anonn
Well-known member
Good article about Giles today in The Athletic - https://theathletic.com/4605714/2023/06/14/wolves-ryan-giles-transfer/
The article is behind a paywall so have copied and pasted the text below. There are a few bits that reference pictures in the article so you'll just have to use your imagination/memory for those bits.
Wolves’ Ryan Giles crossroads: Time to sell, or give him a chance? (The Athletic)
As he contemplated the prospect of a difficult summer in the transfer market, Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Julen Lopetegui floated the idea of making signings from the Championship.
There is one player from the second tier who scouts at every club will be well aware of.
Since making his Championship debut in September 2020, this guy has the division’s fourth-most assists, despite playing many of his 121 games as a full-back. He also has the best ‘expected assists’ total of any Championship player in that time, suggesting that, with better finishing from team-mates, he might have topped the assists table, too. And he has delivered more crosses, and more successful crosses, than anyone else in the second tier over those three seasons.
The good news for Lopetegui is Ryan Giles, for that’s who our mystery man is, already belongs to Wolves.
“He’s such a natural athlete and his pace is really deceptive as well,” Matt Jackson, Wolves’ strategic player marketing manager, tells The Athletic. “The quality of his left foot is there for all to see, but his pace gives him a chance to play at the really highest level.
“Then it just becomes about a coach liking him, fitting him into a formation and backing him.”
The words of Jackson, whose duties include overseeing the loan spells of Wolves players at other clubs, cut to the heart of the decision facing Lopetegui and company this summer over Giles. After eight different loans to seven teams and at the age of 23, the time has come for officials at Molineux to make a definitive call on a player whose contract with his parent club has two years left to run.
Is Giles ready and able to step up to the Premier League with Wolves? Or is now, on the back of his most productive season to date, the time to cash in on one of the most successful graduates of the club’s academy?
“We’ve shown with Morgan (Gibbs-White, the academy product who moved to Nottingham Forest last summer in a deal that could earn Wolves £42million) that we can take big decisions when we have to about players’ futures lying elsewhere, but the finances have to match the ability that the players have,” Jackson says, in a clear message to suitors that Wolves plan to drive a hard bargain if Giles does leave.
“The coach (Lopetegui) and his team worked very hard, took an interest in all of the loan players, watched all of the footage we gave them and made themselves well aware of what they can do. They’ve monitored him really closely, so now it will just come down to how they want their squad to look.
“We’re under no contract pressure, which is a great position for the club to be in, and then it is all about the coach making decisions for the make-up of his squad.”
Giles, who was born a half-hour drive away in Telford and joined Wolves at the age of eight, has the virtue of being versatile.
Having earned a reputation as a highly promising winger, he has moved further back towards his own goal in recent seasons, beginning last season on loan at Middlesbrough as a wing-back before operating as a left-back following Michael Carrick’s appointment in October.
It was a similar picture at Blackburn Rovers in the second half of 2021-22, except in the first half of that season, he’d operated as a left-winger for Cardiff City. He had previously cut his teeth, also in the Championship, with loans at Coventry City (twice) and Rotherham United.
His attacking prowess has rarely been in doubt, but the big decision for Wolves will be whether his defensive work has improved sufficiently for him to cope in the Premier League.
“It certainly has progressed,” Jackson says. “He’s much better one-versus-one and aerially now.
“By his own admission, before it was all about attacking play. He now understands that to play at the top level you have to have all elements of your game at the top level, and he’s worked extremely hard to do that.
“He’s been encouraged to play a certain way in the Middlesbrough side that really suited him, which meant he did end up as a winger a lot of the time. But he has been forced into one-versus-one situations and into far-post (defensive) headers that are uncomfortable at times for wingers playing back there.
“He now no longer looks like a winger playing at full-back, but it’s still fair to say that, because of the qualities he’s got, playing him high up the pitch is where you get the best return. He will then start to add goals to his game. Then you’ve got a really formidable force.”
In his season at Middlesbrough, which ended with defeat to Coventry in the play-off semi-finals, he recorded the most successful crosses of any Championship player (102) while only Viktor Gyokeres of Coventry and Sunderland’s Jack Clarke (both 12) beat his 11 assists.
His crosses were varied, too. Many are like this one against Luton Town in December, where Giles charged down the left and collected a pass before whipping a looping ball to striker Chuba Akpom at the far post…
… and the striker makes no mistake with his headed finish.
But there were also examples like this, from that same match against Luton, when Giles showed the presence of mind to pick out a team-mate.
