastrous appointments.

There were 2 seemingly carbon copy tries yesterday from.Salford, under our sticks, 1 out crash balls, and not even at the line crash balls, just walk through a gap kind of tries. We're not scoring those type of tries, under 8's rarely concede those types of tries yet we're making a habit of it.

This wasn't always off the back of broken play, these were drives that every team takes.

Powell may have a vision and a process he wants to build, but if his support staff aren't good enough he'll become a victim of any nepotism he may have taken part in. It's easier to tell people you hardly have a relationship with that they're expendable, different when it's the one's you've brought with you

From a neutral looking in (well as neutral as a wigan fan can be...... but i still want to see a strong Wire in SL) I'm stunned at how Powell has gone about his first year.

Surely the job of a head coach is to get the best of his players even if he hasn't signed them while transitioning and improving. No coach gets to pick his team from a clean sheet, and Warrington weren't that far off...........

Everyone could see you were far too light up front this year - and Powell signed a number of players but did nothing to fix the most glaring issue,

He's not just cracked a few eggs to make an omelette he's killed all the chickens in the coup.

It makes Millwards tenure as a Wigan coach look almost passable - and he inherited a far worse performing squad than Powell did.

I find it amazing so many are still supporting him.