by Espionage » Tue Aug 15, 2006 3:31 am
He has been there for so long that people forget what its like when hes not there. How good is he? The market will tell us: my guess is that he would sell for about 10-15m, how many other LBs in the premiership are going for that?
The truth is he is a good LB, he improved his defensive game alot last season and him stepping up was a key reason we were so good defensively. As Troare showed us, even having one defender out of synch with the rest is catastrophic. How many times last season can you remember Riise being at direct fault resulting in a goal. Im sure there are a few, cant really think of any atm (but that doesnt prove anything).
Every team concedes goals, if a goal gets through then people want someone to blame, and if its half Riise and half Hypia or half Riise and half Carragher then people will always give them the benefit of the doubt over Riise. This is not only not fair to Riise, but often gives other defenders a little too much credit (such as the Maccabi Haifa goal).