Phuzzy wrote:
With all due respect you don't consistently beat a team by only having 2 better players and 15 worse ones...
As a Wigan fan I could also add that Flower, Pettybourne and Crosby would walk into your team ahead of the pudding that is LMS but I accept that you may feel differently.
What I will say, however, is that you seriously need to stop believing the ridiculous comments being made about 'being better on paper'
I'll add this, which hopefully doesn't hold too much bias and isn't too twisted by the disappointment of a derby victory.
Wigan were eating up the yards in the middle of the park. The ability to paly your part in a quicker, more organised defensive line to stop this is not classed as an individual skill, nor is it really something that is discussed when comparing players abilities, but it plays a massive part in the out come of the game. We have struggled to restrict other top teams, even in the victory against Leeds.
We've also struggled to dictate the speed of the oppositions PTB, which given the impressive way our starting front row has generally performed going forward, can't be down to a lack of physicality.
Add to that our defending out wide is very inconsistent.
That's 3 team factors that play a massive part in victory/defeat that are not really discussed when comparing individual players. 3 factors that you have us licked on.
Your mention of LMS may be a key to one of our problems. He can be absolutely awesome - for instance, the second half of last season he was immense, but at the moment he looks like a right southern pansy. Similarly, Jordan Turner has shown some absolutely great ability in the opening games, but is way off the mark currently. Could we be guilty of disregarding consistency when evaluating the ability of our players?
We have been very excited about our young, talented backline, but a major factor in our initial glee was the contribution of Percival, who's been missing for a while now.
Another thing Wigan have is better balance. They have a standoff, which we're still sorely lacking. Bar his wonder game against Leeds, Hohaia is a poor choice at 6 and stifle our ball going wide. Something that does not happen to other good teams.
They also have, as Saddo pointed out, Sean O'Loughlin. A wonderfully talented player in his own right, he also brings leadership, physicality which resonates through the team. John Wilkin essentially looks like the schoolboy version of him. The closest thing we seem to have is Amor, who's carries in heavy traffic are a real lift. We have Walmsley too, who's been incredible at times (if you forget those silly errors), but all in all we need to compliment impact forwards like Walmsley and Masoe with grafters and ours, Sia and Amor aside, are either too light (Boof), still a bit young (Richards, Thompson) or too work shy (LMS).
We have some real strengths, but the gaps we have seem to really/really drag the rest right down when things aren't going right. This derby defeat is a real disappointment for the Saints fans, hopefully come the end of the year we will have learnt from games like this, filled in our gaps by developing the youngsters and ironed out the creases in our team characteristics.
I am the hash browns of rlfans 
