If he did. All I know he didn't look like a 4m marauding fullback and Jacob was preferred. If he wasn't fully fit then that might explain it.
I’m probably in the minority but I’m just not thrilled with signing Giles. North of £4 million for a left-back who can’t actually defend. I think he’d be more suited as a wing-back in a back three/five than in a back four. Frimpong has had an unbelievable season as an attacking wing-back for Leverkusen but even their fans say he can’t defend and would struggle if he played right-back in a back four for another big European club. It’s mitigated by the fact they play with three very good centre-backs at any given time. I hope I’m proven wrong but I just don’t rate him defensively. Maybe Rosenior misused him offensively but no manager should be responsible for a 24-year-old left-back who can’t defend.
Not sure you are in a minority about Giles @Kalman , seems to be very mixed views on him especially at the price we paid
Yeah, maybe. We’ve got four left-backs on the books now and none of them fill me with much confidence to be a solid starting left-back for a team pushing for promotion next season. Fleming’s just not good enough and should be sold, Furlong has barely played and been injured (also quite young and unproven), Jacob’s performances didn’t do him any harm but he’s still raw and should go out on loan and Giles is an expensive full-back at this level and can’t actually defend. The one memory I have of Giles that sticks in my head is Leeds’ first goal at Elland Road when he absolutely bottled that header and gifted them the goal. Not only did he not jump for it, he actually ducked. Proper fanny move. Contrast that with Jacob who used his head for a ground tackle lmao and the difference in commitment and bravery is stark.
I think it's me who's in the minority in thinking that he can defend, just not as well as others, he had a couple of really dodgy games against tough opposition but thought for the most part he was a pretty steady option, seemed comfortable taking the ball at a level above any other fullbacks we have. I think if he captures anywhere near his form at Boro it becomes a good deal.
I'm on the fence. He has good attacking capabilities which if you use him like Boro did in a back 4 that allows the LB essentially to play like a wing back I think we get a player. I didn't think he was the worst defender either. I dont recall him ever getting forward under Rosenior other than when he was deployed as a makeshift winger.
Sorry, nuance is not permitted. He's an attacking fullback and that means he can't defend, just like Robertson.
On the option/obligation thing I think people are getting too hung up on the terminology used. The club are not going to admit that they're signing him because they're obliged to do so, even if it is the case. When they mention "option" I don't think that's them explicitly denying that it was an obligation they agreed to in January. I'm sure they'd rather not get into the detail of the agreement and it could only ever cause them problems if they admitted to having an obligation. We have Baz and the HDM saying consistently and explicitly that it is an obligation, and no one is directly denying that. It's possible that he/they have been misinformed, but they're generally pretty well informed and on the balance of things I don't know why you wouldn't believe them on this.
I for one liked the look of Giles. I don't think he was allowed to get forward as much as he wanted due to the defensive possession based play we had to endure.
Well maybe he was good at Boror, but I cannot remember getting to the bye line and I think I can count on one hand the number of crosses he made that actually beat the first man. Still he's our player now so lets hope he ups it a notch...
I thought Giles was decent last season on the whole, and I don't think he played that defensively at all. In terms of him assisting more goals from crosses, his biggest problem there is that we were absolutely abject at attacking crosses last season. As a big LR fan who thought a lot of criticism he got was unfair, I think that's one area he really struggled to get right. Our crosses were just never met by attackers.
Quite a few premier league sides look like they are wanting to get deals over the line before July, are we expecting Greaves and/or Philogene gone before Monday?
Thoroughly underwhelmed by the Giles signing. I really hope we haven’t had to fork out £4m for the privilege. Personally, I didn’t see anything that would suggest he was worth that kind of outlay, either from an attacking or defensive standpoint. I hope, that he proves me wrong and that next season we get what Boro got the previous season but I’ll be very surprised if we do.
