French : Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:35 pm  

Where do people see French fitting in this year? I think he's too talented to leave out, but I thought the same about Hampshire and Escare before him, and the three share a lot of attributes IMO. If you agree the three are similar; what does French/the club need to do differently so he works out where they didn't?

Re: French : Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:16 pm  

Fullback for me. I think we need more pace in that position. Hardaker being our player of the season in pretty much every vote knocking about was a sign of how poor the year was overall IMO. Don’t get me wrong he had a solid year but that’s all it was. He’s lost a lot of pace but he’s as solid as ever defensively and I’d be happy to see him and Manfredi form a partnership over on that right side. They’re two big athletes and teams would get very little change out of them.

As for French, he looks like he’s capable of lighting the league up this year if we can get his hands on the ball enough. I’d like to see him roaming on both sides of the field from fullback, following the half’s around and sniffing out half breaks. If we get him in space there’s not many who’ll catch him.

Re: French : Sat Nov 30, 2019 12:04 am  

It would be crazy to leave him out of the team or on the bench when he offers so much speed and attacking threat.

Saw an article somewhere this week where lam said he’s still not decided on where to play him yet which I’m not really sure what to make of.

Don’t know if it’s more or lam being indecisive and not wanting to upset certain individuals by french taking their place or he just genuinely doesn’t know what his best side is...

Re: French : Sat Nov 30, 2019 9:36 pm  

A good test of Lams decision making this one and a lot more pressure on the coach this season when you consider the new additions to the squad.

Re: French : Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:01 pm  

I'm definitely a fan of French as a player, but I'm still baffled by him as a signing for us. No doubt he's exciting and he's a talent, but where does he fit?

Threads like this kinda prove that he doesn't have a ready made slot to fill. In a cap based sport, I can't help but feel that we've kinda bought a luxury that we didn't need.

Having said that I hope he smashes it for us next year.

Re: French : Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:19 pm  

French could light up the league next season and we need him involved as much as we can. He needs to get his hands on the ball and be given the freedom to play what’s in front of him.
I’m hoping he’ll start alongside Hastings in the halves, as long as we are more fortunate with injuries. Hastings can guide us around the park and take responsibility for most of the kicking. He can then choose to launch an attack out of the back or to give French the ball in a gap. With his pace, French’s presence in the middle will hold defenders inside and Hastings can exploit any space out wide through the centres or FB. If defences slide, he can feed it to French who can go straight at the gaps. Either way, we need our forwards to lay a platform and if they do so, we should be in for a decent season.

Re: French : Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:42 pm  

Bigredwarrior wrote:

French could light up the league next season and we need him involved as much as we can. He needs to get his hands on the ball and be given the freedom to play what’s in front of him.
I’m hoping he’ll start alongside Hastings in the halves, as long as we are more fortunate with injuries. Hastings can guide us around the park and take responsibility for most of the kicking. He can then choose to launch an attack out of the back or to give French the ball in a gap. With his pace, French’s presence in the middle will hold defenders inside and Hastings can exploit any space out wide through the centres or FB. If defences slide, he can feed it to French who can go straight at the gaps. Either way, we need our forwards to lay a platform and if they do so, we should be in for a decent season.

The problem with that is that teams would just shut down Hastings and all we would be left with is off the cuff RL as we would have no other organisers in the team. we cant just throw French in and hope he makes a break, he has to be able to at least do some directing and organising.

Re: French : Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:45 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

I'm definitely a French fan of French as a player, but I'm still baffled by him as a signing for us. No doubt he's exciting and he's a talent, but where does he fit?

Threads like this kinda prove that he doesn't have a ready made slot to fill. In a cap based sport, I can't help but feel that we've kinda bought a luxury that we didn't need.

Having said that I hope he smashes it for us next year.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Re: French : Sun Dec 01, 2019 12:27 am  

If Lam and KR/IL don't know where to play him they should never have signed him.
Personally in the brief highlights we have seen of him he looks the most exciting player we've signed in donkeys years and if his defence is decent then FB maybe his position.
To be frank to be talking about what position he should play is pretty embarrassing from a club perspective but then again Lam seems totally indesive so I shouldn't be too surprised.
He won't see Hastings until 2020 so talk of HB is in the land of fairy tales he's either gonna play FB or wing

Re: French : Sun Dec 01, 2019 8:30 am  

Play him in his best position, which appears to be full back. Zak used to play centre, so put him there.

It still leaves us without a quality HB. Tommy is too slow these days.