R16 vs Brisbane Roar | Sat 21st Jan | 7:35pm | RoF

I don't think this is true at all. Ridenton is obviously more suited to that role than Finkler. I think that would've made a huge difference.

I know you're just trying to combat the Vinnie haters, but you're going way too far the other way. Lia is a decent player with obvious limitations. So is Gui. Gui's limitations meant that he could not slot in for Lia effectively.

Agree. Lia has never "promised too much delivered too little", he has obviously had issues like everyone else on the field with what now appears "formation not suited to the team", as per Conan's comments.  With Lia, what you see is what you get. 

And while it may be less than ideal (i.e. he is a bit slow and struggles with pacy attack like the one offered by Perth or Brisbane) he is more than a squaddie, he has become a bit of a pivot now that Riera has retired, Ridenton still learning, and Roly gone upfront.

After 3 games in quick succesion is anyone else having troubles getting the YF chants out of their heads?

Ive been humming we all dream of a team of Vinnie Lia's all morning.

More that Gui could not replicate the work rate of Roly further up the pitch and Roly was not as disciplined as Lia in a deeper role.

Well of course he is important, defensive midfield is a specialist position and we have established that Rodriguez can't do that job.

I thought our crossing was particularly poor on Saturday.  Overall we played ok but didn't create a lot of chances because of some poor option taking (Kosta notably) and some hopeful crossing that never really found its mark (Tratt especially).

6 points is decent but after beating Melbourne it's a pity we couldn't end the week with another result.  Finkler is becoming a bit of a problem, we aren't playing well with him on the pitch and Krishna's back to goal game isn't working that well.

That's one step away from saying Lochhead was a quite good player...

Lot's of interesting comments

for me tho' it boiled down to the fact we've been playing solid with six defenders

one went off

the rest of them were knackered and so were most of the guys in front of them

simple as that

6/9 with signs of a lot of progress

roll on next game

and every now and then Lia has a very good game and looks a good player (and typically against the sides that don't naturally expose his weaknesses)

the rest of the time he's a solid squadie with limitations

just my quids worth

he's important because we have no other comparable sort of player

Rufer looked like a possible in that role for a while -  where's he at now?

Lia looks good playing alongside another DM who complements his skill set - basically a quick passer who is confident on the ball. Having an extra DM also means he doesn't have to cover as much ground as he's not the quickest around. He's not as bad as some people think but I think that others have gone too far the other way. He's not even close to being as good at the DM role as Riera was a couple of years ago, and Ernie's failure to address the loss of Riera has been a massive limiting factor for this squad. I still can't grasp why we signed Finkler when we needed defensive players. At least Riera going freed up an import spot for Rossi but imagine if we had an import DM instead of Finkler....

Not knocking Finkler but he was an unnecessary signing.

the current combo of Lia and A Rod seems to be working - making A Rod an import DM no?

Might have been a combo package deal with Kosta?

maybe Ernie assumed having signed Roly as a DM that he was able to cover DM?

I think A Rods movement complements Lia. When we have tried playing out at times with just Lia teams can organise to press at the right times to isolate Lia, A Rods good movement means the opposition are not able to do this as easily. 

TBF with Finkler, Ernie had him for a specific role within a specific game plan which is no longer and does not quite fit the current setup as well - he still is 2nd for chances created in the HAL and more than double the next best 'Nix player.

We have Finkler for next year, but probably don't have Roly. I'd like us to see what Finkler can do in front of the newly revitalised defense and with Smeltz to provide service to.