Could anyone tell me why he's playing at centre?

Charnley finishes tries well he wont get any ball with glue hands inside him

I'd love to see him prove me wrong but unfortunately I don't think that Goulding is our answer to centre either and I'm not sure what Shaun Wane has seen to suggest otherwise other than U20 performances from four or five years ago.

Don't get me wrong, his commitment and work ethic is fantastic. He can skoot all day and make yards whilst he's at it but his creativity, vision, hands and skill for the centre position is lacking.

Goulding reminds me very much of Jamie Foster at Saints but without the boot. Both were superb centre's in the reserve comp but don't have what it takes to be an established centre at senior level. Like Foster, Goulding is excellent finisher with a good centre inside him but you'll rarely see him making break nor sprinting ball in hand more than 40 yards.

For me, Goulding's Wigan future will only be on the wing.

I can...... thats where your coach selected him to play



That's an easy one.

I will give it until Castleford away before he gets replaced by Gelling i reckon. I think its wishful thinking by the coaching staff that Goulding will be good enough at centre imo.

He has to be allowed to be given a fair crack IMO, certain things didn't work out yesterday but I thought both our centres made some mistakes with decision making and the timing, but maybe that's just down to rustiness. He probably knows himself this is his big chance as he has got Gelling wanting to prove himself as well. As ABP said you can't fault his enthusiasm but sometimes you need more than that.

Thing is he's had a shot there before he's a winger simple he doesn't know how too pass a ball

At last!!! Somebody that agree's with me!

Never a centre in the memory of man, 3 times he blew overlaps yesterday, his decision making is extremely poor and im yet to see him beat a man. If he has got a future it is on the wing, thats if Roberts doesnt re produce his form before his injury.

But what other options do we have? Gelling is nowhere ready yet. If we could get a top class centre then I'd agree but there's very few lacking. For the time being we have nobody else to put there.

What about Powell?

I know it's not his position but got to be better than Goulding it might come off like i'm giving him stick but i just dont think he should be were he is and he wont get on the wing with Paaaat and Charnley there

Wane has been bigging him up all winter and Lockers tipped him as the one to watch on his blog so he must have impressed in training. Blew a couple of overlaps yesterday and a couple of poor decisions in defence too but he wasn't the worst player. He'll get 6-8 matches minimum to prove himself IMO.

We cant afford our centre to be blowing overlap chances when we have got one of our most explosive players outside him. Goulding shot out the line a couple of times and nearly got caught out too. I know its only one game and almost everybody was crap but he looked out of his depth.

TBH i dont think he is good enough i see no difference in him and dodgy hodgy

On which occasions did he blow overlaps? There never seemed to be any clear cut opportunities down the right side and very little space to work with. The same was happening but to a lesser extent on the left because the forwards weren't drawing any players in.
On several occasions Goulding was getting the ball out wide and Huddersfield had 4 men against him and Charnley. That shouldn't be happening for a professional team.
There was one obvious misread defensively, there was also a great tackle covering for a bad miss from Leuluai. He moved up for some of those long passes out wide but always to his own man which meant he still left Charnley one on one.

I expected a thread slagging off Goulding but our worst centre yesterday was Carmont. No player wasted the amount of opportunities he did.

I did have a tongue in cheek joke yesterday about how long he'd get before a thread on here & before he became scapegoat like Noble did so often...

Five him 5/10 games.
Get off the lads back. There were worse than him yesterday. George was pretty pap too...

What Irked me about Goulding yesterday was something he has very little control over. Why did we continually use him as a first choice crash option from our scrums? Its a role made for Gelling but yet we seem to be asking Daz to play that way?

I'm not Gouldings biggest fan and have often been critical of his decision making in the past.
However I don't think he was poor yesterday. George Carmont didn't get his timing right at all, Pat should have had three tries.

Do you mean Matty Russell?

Powell is a halfback.

The simple fact is that if Carmont or another classy CENTRE had been playing instead of Goulding, that ball at the end would have been flicked across and Charnley would have scored in the corner meaning a draw at least. Goulding was playing and didn't have the awareness or the skill to be part of scoring this try. I don't think Joel was a great centre but even he would have made that pass.

He's had almost 80 starts and about 100 games over 6 years in total, and never impressed at centre. His best season was 2010 - outside Gleeson on the wing. He's not a centre and never will be at the top level. He's a good, solid winger and that's where he should stay.

I've faith in Wane and I'm not that fussed about yesterday's game - I think we'll learn from it - but I can't understand his thinking with regards to Goulding (or Marsh for that matter). Neither offer anything at centre at this level. If Gelling isn't ready, give Charnley a shot (hasn't he played centre plenty of times for the Academys?). Charnley at least threatens to break tackles and has that 'x-factor' that has produced so many outstanding moments. Leave Goulding on the wing where he's proven his worth many times.

Too much of a gamble.

Goulding doesn't defend well enough to be played outside a rookie centre. It'd be carnage down that wing if they're switched over.

I know but he will get some time in the first team even if he isn't were he wants to be

I'd give either a shot tbh

Fair point, it would be a gamble, but remember Goulding played outside a rookie centre in Marsh for a period last year. That never worked for me because it offered nothing. I rate Charnley far higher than Marsh and reckon he offers more and could do a better job overall.

Ideally Gelling will be ready sooner rather than later.

Spot on CP. The overlaps came on the opposite flank. Goulding had a solid game.

The biggest problem was the lack of creativity from the halfbacks and our soft defence around the ruck.