He's only still in the A-League because we continue to pay him to be there!! I think he's a top man but the reason we are where we are (coming off finishing last and without a win this season - i.e. quite bad) is that we haven't gone through the regular squad rejuvenation that other sides have.
He still has a contract because Ricki couldn't sign anyone better. Whether he has a contract next year depends on if Ernie thinks he can find better. Until then he is our best option for the role he is playing. This isn't about what Riki thought of him vs the AWs, he included ASBP players and unattached players in the All Whites and it's not about what he's being paid vs what he delivering. If we want better results we need better players and we've seen over 7 seasons that he's ok, but we're not going to go to the next level with players of his level starting every week. In the end, you have to start trying other options if you're going to improve
Do we need better? Yes. Do we have better? No
We have 3 very different DM's in Manny, Riera and Lia. Dropping Lia for Riera completely changes the way the midfield will operate, as both Manny and Riera tend to get nose bleeds when they cross the half way line. If we had Tim Brown or Chris James on our books, then Lia would be back to being the squad filler people want but last I checked we have neither.
agree completely in that we have 3 different DM's neither of them really offering much more than the other - this for mine is why Vinne gets the lifeline he does in regards to starting. I'm prepared to soften my 'get rid of him approach' given some of the reasoned discussion lately that has at least pointed out the good things he has done (although I still feel when his contract comes up he won't be here long). It irks me that after two years of apparently searching for a better midfielder to replace brown we have found noone. Whilst a lot of you were horribly anti brown for the fact he went missing in most games he did offer a box to box midfielder who created chances and scored goals which this current group of midfielder's are not doing. Reira is not the answer for mine as mentioned above he isn't an aggressive tackler and his passes are often backwards or across field. Lia gets caught with the ball, which is down to him receiving the ball when someone else might have been more open, he also loses th ball in critical places. Manny hasn't been at his best since he switched from DM to RB and back again. What's answer? only the coach knows but right now the three guys we have are not doing the job we need to them to do in order to provide the free flowing passing from the back football we are being lead to believe is the "way we play".