Why do some Saints fans still not get it? Puncheon has no end product at all, his passing game is poor and he doesn't fit with our possession game style. He takes the man on too much and loses the ball a lot. And he's poor defensively! De Ridder has the most pace, likes to take players on but loses it less than Puncheon. He is a better crosser of the ball and a better finisher than Puncheon and Chaplow. Chaplow was good earlier in the season in a more central role but since the injury has been abysmal, off the pace and short of fitness imo. Even then he is a box to box player who atm is poor in 50-50s and lacks creativity and movement, he can't really take a player on either. He is not a natural attacking player at all. Then we have Guly who can score and make goals. Fits in with our possession play style. He is possibly the most wanting to pass the ball on the ground out of the entire squad. He's been very good defensively lately and worked hard. Anyone saying otherwise ought to show up to games. There is also the option of him dictating play in a roaming cam role 4312 Goals and Assists (league only): Guly 10 goals, 7 assists Lallana 10 goals, 7 assists De Ridder 3 goals, 3 assists Chaplow 3 goals, 0 assists Puncheon 0 goals, 0 assists (in fairness very few appearances but as mentioned looked poor) It's a no brainer! Why do some people just not understand Guly is the best option out of the 4! The amount of people over-rating particularly Puncheon is laughable not only because he's done nothing but especially considering the disrespect he's shown towards the club in the past, I'd have sold Puncheon on ages ago. For me the only positions up for grabs are the CM slot contested between Cork/Hammond and the Striker slot between Lee/Sharp. All other positions are taken at the moment imo..
As we know, there is a British disease that demands that not only should people work hard, but they should be seen to be working hard. This means they have to run about even when standing still might be the intelligent thing to do. Guly is a naturally gifted footballer who would probably be at his best in a free roaming role, but who actually carries out a job on the pitch very well. Just ask his manager. When, on national TV, Guly was lambasted by a couple of pundits who should've known better, and one presenter who was quite terrible in his condemnation of the player, considering how little he knew of Guly, those fans who already took a low view of Guly's contributions to games, took it as a confirmation of their opinion. I have seen that video time after time. Guly was put in a bad position of being caught between defending his post and attacking the ball. In the end, he tried to attack the ball, but too late. A mistake, for which he paid dearly, but nowhere near the clunker it was made out to be. Of course, according to the haters, that meant that Guly was just being lazy, and even worse, cowardly as well. Nope, he was just undecided. I fully expect Do Prado to show his best form in the PL if [no jinxing from me, for those who think these things] Saints make it there. He will have a little more time, rather than have defenders come crashing in and taking his legs away. Perhaps he'll even have a chance to stop and put his foot on the ball, as the saying goes. Being the lazy sod that some fans think he is, he'll come in for more abuse. I shall just smile.
Why do some still not understand Guly? because i do not speak Portuguese as above, there are two people in the team that are suited to a free role, the first is rickie who at the moment has a kind of license to roam, and guly who has both attacking and defending abilities and a good motor with height and skill. he will be crucial if we go up
IMO it was just one of those unlucky things where the defending player isn't really at fault. It was a 50-50 decision and he'd have had to have left the post almost immediately without hesitation which almost no one would have done in such a tense high profile game when his job was to defend the post to start with. When he did go it was too late sadly. But I still don't put him at fault. In the heat of the moment I understand why some might blame him, but on reflection deep down surely no one holds that against him unless they are idiotic which of course some Saints fans are. There is also the closet racists of course, the people who hate on him because he is the only black player in the side (other than Puncheon who hasn't made many appearances or made many match day squads) I agree, I think he can do well in PL along with Rickie and Adam on the attacking front. The rest I am worried about what they can bring to the table in terms of goals and assists. Exactly. The thing about Guly in that free role is the amount of time he seems to have, he can play the pass along the ground so early. The defenders can't get near him and he looks so comfortable on the ball.
Everything on the positive side of Guly has been said here... I'd like to see one of the many who dislike him come and explain why. I don't understand it, personally.
Bit of a side point, he did well after a slow start at Millwall. Holding up the ball, chasing and when he moved to the centre of midfield he was tackling as well! He also started attacks, and set up De Ridder, Lambert and Sharp going forward, as well as playing out of trouble with Schneiderlin. This cannot have been Guly judging by what some say.
Guly Positives Goals, Assists, Skill, Flair, Vision, Unpredictability, Touch. Negatives Positioning, Work Rate (sometimes), Headless Chicken Syndrome, Tackling. For me the positives far outweigh the negatives. The problems are caused when you pick Guly to play in the right midfield role as he does not do the traditional job. This causes fans to get on his back before he's kicked a ball. He looks lazy on the pitch but that's more about the way he moves rather than physical laziness. He will be an asset in the PL. Touch wood we make it.
Which tells us more about you not understanding how individual footballers contribute to a game. Guly is every bit as good as Lallana. People who criticise his work rate obviously do not watch him during the game. He covers an enormous amount of ground and works his socks off for the team. Their is a nasty undercurrent to peoples attitude towards Guly and it worries me. He will be moaned out for things that every other player gets away with. Guly will be playing for us in the PL. De Ridder, Chaplow and Puncheon will not.
well Evolution, that is very eloquently put and a well thought out argument. Just thought I'd let you know, that although you took your ball home you did leave your jumper. Do you mind if we use it as a goal post? There are some other boys here now who have brought a new ball with them. Guly can frustrate me, as in some games he gives the ball away often and looks to have the worst first touch in the history of Brazil, but then in other games he looks majestic with the touch of a genie. He has a huge stride that eats up the ground when he runs without appearing to be trying to run too hard. He supports the full back when playing wide and gets in very good positions when playing up front or in the hole. My biggest criticism of him is his reading of situations. I watched him really closely against Barnsley, and you can see that he "reacts" rather than "anticipates". If he could anticipate a little more, then he'd be even better. He is a strong athlete.
