What do Eden Hazard, Danny Blind, Paolo Maldini, Serge Busquets, Michael Laudrup, Justin Kluivert, Erling Haaland, Pipita Higuain, Tim Weah, Gio Reyna (and dozen and dozens of other pro soccer players have in common?) [and maybe Reyna and Kluivert more than some others....]
yeah a teenaged son dying can do that to a family (speaking from experience - my brother died when he was 20 and it def did a number on mine)
I'm kind of surprised at people dismissing Brandt and saying Reyna should start over him. Brandt is one of the most influential and creative attacking players Dortmund have, maybe the second-most important field player behind Bellingham. Now, if you wanted to say Reyna should start over Malen or Adeyemi, I think I could be persuaded there. But I've got to say, the guy doesn't look super fit to me.
At this point I think I would agree with you. Brandt is a mature and classy player that brings it on O and D. Gio has always had the chops on O but he was just starting to show some effort as a two way player when he got injured and now I think he is a bit fearful to make challenges. Like CP, he appears to be going through the motions and only making challenges when there is a high % chance of a steal/counter combo. Players like this often don't understand that the pressure you put on the ball itself can lead to chances going the other direction. But Gio is certainly not the 1st talented young player to suffer a terrible stretch of injuries and come back a little gun-shy on tackles. This wasn't just a hammy strain that kept him out for a month or two. He lost like a year to his hammy issues and then got thrown under the bus by his NT coach. I expect Gio to get more minutes down the stretch and hope that he hits a rich vein of form.... if he does then I think he should be starting right along side Brandt. Gio has the higher ceiling but until he proves he is either so good offensively that you have to play him or he ups his game on D then I think he is at least a step down from Brandt on the depth chart.
Everybody who knows the game realizes Gio has a lot of potential --potential to make it in top clubs, even. They also know he's not there yet.
I am hopeful that Gio has mentors on the Dortmund squad who can help him continue to develop all the aspects of his game. He seems motivated. He wants to be a great player. And people who want to be great learn to listen to those who can help them be great. So hopefully he has someone like that at Dortmund. Before his last injury he was beginning to show, IMO, an elite ability to boss the game from the #10 spot, in the style of the big, strong-but-technical, floating, “see the opportunities and create them” number 10s of yesteryear. And Dortmund was playing him in such a way that he could show that. Now maybe that is a bygone role in modern play, I don’t know. You see a lot of it in MLS but less in top 5 leagues. Personally I don’t think he is as effective out on the wing where elite pace is now the norm. He can still create from there, but so can the Tim Weahs of the world. What they can’t do nearly as well is run the middle like Gio can. And in so many team sports controlling the middle is often how games are won.
From my perspective the first thing he needs to do is get back into full game shape. He only played 20 the other day but still appeared somewhat gassed to me, at one point hands on knees towards the end of his shift. It's been a long stretch without competitive games, and the game was open with a lot of running, but he is a 20 y/o professional athlete. He should be able to go all out for 20 minutes regardless. It's one thing to not be in match shape, start a game and the gas out after 75 minutes, but it seems to me like it's a bigger problem than that with Gio, and has been ever since his return at the end of the summer. He never had an elite motor pre-injury but I don't remember it really being a big deal. Hopefully his minutes continue to ramp up and he continues to gain fitness level, because if he can't become a 90 minute type player he is not going to reach his potential, period.
He has elite potential to create from the middle of the field near the goal. Call it a 10, call it a second striker playing "alle spalle" (off the shoulder). Hell, call it a false nine (although I don't think he has the CF instincts needed for that in the modern game) - his combination of size, strength, vision and technical ability is elite.
What is the primary obstacle to playing him behind two forwards (say, Pulisic and Weah) and junking the tradition CF? What is the argument against that that prevented Gregg from even trying it? If the MMA midfield is sacrosanct it seems like it ought to have been tried.
My thought is it's related to the press.You need a full 9 to force the keeper to move the ball at tempo. I would argue that playing Reyna and Pulisic together makes a press useless.* *Which is fine with me.I think it's overrated and the pendulum will soon swing back to more traditional styles of defense.
I think this is it - the traditional 10 role had limited defensive responsibilities and that doesn't fit with modern pressing soccer. Playing a 10 (even one that presses a lot) with 2 forwards puts a lot of defense far up the field and leaves gaps in the back. To me, the modern 8 is supposed to solve that problem - providing defensive cover closer to your goal and also attacking flair closer to the opponent's goal.
Gio had pretty limited availability in the lead up to the World Cup due to injury issues, and it's possible Berhalter didn't want to try something for the first time at the World Cup, especially in the group stage. While it's certainly fair to criticize his decisions, it seems pretty clear Berhalter's main focus at the World Cup was getting us out of group, and he did what he felt he had to do to make that happen.
Or, if you want to keep the shape, Weah as the CF, so you still have his speed, and he can make runs for balls over the top even towards the outside, and have Pulisic or Reyna fill the space he creates. Yeah, you aren't going to have him win a bunch of long balls when battling with CBs and bring people into play, but our other guys don't really accomplish that anyway. Besides, the whole Berhalter thing was playing from the back and through the midfield.
Reyna begins today's match against Mainz on the bench: 🔛 So starten wir heute Abend!Rein in die App! #M05BVB📱 https://t.co/11oGI8FLAc— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) January 25, 2023
Reyna’s not starting is a bit disappointing (to me) with Bellingham out today (disciplinary points). Let’s be more creative!
Does anyone have any insights into why Reyna has not started the last couple of games? I thought he was typically a starter when fit to play most/all of a game, which he should be right now. I chalked the last game up to managing minutes and rotating, but it does seem odd and disappointing for him to be starting on the bench again.
He lost his starting spot the last couple games before the WC, when he was putzing it up. My theory was he was trying to avoid injury so he could play a large role there (how'd that work out?) Now this may be carry over, and he has to earn that spot back, w/ performances like last time out, or better. Outside of his spectacular goal, he missed some big chances.
Reyna scores the probable winner for Dortmund, as he slots home a header off a set piece that had been going wide into an open goal. 2-1 Dortmund.