How long is Sopps here for now? If he's off at the end of the season then we don't need someone to counterract his deficiencies anyway.
It was a 3 year contract. Don’t think it’s to hide his deficiencies but more that we are better with 2 playmakers.
Billy and Jacob (although inexperienced) have also struggled to get the back line firing without a playmaker at 12.
... and yet, when I watched the academy playing last year, it was firing then with Jacob in the team. So, if Jacob ISN'T the one doing it, who in that academy team was? For me, watching, it was Jacob pulling the strings. Outside him at 12 was Booj, and, from what I saw, it was not him, nor Ross outside him. The last game I saw had this back line:
15 Cameron Anderson
14 Taju Atta
13 Ross Neal
12 Michael Le Bourgeois
11 Callum Sirker
10 Jacob Umaga
9 Will Porter (c)
So, that being said, maybe Jacob CAN do it, but is being stopped from doing it, maybe, by someone more senior when he plays in the first team?