Guly is quality...no doubt. If he works hard, he gets the plaudits. If he doesn't then we know what happens. The problem for him is that he looks so comfortable on the ball at times, it looks like he's not trying! For me he has been more influential this season than Hammond who is our captain!
Guly has contributed to our great season and it must be a puzzle to him (and hurtful) that he is singled out for vocal criticism from the stand. As he keeps being selected by Adkins (for reasons unfathomable to his critics) he gets exposed to this all the time. In the highlights of the Millwall game (only a few minutes remember) he had a good shot on goal and, towards the end, did two crucial clearances. He cares, is not cowardly, and certainly not lazy.
Sometimes when I'm at the ground, I also listen to the commentary and I don't think that Guly gets a fair rep from radio solent and this affects a lot of people's opinions of him. The number of fans, who aren't even at the game and text in at half or full-time saying "What does Adkins think he's doing, always picking Guly..." I'd imagine he thinks he's managing a team that is top of the league having scored more goals than anyone else, with a better win ratio over the past two seasons than practically any other team in the country. But hey, all these moaners could probably do a better job if they were just given the chance...
I dont dislike Guly and he does some fine work for the team. However I find the times that he doesnt even challenge for headers to be very frustrating. He's a tall guy and should at least be putting the opponent under pressure imho. Recall when he very first joined the team there were beautiful moments when he chased down almost lost causes in the corners, put the defender under pressure, won the ball and looked like he was really up for it. Gonna choose to think of him that way.
Guly is an ok player, there is no way he is on a par with Lallana. The striking options we now have - Lee & Sharp, certainly Lee is above him in the pecking order for striker - I'm not convinced he can cut it on the wing, purely because of defensive duties. Lallana gets forward and as Guly is attack-minded, as well as the full backs who like to get up the pitch, we can be left short at the back on many occassions. His tackling lets him down, and as a winger you need to get up and down the pitch to help attack as well as defend. If we hadn't signed Lee I'm sure Guly would have played regularly up top, maybe even getting more goals. But, just because we have better options upfront I don't think that warrants putting him on the wing for the sake of it. Oh, and whoever said Chaplow is poor at finishing is laughable. Yes, he is off the pace since return from injury but before he was scoring for fun. And his strike against Man Utd was a beast. If he had stayed fit I've know doubt he would have scored more than Guly.
Those who say Guly can't tackle are wrong currently. It may have been the case earlier in the season but he's learnt the role of RM better and has really improved his tackling and defending. You need to remember RM isn't his natural role, he's out of position at RM yet still doing his best for the team. And despite being out of position he's clearly the best bet in that position. He's more comfortable in a free role or upfront with Rickie. He also gets more interceptions and fills in at RB where necessary, something I only see Hammond and Guly do out of the team. He's also got stronger which means he's improving in the air all the time.
Come on, don't be a mug. You're welcome to your opinion but enlighten those of us who like him - can you explain why you think he's so bad? This comment adds nothing if you're not going to explain yourself.
These people cannot explain themselves Dan. Because they have no evidence or reasoning to back up their nonsense claims.
Guly is hated because he isn't Lambert or Lallana or Chaplow or De Ridder!!! Lambert and Lallana are liked for obvious reasons. Chaplow is liked because of the excellent form he was in for 4 months early this season + 1 goal against Man U, De Ridder is liked because he is fast and runs at people. doesn't seem to matter that he only takes the ball with him past the player one out of 20 times he tries it!!! Dare I say that some of the cyber freaks develop a liking based on tweets and the fact Guly doesn't tweet too much (from what I gather) may well be a downer for him with these guys. If Guly scores a goal then it is a sitter. I Lamber or Lallana score the same goal it because they are wise and their postioning/anticipation is superb. So Guly's positioning is good. That's why he makes things look so simple that others assume it was easy. I put it to the haters that Guly is fine on the right. He played there brilliantly for the awesome first 4 months which has given us the position we now find ourselves in. Most of his assists came from those 4 months. I think he often doesn't try for headers when he can see that the only thing he could achieve would be to help it onto the keeper. Why waste energy unless there is someone ahead of you? As for the leaves us exposed. Man Utd and Barcelona (last seasons CL finalist I might add) both play with wingers that cut in and full backs that overlap the winger. Without a winger cutting in then the full back stays in his half. Cutting in creates that extra space to cross into and also by cutting in provides an extra player in the shooting zone'. So those who use this 'exposed' argument. Take a look at all the top teams and how they play. Then say we are doing something differently. After all our chairman's ambition (and hopefully ours) is to get up there with those top teams and we won't do that by emulating Stoke or Villa etc. We will only achieve that ambition, no matter how hard we try by staying as a rigid 4-4-2 and having a safety first policy. As Gordon Gecko will understand......You have to speculate to accumulate. Since that Pompey game I would bet Guly has noticed the reaction to what was plain and simple an error, not laziness and is working his socks off defensively these days!!! Something positive to come out of all the moaning some people do I suppose.
