It just shows that when he does go from dummy half he's superb but it' too few and far between. I do believe you've got to mix your play up and a problem you get with a Higham or Godwin is that they're too predictable but Riddell must start to ask more questions of the defensice line.

To be fair to him i really do think he's done that over the past few weeks and is improving week by week.

If he improved his fitness he'd be able to make more runs out of dummy half imo. The club really has to try and get him to make a commitment to improve in that area over the next few months and in the off season and the same goes for Feka and Pryce.

Agreed with this. I think people wanting to see that bit more from Riddell including his admirers on here (who have admitted they would like to see more) would get this with a combination of Riddell improving his fitness and getting a quicker play the ball from his team mates. Afterall it is a team effort. If you watched Saints against Warrington they had quick play the balls and Roby made a lot of ground and they got up the field quicker (His metre stats back this up!). Such a basic technique that is so very effective. We would see much more from Riddell and McIlorum if we encouraged it more.

What I would say is has anyone seen him boss and control a game the way that Cunningham and Ranall do, because I haven't. I'll be watching him closely on Sunday to see how he compares with Newton, and see how they fair. I'm still trying to think of a game that he's had a big influence on, perhaps the Quins game just gone, but they were pretty poor so it's hard to judge. There are signs there of a good player I just want to see him control a game for us after all thats was part of the reason we brought him in wasn't it?

It is based on games played and Clarke has played 16 games out of possible 20 so missed 4 but I am pretty sure Higham didn't play the full 80 in all those games.



Well you never got over yours v Higham so you are one to talk.



How would anyone know that but a) it won't stop you constructing an argument as if it was a hard fact and b) even if you are right it just highlights the fact Riddell is not on the pitch long enough!!



Well there is and example of a)



Well if you want to make out he has some statistics poorer than Higham because he is on the pitch less it works both ways. If Higham played most of the 80 for those four games Clarke missed then he was obviously on the pitch for longer that Riddell is for us so had more opportunities to give penalties away - which is the exact same excuse made for Lockers when his penalty stats have been questioned and I would not be surprised if you were one who subscribed that excuse for Lockers!



Riddell is unfit, does not play long enough, is demonstrably inferior to quite a few hookers statistically and this idea his distribution is top drawer is a myth. In the last game quite a fee of his passes were to high or too low for example.

If you were not so desperate for him to be better than Higham and gave up thinking that was the be all and end all of his reason to be here you (and Rouges) would see his faults.

He's not good enough regardless of how good or bad Higham is.

Dave

There are 15 others who scoot more from dummy half. it doesn't make them better.
Mickey Higham scoots on an average 7.26 times a game.
The average metres he makes is 6.25 metres per scoot, an average of 45.38 metres per game


Mark Riddell scoots on an average 6.15 times a game.
The average metres he makes is 9.26 metres per scoot, an average of 56.95 metres per game.

Who is the more effective.

You were probably the one who was stood behind at Warrington last season when Higham went 30 metres and lost the ball as he was tackled.

"Great run Mickey" was the shout.

I kid you not.

Love that, comedy at it's best.

All Riddell did at the start of the season was pass straight from the play of the ball. Very rare did you see him run or scoot. I don't think we signed him as a scooting hooker. If that was what we wanted we would have kept Higham. Over the last three games Riddell to me has started to move more with the ball. Not necessarily scooting forward, but he has been putting defenders in two minds as to what he is going to do. I hope its the start of him doing more. He looks a little unfit but i was quite surprised with his game time last week. Yes it was forced on him but he did well.

That's a good shout, I like the way he half takes off and then brings that runner of him, puts the defense in two minds.

Lets not be fooled, there is no two ways about it he hasn't been awesome but my dad told me when I was younger that the way Wigan got to that period of greatness was by insuring that whenever a player left, they brought in a better payer.

I think that has been done here.

A good point. The guy can play the game time required of a hooker. I think he did 30 minutes in the first half Pryce was on for 20 minutes (if that) so that means Riddell played 60 minutes which is good going.

But the point I would make is that Riddell would be a better player if he lost a few pounds and improved his fitness. He would be able to make more scoots from dummy half and move around the field much quicker. I think he has a lot of talent - some of plays (in patches I admit) has been brilliant in terms of being deceptive and creative so clearly he is a talented hooker. I would just like him to take advantage of this and get into shape.

And it's about time people stopped being fixated on proving that a player they don't like is Rubbish purley to "Prove a Point"!

As for you saying he is worse in the stats than Higham last year then look again!
161 Runs from Dummy half last year from Higham, given he played EVERY Game shows he did LESS runs from dummy half Per game on that Particular stat!
As for the other stats then IMO they compare favourably to Higham's however in comparison to other 9's then some are better & some are worse.

I don't try to make too much of stats that's why I said the thread was pointless right at the beginning of it.
What I do know is he is Better than Higham by a mile that'll do for me at the moment!