Quote ="Jose Mourinho"JK said Catalans at home was the worst perofrmance of the season - Salford wasnt much better !! I was very keen to go the Salford game especially as Moore and Hickey were playing there first matches (more on them to follow) and as i usually stand behind the dugout at home games was gonna get a good look behind the stands on how where playing ...
The warm up look good - the players were keen and tapping each other on there backs - the drills looked ok and the fitness and preperation does not seem to be a problem for me . There has been some ideas that the players aint lasting the 80 minutes but would disagree even after watching the match - i think the conditioning by the club is better than some other clubs in the league ... That said Hickey looks like he could do to lose at least a stone ... He was carrying a belly into the game and lasted 13 minutes of the first half absolutely shattered then 23 minutes or so of the second half ... I know it his first game but disapointed in how it looks like he has gone about his own personal fitness in the off season ...
So into the game - didnt start too bad at all and manage to get the ball wide to Lee who was at the right side of his man to go past him in the tackle and score . It was after this the alarm bells started ringing . We were leaking tries in down our right hand side but it wasnt always a case of an overlap but just the fact they seemed to crash over the line and a little puzzled to how this is happening - there talking isnt great or there not pushing up and sliding correctly ?? Any how JK had no choice but to swap Johnson and Dean over to the left hand side and by moving Murphy did a much better job in defence . All this said, the defence still wasnt that bad BUT the attack was a total mystery !!
For the first 65 minutes of the match we literally played 5 drives down the middle then a ''punt'' in the air !! Just could not work this out especially as we had Moore in the side . Moore did ok with the lack of service he got on the ball . He played more second receiver than at dummy half so as we deployed our attck down the middle (if you can call it that) then he was starved of the ball ... He looks like he has good kicking game and posibly a creator if given chance . So the question is why were we deploying these tactics ?? Why play Moore if where not gonna use him ?? I understand the club has come back from the brink and that where lucky to have a team but that said, the tactics are very puzzling ?? One up rugby is very predictable and the defence adjusts accordingly - the salford defence was literally spread accross 30 metres or so of the pitch as they knew what was coming . JK youve done a good job but we need to show more in attack - we have the players to show a much better attacking game then where showing ...
The other negatives at the mo would simply be set completion - i expect this was very poor against Salford and we could gain no momentum or pressure . That said, it did not effect the tactics in the game - it simply was wrong . If we contiunue with this one up rugby we could be in for a real hiding over the next few weeks ...'"
well said. great summarisation of the game. not bagging any players and not slagging anyone off. said it as you'd seen it. incidently thats how i saw it. need to give the lads a bit of freedom and let them play. we know they can when allowed. good post mate.
