Mardle admits Wright “has to believe” he can challenge Van Gerwen

Mardle admitted in his interview with Sky Sports that ‘Mighty Mike’ evokes that little bit of doubt in players minds including in Wright which is what he is going to have to overcome. ‘Hawaii 501’ also said that unlike Raymond van Barneveld and Gary Anderson, Van Gerwen doesn’t tend to go missing but that Wright can deal with the challenge of the World Number One. “Michael is not only the best dart player in the world, but because he knows he's the best, he can say what he likes. The bottom line is Michael knows how good he is. Peter Wright has to believe that on his day he can match Michael; which he can, but being a match is not the same as beating someone as often as maybe you should. "Peter may doubt himself just that little bit against Michael, and if he's going to start winning regularly, he's going to have to deal with Michael van Gerwen, because unfortunately, Michael plays in a lot of events. "He's not like a Gary Anderson or Barney that goes missing for weeks on end; Peter Wright has got to find a way to deal with him. "He can do it, but there's two things there; he had his chances to win the Premier League," said Mardle. "He didn't take them. There's also the fact he beat him in the league phase. Now that's not the same as beating him in a knockout event.