If he wasn't going to play them he wouldn't have named the fringe players in the squad. I don't think any of the senior first team players will play.

I agree that there are too many changes really and freshness is not as big a thing as momentum in sport IMO. I think we could have brought 7 or 8 in and still have a very good chance of winning.

I disagree about the lls if we win it but nothing else its hardly a consolation and if we pick up one of the others (especially the superleague trophy) I don't think anybody will care if we don't have the lss to go with it.

I understand all of your comments and I appreciate your points of view.
I know my view is in the minority.
Unquestionably there are some reasonable points, but like I said, I think we can win this without impacting the future games with a half decent team (rather than a full 2nd tier team - no offence intended to the fringe players) and don't want to throw it.

Anyway, we'll see.
Let's hope it's a good match and the guys stand up to be counted.

There isn't even home advantage in the play-offs to worry about.

It’s now very awkward and no-win situation. for Salford as they will be expected to win. Massive incentive for the youngsters playing for Wire.

Fez I'm not so sure that you are in the minority on here as I'm in the half way house camp with CW8, a bit of a rerun of the team selection perhaps with different criteria of who's in/out when we had 8-9 out but played through due to Covid

I'm still looking forward to the game and hope that it's competitive and we can get some positive from it beyond a write off result and a rest well earned though it is for many.

The question it really raises is who do we consider is still in the running for top 4 given as others have said there's no advantage being 1st or 4th

I reckon we will approach it like the Kangaroos used to on their tours. Have our first choice teams for the weekend games with a "mid-week" team for this Salford game, the Leeds game on the Wednesday before Wembley and Huddersfield game on a Sunday after playing Friday night and before Saints the following Friday.

That way our "weekend" team plays once a week from now to the end of the season.

It's looking like 4 from Wire, Saints, Wigan, Leeds and Catalan. Saints no longer have the cup to contend with so I would expect them to make it easily. We have to play all of the other 4 contenders, so it's very much in our hands.

Looks like Wigan are adopting the same approach as us judging by their squad.

And we took two points against Catalans (who are a threat to our top 4 aspirations) with a very strong team. The Salford game isn't a four pointer (or what the equivalent phrase is now it's on percentages), hence we have the shadow squad named and we'll revert back to a very strong squad in the semi final. The strength of the squad in my opinion fits the importance of winning that particular fixture.

It looks like Price is looking beyond the semi final. If we manage to overturn salford (and that is far from a given) then it's Wigan, Leeds then Wigan or Leeds in the final and then Catalan again.
Like people have pointed out, better taking points off Wigan, Leeds, Saints and Catalan if we can. Pundits always point out that it is the game after the Easter weekend fixtures when the fatigue Set's in so in this case that would be equivalent to the Wigan game.

There will be the equivalent of back to back "Easter weekends" with midweek and weekend games to come
. You cannot play your strongest team game to game in these circumstances, without major fatigue issues setting in.

So where is the actual Salford squad listed? Can't find it anywhere.

[urlhttps://www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/preview/3366[/url

Ah thanks. I looked on the super league website couldn't find the right page.

I'm looking forward to this match, get to see the kids show what they can do,i'm surprised they are playing Lolohea, Yates, mossop and Ikahihifo, They won't be fresh for the Semi and they are some of their main components so that could play well for us

Sarginson 2 games for his high shot

https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... ed-devils/ This suggests Patton will captain the side and Ratchford will not feature, despite being in the 21 man squad. If Ratchford is not playing I'm assuming Davis, Clark and BMM will not play either. So does this suggest Ashton Thewlis Brand Roebuck Oakley Dean Patton Sita Walker Latu Robson Longstaff Johnson Shelford Wrench Doro Kibula I have a question mark as to whether Ashton will play, but with a fully fit Ratchford, Auston and Widdop, I still don't think he makes Price's first team.

https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... ed-devils/ This suggests Patton will captain the side and Ratchford will not feature, despite being in the 21 man squad. If Ratchford is not playing I'm assuming Davis, Clark and BMM will not play either. So does this suggest Ashton Thewlis Brand Roebuck Oakley Dean Patton Sita Walker Latu Robson Longstaff Johnson Shelford Wrench Doro Kibula I have a question mark as to whether Ashton will play, but with a fully fit Ratchford, Auston and Widdop, I still don't think he makes Price's first team.

Obviously the underhand 'tactic' would be for one of the fringe players from our team to subsequently test 'positive' for C-19, and Salford then having to have players "self isolating" on Saturday.....

Stranger things have happened in sport

Wire getting a 8 start with sky bet and Wigan a 24 start with saints

Wigan and Leeds will lose this week, which will soften the blow if we lose tomorrow.

If we can sneak a win tomorrow it'd be a huge help.

There's room for changes to the Salford 17 players named (and ours too), as the 21 man squad announcement rules now state:

"Finally, and in recognition of the impact of the current suspension of the season meaning there are likely to be some midweek fixtures, at least at Betfred Super League level, the newly-introduced rule punishing teams for making late changes to their 21-player matchday squads by the removal of an interchange will be suspended for the remainder of the 2020 season".

This has had the bookies scratching there heads, and very late declared odds on the game given by Sky. Salford -8 seems seems a rather generous handicap given the announced squads.

I think the chances of us winning this one can best be described as slim. But I am looking forward to the game to see how the youngsters perform. They have been training hard without the benefit of any matches for a long time, so they deserve a run out. It will be interesting to see who makes the most of their opportunity. And above all, I hope they keep the score down as it could easily decide who gets into the last four at the end of the regular rounds.

I don’t think Price can win on this selection. He picks a team of kids and people will ask why is he doing that and we need to win etc and he picks a full strength team and people will say the opposite that the cup is far more important and we should be resting players. It’s a tough one to call.

With you on this one. Almost a split between trepidation and excitements to see how the kids go.