Something that I thought interesting was the likes of Roly, McGlinchey, A Rod who had quite a good pedigree at youth level and into their late teens, perhaps showed why they are playing in the A League and not in a top league somewhere else. Whereas you have a guy like Riera who probably didn't have a youth pedigree, ends up being one of the best at a late age. I haven't done any research on some of the other imports in the league but wonder if there is some kind of pattern?
http://www.theguardian.com/football/these-football...
Though Riera is more of a tough tackling, ground covering DM than a pure Pirlo-esque playmaker?
Lia, with his switches of play, is about the closest we've come to Pirlo with our regular players right? We tried Simon Elliot, but didn't really know how to use him.