The Wolves loanee makes a good run and is found by Jonny Howson. Then, instead of curling in a trademark cross along the six-yard box for the forwards to attack…
… he pulls the ball back, behind the Luton defenders, for Matt Crooks…… who is well placed but ends up sending his shot off target.
Analysis from smarterscout underlines how attacking remains Giles’ stronger suit. His pizza chart compares aspects of his game to others playing the same position, awarding scores from zero to 99 based on either the frequency with which they carry out certain actions or how successful they are when they do.
Giles’ low numbers for defending intensity, disrupting opposition moves and aerial duels show he is a relatively hands-off defender. And of left-sided players in the Championship last season, he made the third-fewest tackles and second-fewest interceptions.
His “true tackle” rate, which combines tackles, fouls and failed challenges and can be used as a guide to how often a player ‘puts a foot in’, was the third lowest. But his true-tackle success rate of 74.7 per cent is high, so while not the most tenacious of defenders, he is relatively effective when he does challenge for the ball.
And taking a look back at clips from his season, you can find examples of good defending.
On this occasion, against Coventry, he puts himself in position to intercept a cross from the opposite flank…… and beats Gustavo Hamer to clear the danger.
And here, against Wigan Athletic, Giles again takes up a good position to deal with a threatening James McClean pass…… prevents Thelo Aasgaard from getting in a shot at goal…… and then wins the ball back.
As stated above, Wolves are now approaching decision time. Does Giles’ obvious attacking excellence make him worth a chance back aboard the mothership in the Premier League, where his defensive weaknesses are more likely to be exposed? And if the answer to that is no, how much money can the club bring in by selling him, either as a winger or a full-back?
“We get calls from all over Europe about him,” Jackson says. “A lot of times, clubs play 4-3-3 and they want to play him in either of the wide positions in that formation. Teams playing old-fashioned wingers definitely covet him as well.
“He’s proven he has the strength to play as a wing-back, which is not easy. We’ve seen him play as a winger at Cardiff and as a full-back at Middlesbrough and be more productive at Middlesbrough, so it’s not really about the position — it’s about the way the lads are encouraged to play within the system.
“This was his eighth loan and he has improved something in his game in each of them. He thinks about the game. You shouldn’t have favourites (in my job) but he is one of my favourites, because he’s funny and personable and the fact he has fitted into every changing room and we’ve never heard one word of discontent speaks volumes about him.
“He’s a great character, and he’s going to have a great future in the game.”
The article is behind a paywall so have copied and pasted the text below. There are a few bits that reference pictures in the article so you'll just have to use your imagination/memory for those bits.
Wolves’ Ryan Giles crossroads: Time to sell, or give him a chance? (The Athletic)
As he contemplated the prospect of a difficult summer in the transfer market, Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Julen Lopetegui floated the idea of making signings from the Championship.
There is one player from the second tier who scouts at every club will be well aware of.
Since making his Championship debut in September 2020, this guy has the division’s fourth-most assists, despite playing many of his 121 games as a full-back. He also has the best ‘expected assists’ total of any Championship player in that time, suggesting that, with better finishing from team-mates, he might have topped the assists table, too. And he has delivered more crosses, and more successful crosses, than anyone else in the second tier over those three seasons.
The good news for Lopetegui is Ryan Giles, for that’s who our mystery man is, already belongs to Wolves.
“He’s such a natural athlete and his pace is really deceptive as well,” Matt Jackson, Wolves’ strategic player marketing manager, tells The Athletic. “The quality of his left foot is there for all to see, but his pace gives him a chance to play at the really highest level.
“Then it just becomes about a coach liking him, fitting him into a formation and backing him.”
The words of Jackson, whose duties include overseeing the loan spells of Wolves players at other clubs, cut to the heart of the decision facing Lopetegui and company this summer over Giles. After eight different loans to seven teams and at the age of 23, the time has come for officials at Molineux to make a definitive call on a player whose contract with his parent club has two years left to run.
Is Giles ready and able to step up to the Premier League with Wolves? Or is now, on the back of his most productive season to date, the time to cash in on one of the most successful graduates of the club’s academy?
“We’ve shown with Morgan (Gibbs-White, the academy product who moved to Nottingham Forest last summer in a deal that could earn Wolves £42million) that we can take big decisions when we have to about players’ futures lying elsewhere, but the finances have to match the ability that the players have,” Jackson says, in a clear message to suitors that Wolves plan to drive a hard bargain if Giles does leave.
“The coach (Lopetegui) and his team worked very hard, took an interest in all of the loan players, watched all of the footage we gave them and made themselves well aware of what they can do. They’ve monitored him really closely, so now it will just come down to how they want their squad to look.
