Regardless of recruitment, we won't trouble top 6 next season.
IF Hodgson continues his policy, of relying on 1 player , for our attack, we are in serious trouble.
We have already seen without Connor we are as a team, unable to score tries & create opportunities.
The quality teams, such as St Helens, Melbourne, all have a rigid attack system, whereby if a pivot is missing, another player seamlessly slots in, and the structure remains intact., and all players know their roles.
I would have hoped Hodgson would've learnt his lesson.. but he hasn't..

Looking at our recruitment, it seems that he is trying to sign more creative players, Hoy, Truman and Dywer should take alot of pressure and responsibility away from Connor. Think Sutcliffe is an upgrade too, if we can add in two more forwards, Longstaff and an overseas forward, then I think we will finish in the play offs.

Need some luck with injuries too.

I think a lot will depend on when and how Truman recovers from his injury.

He could be a big player for us and take some pressure off Connor but how much of the season is he going to miss and how will he be mentally after injury. A lot of questions around him and it could go either way.

In Hoy and Dwyer we have added much needed pace to two critical pivot positions which increases our attacking threat.

The bit in bold is what concerns me the most in that we still seem to lack any real structures in our play. It’s something that I’d hoped Hodgson would have addressed as soon as he came in but we still rely on the talent on Connor and the open admission by Hodgson that he leaves the attacking stuff to the players.
I struggle to see what Purtill does too. Whilst we have made some improvements to the squad we are still so far behind regular contenders.
We also look very weak and light weight in the second row.
It’s all well and good bringing Truman & Hoy in but unless Hodgson implements real structure to our play, same with pushing youth in all honesty can’t see things being too much different next season. Both Hodgson & Purtill have been at the club more than long enough to have put their stamp on things and give the team an identity but for me there’s very little evidence of that at all which is the biggest disappointment.

I see on this forum a lot of criticism of Hodges and Purtill but i was under the impression that Gareth Ellis was the defence coach, and in all honesty there has been no other team in Super League this season who have been on the end of the sort of hammerings frequented upon your team.

Purtill was brought in to aid Radford, as an attack coach, also as a dual role, as Reserves Coach .
As Hodgson, does not advocate, an attack system based on structure and repeat set plays, it makes Purtill's appointment as attack coach redundant.

To be fair, the defensive structure is pretty sound, it's the players mentality, character and professional pride that has resulted in the blowout scores

It's funny when Hodgson says a lot of the time he leaves it to the players he's clueless. Yet all I hear from players and coaches from St Helens Wigan and now Leeds is getting the players to play what's in front of them. Maybe ATM we haven't the players?

The difference is though that St’s, Wigan and Leeds (pre Agar and now under Smith) had systems in place that was ingrained in to them which every player knew and it was a base to play from. They then play off the cuff stuff which made them even more of a threat. We can’t do that as we appear to have little if any structure to how we play at all and why we’ve looked like a disorganised rabble too many times.
Maybe some of it is to do with the players but that’s also the job of a head coach to get the systems and structures in place and followed, to be fair he’s been here 2 seasons now and had time enough to give the team some form of identity but it’s sadly lacking

The problem is . 20 yards from the oppositions tryline, we are clueless, we have Houghton at dummy half, throwing his hands up, as if to say ,"What are we going to do?", we have no dummy runners, no players running off the ball., Saints can play what's in front of them, but their fundamental,of players running good lines, creates the space, that is basic coaching, which is perfected with repetitive drills.
Why we can't run a few set plays , or do something different, from an ex attacking fullback,now as a First team Manager is bewildering...