NickyKiss wrote:
Watching Saints on Saturday was like watching Saints every single week. Tough to break down, they make you work hard around the middle to defend against them but there is a lack of ball movement and general attacking threat. Big games are mainly won via your defence though, so they're every chance of winning silverware. If they cannot improve that attack (and it's been like this for well over 12 months) the challenge for Wellens will be keeping the players excited about defending their way to wins every week. It's a long season to try and do it over 27 league games, cup games and play off games, especially as the pitches dry out and it becomes harder to keep teams out.
They again give another example of why I said after the Derby that I do not see things changing too much from Saints. What you see is what you get but it's still extremely tough to beat. One big learning Wigan can take from it is that you have to get in to Walmsley as soon as he takes possession of the call. Catalans did a fantastic job on him and he then looks clumsy, rather than the rampaging nuisance he was against us.
They certainly did - although it's arguably a bit easier with Lees missing and Mata'utia playing at centre.
Saints were obviously not remotely at their best vs Cats, but they still very easily could've won and would probably have beaten 80% of the league comfortably on that performance. I think the last few games have backed up what plenty have been saying for a while. When they've got most of their first team out they're a seriously tough proposition. But I still think three or four injuries hurts them more than it should hurt a team challenging for honours.
I can't see them really falling away as the season goes on, but at the same time I'd be surprised if they manage to peak at the back end when you really have to. Unless they get very fortunate on the injury front, that is.