“We’re under no contract pressure, which is a great position for the club to be in, and then it is all about the coach making decisions for the make-up of his squad.”
Giles, who was born a half-hour drive away in Telford and joined Wolves at the age of eight, has the virtue of being versatile.
Having earned a reputation as a highly promising winger, he has moved further back towards his own goal in recent seasons, beginning last season on loan at Middlesbrough as a wing-back before operating as a left-back following Michael Carrick’s appointment in October.
It was a similar picture at Blackburn Rovers in the second half of 2021-22, except in the first half of that season, he’d operated as a left-winger for Cardiff City. He had previously cut his teeth, also in the Championship, with loans at Coventry City (twice) and Rotherham United.
His attacking prowess has rarely been in doubt, but the big decision for Wolves will be whether his defensive work has improved sufficiently for him to cope in the Premier League.
“It certainly has progressed,” Jackson says. “He’s much better one-versus-one and aerially now.
“By his own admission, before it was all about attacking play. He now understands that to play at the top level you have to have all elements of your game at the top level, and he’s worked extremely hard to do that.
“He’s been encouraged to play a certain way in the Middlesbrough side that really suited him, which meant he did end up as a winger a lot of the time. But he has been forced into one-versus-one situations and into far-post (defensive) headers that are uncomfortable at times for wingers playing back there.
“He now no longer looks like a winger playing at full-back, but it’s still fair to say that, because of the qualities he’s got, playing him high up the pitch is where you get the best return. He will then start to add goals to his game. Then you’ve got a really formidable force.”
In his season at Middlesbrough, which ended with defeat to Coventry in the play-off semi-finals, he recorded the most successful crosses of any Championship player (102) while only Viktor Gyokeres of Coventry and Sunderland’s Jack Clarke (both 12) beat his 11 assists.
His crosses were varied, too. Many are like this one against Luton Town in December, where Giles charged down the left and collected a pass before whipping a looping ball to striker Chuba Akpom at the far post…
… and the striker makes no mistake with his headed finish.
But there were also examples like this, from that same match against Luton, when Giles showed the presence of mind to pick out a team-mate.
The Wolves loanee makes a good run and is found by Jonny Howson. Then, instead of curling in a trademark cross along the six-yard box for the forwards to attack…
… he pulls the ball back, behind the Luton defenders, for Matt Crooks…… who is well placed but ends up sending his shot off target.
Analysis from smarterscout underlines how attacking remains Giles’ stronger suit. His pizza chart compares aspects of his game to others playing the same position, awarding scores from zero to 99 based on either the frequency with which they carry out certain actions or how successful they are when they do.
Giles’ low numbers for defending intensity, disrupting opposition moves and aerial duels show he is a relatively hands-off defender. And of left-sided players in the Championship last season, he made the third-fewest tackles and second-fewest interceptions.
His “true tackle” rate, which combines tackles, fouls and failed challenges and can be used as a guide to how often a player ‘puts a foot in’, was the third lowest. But his true-tackle success rate of 74.7 per cent is high, so while not the most tenacious of defenders, he is relatively effective when he does challenge for the ball.
And taking a look back at clips from his season, you can find examples of good defending.
On this occasion, against Coventry, he puts himself in position to intercept a cross from the opposite flank…… and beats Gustavo Hamer to clear the danger.
And here, against Wigan Athletic, Giles again takes up a good position to deal with a threatening James McClean pass…… prevents Thelo Aasgaard from getting in a shot at goal…… and then wins the ball back.
As stated above, Wolves are now approaching decision time. Does Giles’ obvious attacking excellence make him worth a chance back aboard the mothership in the Premier League, where his defensive weaknesses are more likely to be exposed? And if the answer to that is no, how much money can the club bring in by selling him, either as a winger or a full-back?
“We get calls from all over Europe about him,” Jackson says. “A lot of times, clubs play 4-3-3 and they want to play him in either of the wide positions in that formation. Teams playing old-fashioned wingers definitely covet him as well.
“He’s proven he has the strength to play as a wing-back, which is not easy. We’ve seen him play as a winger at Cardiff and as a full-back at Middlesbrough and be more productive at Middlesbrough, so it’s not really about the position — it’s about the way the lads are encouraged to play within the system.
“This was his eighth loan and he has improved something in his game in each of them. He thinks about the game. You shouldn’t have favourites (in my job) but he is one of my favourites, because he’s funny and personable and the fact he has fitted into every changing room and we’ve never heard one word of discontent speaks volumes about him.
“He’s a great character, and he’s going to have a great future in the game.”
