Not being picky here, but he was dropped, and so was Clarke (only came back in when Powell dropped out).
Notnthat I think he should play, because I am constantly underwhelmed by his attitude and contribution
I'm going to also slightly disagree with jonh because I haven't seen an upturn in form, just the same old same old.

2 sides to the issue

I don't think either are inspired by our coach, and bullock certainly has from his perspective gripes about game time/promises about how and when game time will be given

On the other hand, I watched the young lads warm up on the sideline at Waley and in layman's terms Bullock looked like he could be d. And I also know he has had issue with time keeping etc, certainly in his early days at Wigan so I guess he is that kind of laid back style player.


Clarke, I know less about, but again he must ne frustrated at the apparent stance of pick anyone other than him. He played early season after being ignored for 4/5 games, did absolutely fine and was dropped next 3/4 games and sent on loan.
Came back in against wakey and did fine (lack of fitness an issue? Not surprising with no game time) and did ok imo, next 2 games dropped
Played ok against hudds and got a try, and was going to be dropped against Hudds in return match.

Clark did not do OK against Wakefield - he was on the field for 15 minutes and dropped the ball 3 times. How do you pick him in the next game after that? He came in again against Huddersfield through necessity and has made a decent impact so now deserves to stay in.

Well - Having been at the game I can say I saw him drop it once which was his 3rd/4th drive in and he dropped it trying to PTB
SL Stats site says he made 2 - So I may have missed one, but I didn't "make one up"
I think your being generous saying he played 15mins - I think it was more like 11/12

Now if he did then fine, not going to argue - But if that's the only thing your going to pick out from the whole post that's up to you.

He was 100% dropped against Hudds (a) until a late recall, and so was Bullock
So if he deserved to stay in after his performance at home, given we were missing a host of players and he dropped Bullock, Why wasn't he picked originally (Cue well he played and how do I know he wasn't - I can't prove it, but I know I'm right)

Anyway - as long as dropping them both gets BFUT/10Min Tony/Sin Bin a game then I suppose that's ok

In terms of Clark's errors against Wakefield, I watched on Our League and he clearly knocked on a third time in addition to the two that were given by the ref (it was an embarrassing miss by the officials actually) - I'm sure others who watched it would corroborate. Would have been difficult to pick up at the ground.

The official line was that Bullock didn't play because of Covid symptoms but maybe you know differently. Would I have picked Clubb over Clark? Probably not considering Clark had done well the previous week but not convinced it would make much difference to our overall performance.

Strange if it was Covid symptoms that he wasn't isolating? My son and girlfriend who live with us have it (She had symptoms, Tuesday and got results back Wednesday Positive so son did same even though no symptoms) - Everyone in our house is isolating and missed the game away Thursday even though I had tickets and all the remainder of us tested negative.

Anyway - I know I'm right (Same source that told me 2 days before Wakey away game that Gildart wasn't playing - So I know Lam was talking BS when he said he was a late withdrawal).
And I know Clark wasn't playing until Powell dropped out

And the strange thing is, it may sound like I'm defending both of them etc. - I'm not
Bullock, completely underwhelmed by the lack of Fight in him, He's gone, so what (Wish I knew how to put that GIF up of Alan Partridge not getting another series).
Clark - Meh - Again not really that fussed, average (ish) but in some ways if he's not getting time, despite being promised time by our coach then were not going to see the best of him (If there is one)
Bullock has said numerous times (Ok I'm hearing it 2nd hand) that he was told he was going to come on at "X" and get 15mins then return at "Y" and get another 15mins - Only then to sit on his backside until the 65th minute and get 10mins
And not just once, numerous times

Do I think Bullock needs to do more, train harder, fight harder etc. - Yes
Do I think Lam needs to learn how to manage players t get the best out of them more - Yes

Same for Clark
Same for lots of our players

As for Clubb over Clark, or over Bullock, or anyone else for that matter - Well if averaging 4 carries a game for 40mtrs, averaging 20mins a game (If were lucky) and 15 tackles of which 80% are 3rd man in Belly flops tickles Lam's fancy then fine

I made my mind up a long time ago and nothing I've seen about the performances, style of play, player development etc. makes me think I was wrong.
Team selection in certain areas, tings I hear about behind the scenes doesn't give ma nay confidence
Lam is an average coach, and average developer of systems/processes that bring players through etc.
I really do think there is 20% more in most of our players that he can't get out of them one way or the other.

Is it just me, or did anyone else read that in a Jamaican accent?

Sure Bullock would have got tested and if negative then he's OK to continue. But no reason to doubt what you say about him being dropped because ultimately Lam doesn't trust him (or Clark) - you can see that in the game time that he gives him. And people can say what they like about Lam but I can completely understand where he's coming from. Clark unreliable with errors and poor discipline and Bullock has a tendency to frankly be a bit soft in both attack and defence (remember Satae running straight through him in the QF after being on the pitch for all of 5 minutes?).

I split the difference on Bullock between him and Lam. There’s no doubt in my mind that Lam should’ve got more out of him, like he should’ve done with almost every single player in the squad but Bullock just looks so laid back and non fussed about pushing himself. There’s always been these rumours about poor time keeping and unprofessionalism and a part of me thinks ‘Wane would’ve got more from him’ but the over riding feeling is Wane probably would’ve bombed him out of the club before now.

