Alex Gilliead

What you think 1 goal and 1 assist is good enough do you?

You do understand it’s not about running round doing nothing in football now. He was a shambles last season in terms of productivity.

 

Gilly will probably be in our top 20 appearances holders by the end of the contract. Not the most esteemed of out puts unfortunately but I think he’s a decent squad player for this level

 

I have no problem at all with this. We absolutely need back up and options and as has been said, he gives his all and never let us down.
There was justified criticism last season of our midfield as a whole. In all honesty we lacked viable options so saw a regular pairing of Smallwood and AG which left us woefully short going forwards, especially at home.
Already we look so much stronger in that area of the pitch

 

Hes been a constant in the club treading water for a while now. If we persist with players like Gilly, who are simply steady, continually play the ball sideways and backwards, we will not progress from last season. He works hard yes, but to what effect?! His goals and assist stats from midfield are woeful. Now was the time to move on from Gilliead. Just hope East isn't pushed further out of the picture by him re-signing. For me, East is the better, more effective footballer

 

I said this a couple of days ago. If we are going leaner, there's no need to have both of them in the squad and with East the one still under contract, we could have not offered Gilly another contract and still had cover sorted. As things stand now, we will probably see East move on, which I will be sad to see.

 

Agreed. Gilly is allegedly one of our higher earners too. His wages could have been used to possibly push the boat out on some much needed pace on the wing, or another in up top. Dont see the logic. Keep the same steady players, how do we expect to improve enough to make a difference? Watch Hughes start with Gilly and Smallwood at Crawley...

 

Kevin McDonald hasn’t scored many goals in his good career and nobody is expecting many from him here. So why are people expecting them from Gilly who is now a defensive midfielder

 

No Kevin, my inclusion of the term 'allegedly' doesn't mean it is completely accurate, yet yoyr assuming that the source of this information is Twitter. It isn't. It happens to be good friend, who has links to the club, and he has been privy to information in the past, and has proved to be a reliable source. Alas, I believe this to be true

 

Well he isn’t a defensive midfielder.

Smallwood and Clayton were out DM last season. Gilly played along side them but was allowed get forward.

1 goal and 1 assist is unacceptable. Why even try to defend him when he himself will know that isn’t good enough. Seriously, some fans just need to wake up.

 

If he's getting paid more than he was in his last contract, I'd be very very suprised. Given the quality brought in for the midfield spots. He can't be anymore than a squad filler. Personally, i feel is wages could be spent on better. I do have reason to believe that my source is much more reliable than than most waffling on Twitter. I think you'd be suprised. Ill leave it there though.

 

Neither had Smallwood but he got 3 in just one season. It's taken Gillead not far off 150 games to that.

 

I bet if Gilly took every free kick and corner like Smallwood does, he would have tons more assists than Smallwood has

 

Wish more people could see what we do however, running hard is acceptable to many.

 

We all have our opinions. Personally I wasn't too bothered either way, but I do think that there is no way we will get 90 mins every week from our 2 oldies. We saw that last season. However the opinion that does seem to matter is that of our experienced premiership manager, and I assume that of his very experienced number 2. If Gilliead is that bad surely we wouldn't have re-signed him. I agree his attacking output is dire, but maybe all his "running hard" closes down spaces and cuts off options for the opposition. Unseen but necessary. The thing that annoys me most about him is that he has most of the attributes - he's reasonably quick, good feet, can beat a man, he even wins his share of headers. He just can't seem to use these abilities to best effect.

 

Absolutely no one, mentioned assists.

For the record though, he wouldn't. Otherwise, at some point during his 140 City appearances he'd have at least taken the odd corner.

 

Alex Gilliead should not be judged on goals and assists - it isn't his game. In the goals and assists department he provides more than Josh Cullen did but nobody on here thinks he is a bad player.
The real reason Gilliead gets vilified by some is because (Cook excepted) there are not enough goals across the team so he's the ideal scapegoat. Walker / Chapman / Oliver should've contributed an extra 10+ goals between them last season. CBs should've contributed more from set pieces.
He should be judged for what he does bring to the team and for that I'm happy he has signed a new contract