ATTN all Lia haters esp James Dean.
If he is so terrible how is it that he was at the heart of our midfield when we played our very best football this season.
Indeed our best football ever probably.
Are you that convinced of his badness that you think we effectively did that with ten men?
I think you guys took a position on Lia during the Ricki years and you're too hard headed to give him a fair go.
He is a good passer of the ball. A distributing midfielder. It's not a game of Dungeons & Dragons. He doesn't have to have Level 47 Speed like Cunningham or Level 68 Smash Cunts like Siggy to be making a valuable and capable contribution.
| Categories | Riera | /90min | Lia | /90min |
| Min | 1183 | 90.00 | 1855 | 90.00 |
| Passes | 691 | 52.57 | 1077 | 52.25 |
| Passing accuracy | 81.9% | 81.9% | 77.8% | 77.8% |
| Passing accuracy opp. Half | 76.9% | 76.9% | 75.0% | 75.0% |
| Duels | 159 | 12.10 | 253 | 12.27 |
| Duels won % | 50.3% | 50.3% | 53.0% | 53.0% |
| Aerial Duels | 14 | 1.07 | 62 | 3.01 |
| Aerial Duels won % | 50.0% | 50.0% | 56.5% | 56.5% |
| Recoveries | 99 | 7.53 | 97 | 4.71 |
| Tackles | 51 | 3.88 | 63 | 3.06 |
| Tackles won % | 80.4% | 80.4% | 77.8% | 77.8% |
| Clearances | 19 | 1.45 | 28 | 1.36 |
| Blocks | 2 | 0.15 | 4 | 0.19 |
| Interceptions | 56 | 4.26 | 49 | 2.38 |
| Penalties conceded | 1 | 0.08 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Fouls won | 19 | 1.45 | 32 | 1.55 |
| Fouls conceded | 29 | 2.21 | 33 | 1.60 |
| Yellow cards | 4 | 0.30 | 2 | 0.10 |
| Shots | 2 | 0.15 | 10 | 0.49 |
| Shot accuracy | 50.0% | 50.0% | 20.0% | 20.0% |
| Crosses | 4 | 0.30 | 25 | 1.21 |
| Crossing accuracy | 50.0% | 50.0% | 12.0% | 12.0% |
| Assists | 1 | 0.08 | 2 | 0.10 |
| Chances created | 15 | 1.14 | 24 | 1.16 |
Sod all between the two of them statistically,. They work together very well as a team.
A few trends of note as I have been compiling; Riera's ill discipline improved drastically and Lia when playing alongside Riera is better across most categories than when not alongside Riera