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.
I think against the slower possession based sides, Lia is fine. But as soon as you put him up against a quick midfield he is left for dead. If you guys are advocating that all Lia needs to be is a link between DM and AM then I would ask you this. Are you seriously happy that he is not capable of tracking quickly to contribute to defense? We already have a country for old men up front. Stein and Carlos are not going to track back quickly. Boyd is being asked to make the runs up front and can't be expected to track every opposition FB run. Kenny is also primarily an attacking player, who we ask to get back as much as possible. So you need that other midfielder to be the player primarily responsible for cover and tracking when the opposition get numbers forward. And particularly if we have a FB who has got high. Lia doesn't have the pace to do that.
Was Lia solely responsible for Thursday's loss? No, absolutely no way. Firstly Ernie is playing a style that is risks the sort of fast counters that Adelaide threw at us. Secondly we have one FB who is our second option FB conversion, doing pretty well, but he's going to get attacked. Third we had Manny filling in at DM. He's played there regularly but we know he has his limitations. And we know from history that the Manny/Lia midfield combo has always been vulnerable. Plus Caira is still a work in progress. And we have less imports than any other side. So we got licked by a better team.
BUT, if the squad is going to improve we need more pace in midfield. If the squad is going to improve it is by replacing players coming off contract with better players. If we are going to build the club's strength by developing young players and without marquees then our senior starters all need to be very very solid. So, with Lia, Leo, Stein and Ifill coming off contract, tell me, are you really hoping to have the same starting midfield next year? Which of our starting midfield coming off contract would you like to "upgrade"? The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Maybe there is another way of seeing it, but if so, I'm not seeing it. No hating involved.
The way I do see it we are just talking about whether Lia stays in the squad, with Leo and Ifill's contract money used to get an import level midfielder, with pace and a degree of versatility, or whether we are better to let Lia go and increase the funds we have to improve the squad. Either way, I'd be aiming for Lia to not be in next year's starting midfield.
And Smithy - how is it that he was at the heart of our midfield when we played our very best football this season? We've never had Carlos and Riera before. THEY are what made it our very best midfield, imho.