Yes, it seems like an age ago now since Sinfield announced he was leaving and at that time its probably fair to say Sutcliffe was the form player of the 2 and was keeping him out.Who knows what the situation would be now were he not out for the season but Sinfield has been very good since, so there has not really been a cause for a debate.

If the measurement is for what Sinfield does best, and what this team needs the most, then not at any point whatsoever this season has Sutcliffe shown himself the better of the two, or more importantly is capable of doing what Sinfield does.

Stevosfalseteeth wrote:That's the sort of stand off I want at Leeds. Young, British, not afraid to try different plays. Does anyone know his current contract situation? Don't think I've seen him have a bad game this year. Signed a new 4 year deal last year.

Stevosfalseteeth wrote:That's the sort of stand off I want at Leeds. Young, British, not afraid to try different plays. Does anyone know his current contract situation? Don't think I've seen him have a bad game this year. Signed a new 4 year deal last year.

Of course but a lot of that you can't coach and comes with experience, I don't recall Sinfield running a game at 20/21 years old.I'm just saying Sutcliffe was playing well before injury, indeed better than Sinfield imo who at the time was out of form and had been for a while.Thankfully that is not the case now.

This^ I don't think Sutcliffe will be able to run a game like Kev. Those who say, Kev wasn't bossing games in his early days need to realise he was captain at 22 of a very young side. 1 year later 2004 happened and the rest is history. If we don't sign a stand off, we are in the mire next year

We won't be in the mire next year because it's not like the others at the top have a Sinfield type in their halves to do what he does.....saying that though he will be missed especially on occasions like Friday when others seemed to want to drift from the game plan and throw it about a bit. He also managed the wet weather game vs Hull away in the cup superbly so the tricky conditions games will be the most significant. The games on nice sunny evenings when we can throw it about with an extra running threat from Sutcliffe should still be ok most of the time. We won away in France and at home to Wigan earlier in the year when Sinfield was out with injury so it is do-able to pick up important wins without him. The goalkicking could be costly though, it cost Wigan a bit on Friday.

Sinfield is a once in a generation player and not easily replaced. I think Leeds realise that Sutciffe will need time and the plethora of large forwards we have signed is a clue that we ill play a little bit differently to take the pressure off the halves.

Its also important to remember that Leeds have actually played poorly and lost with Sinfield in the team. Lots of times over the years. Every time we lose we look for reasons and Sinfield has been criticised plenty of times.

As it is I'd give Sutcliffe the chance. As someone else said, the ball playing 13 is dead (as in pivot not offloading), thank goodness. Sinfield matured incredibly early as a 6, but he will be almost unique in that regard. Sutcliffe needs to be given the chance to mature into the role and he probably couldn't have a better partner to learn from on the field than the almost-veteran stage McGuire.

Just as an aside weren't some people convinced that we couldn't win anything with the world's slowest halfbacks (Sinfield and McGuire)?

Spot on Brisbane. Not to mention the game is significantly more physically intense than it was when Sinfield was Sutcliffe's age.

The Sutcliffe-McGuire partnership was absolutely on fire in pre-season, the two seemed to have worked out quite a good understanding of who was going to be responsible for what.

Be interesting to see if they can pick that up again from the start of next year.