AS Roma’s Norwegian defender John Arne Riise put the last nail in Juventus’s Coffin with a late goal in a 2:1 away win in Serie A action yesterday. He is now not only the highest ranked Norwegian player, but also the best defender in the Serie A in the FTBL system.

Riise’s FTBL score has been moving upward since October. He has almost doubled the 64 points he had back then to 121.51 points. In yesterday’s game he added 14.34 points.

Roma will travel to Catania in their next game, with Riise facing a plank of 14.6 points to beat in our system. In the following game at Siena, he will face a plank of only 2 points to beat. On balance, he should be able to further add to his tally, even if modestly. He is in 5th place in our world ranking of defenders at the moment.