Luke Littler told where he's 'not great' as Premier League drought continues
Luke Littler has been given some advice after failing to break his Premier League Darts duck.
Luke Littler has been told that his finishing needs improvement after failing to win a first Premier League Darts night in Brighton on Thursday. World champion Luke Humphries took his maiden victory as the 17-year-old crashed out to Michael Smith in the night six semi-finals.
Littler dropped to third in the standings, behind Humphries and leader Michael van Gerwen. He will be desperate to get over the line next in Nottingham despite his consistent performances in the elite competition.
The teenager has more than held his own in the Premier League and regularly claims victories, his latest coming against the previous week’s winner Nathan Aspinall. He reached the semi-final stage for the fifth time in six attempts, but former professional and now-commentator Wayne Mardle believes that his finishing is “not great” and the youngster’s game needs to be finely tuned.
"We expect amazing things when he (Littler) steps on stage," Mardle told Sky Sports. "Apart from Humphries in the Premier League, I know Van Gerwen has been getting the wins, but numbers-wise the statistics suggest he's playing some of the best darts.
"The way that he's scoring, he's right up there with what anyone's doing in the Premier League. The finishing is not great, so there's improvement to be made, but he needs to start getting wins though.
"He played great in the UK Open, but didn't win. He has played some amazing games in this (Premier League) but not won a weekly event. He needs to start crossing the line and winning because, once that starts to happen, it will become a habit for him."
How Mardle expects that improvement to happen remains to be seen, as Littler has admitted to rarely working on his game. He has blown away his practice partner Aspinall previously on the training board, but spends a very small portion of his day trying to get better.
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“Maybe 20 minutes or half an hour,” he told the Daily Mail last month when asked how long he spends practising each day. “Just to keep my arm loose. I wake up at 1pm or 2pm and I do the same every day.
“I might need to get in a routine of going to bed at a normal time - I never see the morning. I get up, I go on my Xbox, when I get bored of that, I go on the practice board, and when I get bored of that, I go back on my Xbox.”
Littler’s routing has not held him back so far, but to be competing for Premier League wins Mardle feels that more work has to be done, especially on his checkouts.