Top tacklebuster in the competition so far with 31 in 7 games (having been 3rd in SL last year) and my favourite FC player (apart from Yeaman whom I love in a more Chico way). Good to see him coming off the bench IMO but how can we get the maximum out of him?

We get the maximum out of him by ensuring the game plan is to keep plugging away down the left, and give Manu as much ball as possible so he can offload in the tackle and then with three to four opposition defenders tied up, exploit the gaps . Cas had no answer for this last night and yet for some inexplicable reason we kept trying to penetrate down the right or through the middle, which just did not work.

Great stats from Manu who is by far my favourite FC player

.....

you sure

Yep....I get the pleasure of looking at his bonny face every day

To be honest, when we throw it to Manu our attack slows down as he fights with 4 men to gain 1 metre for about a minute. Not used correctly at all.

He needs to get the ball quicker and while the defence is moving sideways . Get him running at those gaps and give him some support . The best example of this was in Perpignan a couple of seasons ago where he hit the gap at pace ,Drew 2 defenders and then slipped a great ball to Tommy lee to score a superb try.

The problem is he has been our only real threat in the last few seasons so teams always have him wrapped up immediately

Correct, he had his worst game of the season against Cas I thought.

Cas knew what to do and had him wrapped up at every opportunity

Exactly, they dealt with him very well indeed, Danny Orr in particular. We still need to use him better than we are doing, we have Tickle playing well right now and it would be good to see Manu hit a rich vein of form. Not that he's been playing poorly; like the team, we just need him to be a little more consistent.

Yep they did a number on him which meant he had no impact on the game.

They did and knew that we wouldn't have a plan B and be able to utilise the space created elsewhere.

He never got into the game on Friday, Cas certainly did their homework on him. We need to get the ball to him quicker he's without doubt one of our best players and on his day can rip teams apart, he's still not consistent enough though for me.

I've been saying for a few seasons now that we need to hit Manu when he's running at speed into gaps rather than giving him it stood still with 3 men to beat. The real positive he brings is as a dummy runner/diversion giving Yeaman more space.

We do need to start to use Manu far better but this for me comes down to our poor ball skills and giving the ball early. Matthew Head was the last FC halve who gave Manu good early ball in space. Not difficult either.

Totally agree, the guy is unstoppable when he gets the ball running at speed...I remember our first try at Saints in the fog last year when Long hit him at speed and he barged over....I thought this was a sign of the service Manu was going to recieve.

I hope he's happy at FC as better teams will undoubtedly be interested in him, especially if we fail to make the playoffs this year. At least he sings Old Faithful so that's a good sign