Just reading an article on the top 10 metre makers this year in SL.

The list is all outside backs and it’s interesting to see no Wigan players in there.

I think this is a major stat that points as to why we are maybe not as fluid as last year. Last year King, Miski and Marshy in particular got us on the front foot early doors with good post contact metres and quick play the balls.

Keighran isn’t contributing enough for me in this regards and whilst I really rate Wardle it’s probably the weakest part of his game.

King for me is a really big loss, I thought he would be but not as much as he has been.

Be interesting to see if the Hull KR kick up the booty sees some of our outside backs start to appear in the top 10 over the coming month or so.

Don't forget there's one massive caveat with the above - we've played one less game than everyone else.

And Marshall and Field have missed an additional game each.

I don’t think we’ll get a proper read on it until after the game in hand.

We are missing Toby King I agree. Abbas Miski has perhaps looked a little off his best at the start of the year but that's to be expected when you have little to no pre-season. I think Liam Marshall has been fine.

Not convinced making metres is our main issue - in fact we actually made more metres than Hull KR last week. As you highlighted last week, defensive contact and intensity was the main problem.

What I would say is that the signings of Keighran and Leeming are probably more under the spotlight as there are two very good young prospects that they have blocked in Eckersley and Forber. Its a tricky balancing act for the Wigan hierarchy as whilst Eckersley/Forber may not be ready to play consistently just yet - they may well be in a year or two.

Jon you are linking fluidity and metres made by backs who very often have a “given” 10 or 15 yards?
We are not missing King who for me as a centre in its classical parlance was pretty average to ok. I wouldn’t put King in the same sentence as Wardle let alone even compare the two.
I assume we’ve signed Keighran in the understanding that he isn’t going to make the “hard backs yards” because we have a squad containing Havard, Ellis, Thompson etc who will also contribute to the “hard backs yards” compared to recent years.
What we are missing for me is more intensity. At he moment the only forward contributing real intensity from minute one is O’Neil and to a lesser degree Thompson and Hill. The rest of the pack post Penrith have been pretty average to ok.
I’m not really a stats fan other than did we win or lose.
I’m pretty confident that when we play HKR next time we will start and the finish the game completely differently to last week. The pack defensively and tempo wise will give us ample opportunity to get us to Wembley. A back making 100 yards will be a contributing factor but our pack dominating theirs will be the deciding factor.

That is a very good point that I have overlooked!

Marshy is currently in 19th place with around 100 m less than Johnston who is currently in 10th.

King to Keighran was always going to a drop off in meters made but Miski and Marshall are still here and good at taking the hard carries in to give our pack a rest. I do think with our improvement in the pack losing King and this aspect of his game shouldn’t be a major issue and once our attack starts to click (hopefully soon) I think you will see the benefit of having Keighran in the side.

Keighran is clearly a classy centre and I don’t think Fields slightly lethargic start to the year by his standards has helped him as he needs a bit of space to produce his best. King was more direct blunt force.

It’s early in the season and as you say when things click I’m confident we will see more from him.

His effort has been good no issue with that it’s just how he fits in to the team so we get the best out of him that is taking a bit of time.

Like others have said, I'm not worried one bit about Marshall. He's two games behind everyone else, but one try off being the joint top try scorer. He's doing ok.

It's very early days yet, we've played what 30% of the season + the WCC and a few CC games. That being said I don't think, looking at games played so far, that any of the new signings have been better than the lads they've replaced. I'd happily take Smithies, Powell and King back over Thompson, Leeming and Keirghan.

I'm looking forward to seeing a side with Walters in it alongside all of Thompson, Havard, Nsemba, Dupree, Farrell etc. That pack will make loads of ground and the backs and in particular the centres, should get plenty of room to do their thing and the burden to make ground from our end shouldn't be quite as high as it's been at times in years gone by. It's an easy excuse to make but I still think the pitches are impacting guys like Field, Keighran and French. They're still pretty heavy and they'll only be more dangerous as they firm up.