Tiba’s incredible statistics

As a result, some people have been getting really creative when referring to Tiba. Fans are bringing up classic movie quotes, some call the 32-year-old the brain of the mission to eliminate Apollon, and some simply refer to Tiba as… an alien. Meanwhile, journalists have been wondering whether the recent Europa League qualifier wasn’t the Portuguese's best match ever.

One thing’s for sure – Tiba “pulled off” a brilliant InStat Index. A score of 476 is a rare achievement. What is the score, you may wonder? The company InStat which specialises in match analysis created an algorithm that converts players’ match statistics into a single score, i.e. InStat Index. What’s interesting is that the algorithm takes into account whether it’s a home or an away match and how strong the opponent is in comparison to the player’s team. In short, the better the rival and the better the player’s individual statistics, the higher the index.

Despite the fact that the rating should be taken with a grain of salt, considering how good Tiba’s score was, it is impossible not to draw comparisons. This season so far only Mikael Ishak managed to achieve a similar InStat Index. In the clash with Śląsk Wrocław (3:3), the Swede got a score of 416, having found the back of the net twice and gotten an assist. Lubomir Satka occupies the third spot in Lech’s squad with an InStat Index of 409 from the Polish Cup against Odra Opole (3:1). After all, centrebacks rarely score two goals in one match. Tiba, similarly to Ishak, got two goals and an assist in the match played in Cyprus, however, he also performed magically throughout the whole 90 minutes.

Tiba’s first goal against Apollon was a beautiful finish one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Shortly after the halftime, just when everyone expected the Portuguese to send the ball to the right flank, he decided for a no-look pass and, as a result, added a brilliant assist to his account. Meanwhile, a few minutes before finish time, Tiba rushed into the box and dribbled past two players whilst pretending to shoot and then calmly run past the keeper and sent the ball into the net.

So far this season, Tiba has three goals and two assists in Europa League qualifiers alone. In PKO Ekstraklasa he also helped his teammates score three times. These are great numbers considering that Lech has played only 8 matches so far this campaign. In the previous season, the Portuguese got 2 goals and 9 assists throughout the whole season which only further proves that this might be Tiba’s best season yet.