Oh thank you!!!! I have wanted to visit that site for yeeeeaars but was always filled with self doubt. Thank you for this release, thank you so much!
Joker again ⚔️ Unsere Startelf für #BOCBVB! pic.twitter.com/zOszRLkaT7— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) February 8, 2023
If he doesn't even start in this lineup then it is hard to see when he is going to start. This goes above and beyond WRT using "kid gloves". Hopefully they are saving him for the CL or a more important league game but as of right now, it sure seems like he will only be a sub. I guess it is OK if it helps him stay healthy in the long run but I sure wish we had a player that could produce consistently on O AND play a ton of minutes. E.g. Bellingham is a beast. Dude is always on the pitch.
Yeah I have no explanation. 4 goals in his last 4 appearances? I feel like they are trying to get bynoe gittens reps to raise his value but I don't see superstar in that kid yet.
I dunno. Gittens looks pretty talented to me.... but he is a winger and Gio has been playing more of the 8/10 role. I am not sure the two are all that related. Probably being super cautious because of the consistent hammy injuries last season... and also because they have been scoring enough goals... although Gio is literally the reason they have 4 more points in the league.
It's not merely weird that he's not starting, but that they consistently prefer other bench options to him -- it's not even that he's the primary supersub for BVB. One might even say Terzic has a "very limited" role in mind for Gio.
Gio was used for time wasting purposes and gets a few seconds in stoppage time. Dortmund were fortunate to escape with the win today. It was a pretty intense game and both Brandt and Bellingham were past the point of being gassed by the end. Terzic is piling a lot of minutes on those guys and he's liable to run them into the ground. He must be seriously concerned about Gio's health. I can't really think of another reason he would be an unused sub in this one.
Well, there are other reasons Terzic might be unwilling to play Gio: for some reason Gio might be deficient as a player (except e.g. for certain desperation scenarios).
Maybe, but they really could have used an insurance goal today, and the goals were there for the taking on the counter. BVB were under quite a bit of pressure those last twenty minutes. You got a guy on the bench who has been on a serious hot streak and you leave him there, while your starters are sucking wind pretty hard. It worked out for him today but...
A healthy Gio Reyna is, minimally, a $50 million profit for BVB. They're doing okay without him playing a lot of minutes, and he's shown he can have an impact in limited time - I figure they are being VERY cautious with him this year and looking at the season as recovery time. If that's the case, his usage makes a lot of sense.
Pretty lame for a coach to put a player on for two minutes of stoppage time when he has scored in 4 games in a row (off the bench!). Seems almost like he wanted that "streak" to end. It would have been better for Gio if he hadn't even played given the minutes and quality of the turf.
His late appearance in a 2-1 win: 90+5 | Welcome, Gio! 👋➡️ Reyna⬅️ Brandt#BOCBVB 1-2 pic.twitter.com/85WMxYizCd— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) February 8, 2023
Sure, exactly -- they could've used him, but didn't. That's revealing. It's possible Gio is that much of a health risk. It's also possible Terzic has a much different estimation of Gio's current talent than US fans do. I'm not committed to any view, but I think US fans and commentators should be entertaining the idea that Gio isn't *right now* as good a player as they thought he was. Well, that's your assumption. It's certainly possible. But let's assume you didn't know anything about Gio Reyna and got a quick summary of his season since December 1 or so. You'd probably say "could be a health risk. But I wonder whether there are problems with his play." What's more, I'm not sure the huge cautiousness speaks all that well to Reyna as a prospect either. It's been a really long time since the initial injury. I haven't heard a plausible differential diagnosis that explains what these injuries are and why we should have confidence for Reyna's mid 20s.
I agree that we're certainly at the point where it makes sense to wonder if there is more to Gio's lack of playing time than injury concerns. Unless he's sustained another injury that hasn't been disclosed, it just doesn't make sense that he's playing so little at this point because of fitness. He was playing much more months ago. It seems possible that they just don't think he's better than the players they're playing instead of him.
The only answer to the subbing when he scores as often as he has is there is still a physical issue that are causing BVB to protect him. That could explain some of the WC issues.
Could be some and some. Looks like Gio might be competing more directly with Brandt, Bellingham, and Reus now for playing time and Brandt has been on a tear lately. Gio currently is tied for second on the team in goals for the season and he leads the team in goals per minute by a wide margin. He just saved Terzic's bacon twice in the matter of a week with late goals and Terzic has always seemed to rate Gio in the past. I'd be stunned if Gio is not still firmly in BVB's long term plans. They are in the game of developing young talent and selling it for a profit. We can all revisit this in a year and see where Gio is. If he stays healthy, my bet is he is one of the centerpieces of the team. Does seem like something is going on at the moment though. At one point, the two Dortmund talking heads listed all of the attacking talent that were available on they bench today and they did not mention Gio. No mention of how it was strange that they guy who has scored three goals in three games was only getting garbage time at the end either. Maybe just oversight and reading too much into it but IDK.