I doubt we’ll really know if he’s got it in him to be as good as his natural attributes warrant until a good few months in to his Wire career. He’ll have a good start I’d imagine but we’ll then see if he’s got the desire to keep it going.

Bateman should have been dropped after game one as he knocked on 3 or 4 times in that game and gave away numerous penalties also

Is anyone saying Bateman did OK that day?

no, but was anyone saying he should be dropped like they are with Clark?

Slightly goingnoff topic here

Someone says he made 3 errors, I say it was 2
According to stats hes only made 1 other error i think in the other 4/5 games hes played and interestingly only given 1 penty away in the whole of thise 5 games so hardly a penalty/error machine he was quoted as being.
He was always going to take time to get up to speed, whether he is up to it now is debatable, whether his best his good enough is debate.
What my point was, was that Lams use of him and others, his lack of ability to get the best out of them and his selection policies that have under used certain players and over used others is very much in question imo.

Interesting that this week Lam his singing his praises and saying he's always fought for the shirt etc.
Has he said anything like that about Bullock?

His Lam talking Bullocks (pun intended)

I'm not a Lam fan, haven't been from about week 3 when he blamed every man and his dog for defeats, senior professionals, Wane etc.
I've not, or I don't think I have, overly criticised him (maybe 4/5 comments in nearly 3 years prior to this thread i would guess) but ita his job to get the best out of the players, and to make the sum of the parts equal or not better than the individual parts.

For me he has failed on every one of those metrics.

Up until our mini run to the GF last year (which i still think there's a few benefits he/we took advantage of that haven't really been spoke about. Robin Park and excellent training/covid compliance structures that other clubs didn't have) i consistantly used this argument.

Wed played approx 50 games under Lam, and played well about 6/7 times

Not good enough

This year we've played what? 15/16 games?
Can anyone really say we've played well in any of them, we've been ok in a couple.

But were bang average
And when people blame the players or the squad etc I ask them this, where did you predict us finishing this year? Answer usually top 2.
So we have the equipment in most peoples eyes, they just haven't delivered, and that's the coach for me primarily
I also question whether the back room stuff, the youth development etc is being looked after under Lam like it was under Wane and Maguire, I sincerely doubt it.

It’s looking like the forwards are sorted for next year now, I imagine we’ll have something like this

Mago
Powell
Havard
Farrell
Bateman
Ellis

Partington
Singleton
Smithies
Clark/Byrne

I’d like to see O’Neil given a permanent spot from the bench as a 20-30 minute boomer to begin with but I can’t see Powell being dislodged as a 80 minute hooker

Singleton 9 carries for 62m 14 tackles.

Clubb 8 for 67m 20 tackles

Partington 7 for 54m 25 tackles

Havard 17 for 114m 24 tackles

Clark 7 for 58m 16 tackles

Shorrocks 8 for 50m 30 tackles

I expect Mago will be utilised off the bench generally and I expect Clark to leave given our position with the quota.

It’s certainly a much better proposition with Mago and Ellis added to the mix and some of the deadweight lost.

Still pretty average. Each prop should be in double figures for carries. It’s a significant improvement for Clubb. 3 carries for 12 metres (something like that) earlier on in the season?

Christ. I’m almost praising sub standard here. Shows how little we expect from our props.

It’s unlikely you’ll get all your middle forwards going above ten carrries in fairness. In total they carried the ball 56 times between them. I looked at Saints last two games, considering we’d probably class their middle forwards as the benchmark and in their last game they carried the ball 43 times between them and in the game before that it was 58 times.

That was a pretty solid effort as a collective last night IMO.

Not sure where people get the individual stats from but could you let me know so can have a look at last nights drives and meters from our middles please.

The superleague site mate. Go to the results section and click on last nights game and if you scroll to the bottom of the match report, they’re all there.

Singleton had probably his best game in a Wigan shirt looking at last night. He made 36 tackles, carried the ball 16 times and made 135 metres. That’s a standard you’d love to see him keep up.

If you go on the super league page go to results then to bottom of page it gives home team stats and click on away team for Wigan.
Our forwards did ok last night Singleton and Havard was very good if Singleton can play to that level consistently it eases any concerns once we add in Mago and Ellis. Byrne did well apart from the cheap penalty.
Bourough should have had 20mins at end of the game for me he scooted for more yards in 2 mins of possession than we normally get all game, I'm not saying it's all I want to see but the threat ties in the marker defense closer to the ruck and offers us easy yards and maybe the odd penalty.

Snap!

The lack of minutes for Bourouh sums up Lams mentality for me. It’s all about us being solid, no thrills, no risks and defensively sound. We were chasing a game and left a fresh, attacking hooker sat on the bench until giving him a token few minutes once the game was up.

I’ve never come across a bloke as contradictory as Lam is. He talks about attack and wanting to thrill people but is so defensive and refuses to pick anyone who won’t play like a robot

Thanks.

Singleton put in a cracking shift and somewhat ironic Havard had a quieter night.

Rest of the middles provided the standard lack of go forward. I wouldn’t mind so much if they were generating quick play the balls.

Powell 21 is a big issue 11m. Whilst it’s not his job it highlights how 1 dimensional he has become.

add to that his slow and inaccurate passing and its a massive issue, not as much as just resigning him

Compare his stats to Clarke and Dwyer he is miles behind Powell is the problem at Wigan's attack too slow .Clarke and Dwyer playing at hooker look around them to see whats what Powell just passes the ball to whoever is on his left the defense then smother that player .