As probably expected, no Gio in the starting lineup today against Chelsea. Probably going to come off the bench again.
He's good for scoring, which is what matters the most. He keeps scoring, he can be insufferable if he wants.
The problem is a player isn't going to be insufferable and continue to score for long. His teammates will get tired of that and stop giving him the ball even if the coaches don't bench him. I get your point and its not wrong but it can only go so far.
So, maybe I missed it but when did anyone at Dortmund say he's insufferable or a problem? Everything I've ever seen says he's a professional and a good teammate at Dortmund. now if there's something I missed, then no problem. If not, it sounds like someone is pegging Reyna because of the WC stuff which is unfair.
In one of the two Reyna threads there are people saying he's a bit of a problem and linked some stuff about it. Didn't bother reading, but if it were true, it won't matter as far as he's scoring.
Minutes played for Reyna since mid-November: DNP 8 minutes DNP 45 minutes 21 minutes - 1 goal 29 minutes - 1 goal DNP 20 minutes - 1 goal 1 minute 65 minutes DNP DNP Terzic's commentary strongly suggests that he is handling Reyna cautiously, just like Berhalter did. And Dortmund is rolling in any event, with 8 wins and 22 goals in 8 matches since the resumption of the season last month. Let's hope that Reyna can continue to stay healthy and prove that he is ready for more minutes with Dortmund.
I'm a big Reyna fan, but his lack of minutes is starting to be a concern. If it is health related (which his recent production leads me to believe), it is starting to be very worrying that this long after his injuries he's still not fully recovered. If it is not injury related, his loss of minutes is concerning because you sure don't expect a guy at his age to be losing ground to others on the field. These are the years you expect to see significant improvement and progress. Sitting out as much as he has in these important years is not good for his overall development. At this point, I'm just hoping he gets back to playing more regularly and producing before the season is out. If next year rolls around and he's still stagnating in terms of minutes for whatever reason, we will need to start recalibrating our expectations. No matter the talent, if he can't get on the field and play regular minutes, he can't really become a guy you rely on or plan around. And I think it is a real shame because a healthy and in-form Reyna brings things to the team that no one else does.
Reyna responsible for 2 of the 8... 100% - Borussia Dortmund are the only side from Europe’s Top 10 leagues to have won each of their competitive matches in 2023 (8/8). Perfect. pic.twitter.com/gEwZsscZvP— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) February 20, 2023
Keep in mind that Gio is competing with very good young players who are not only very talented but who may be better fit with the fact that Dortmund is trending back to its Klopp tenure and focusing on transition attacks and it is working. Adeyemi (36.7 kph), Mallen (35.2 kph), and Bynoe-Gittens (35.0 kph) are all flat out burners which is very valuable in a transition attack system. Gio was clocked at only 33.0 kph even before his year+ of hamstring injuries and is likely under instructions to not flat out sprint.
So far Terzic doesn't come out saying he's vital to the team and they have no plans to sell him, he's doing fine.
Gio has a more limited role at Dortmund than he has had with the USMNT. Maybe the coaches have lower expectations for him there? They are typically a selling club so it is in their interest to both keep Gio healthy and prevent any negative information about him from reaching the press. I think that it is fair to paint Gio’s professional career with his poor behavior with the national team, because it is equally as professional an endeavor and this past World Cup was arguably the highest level in which he has been involved.
His peers (Haaland and Bellingham) have left him behind and now the young guys who were formerly youth team players are moving ahead of him in development too. The stalled development has been going on for some time now, this is not new. Even back when Haaland was with the team, Reyna was an intermittent player. He has never developed much at all as a national team player. I’ll reiterate that again: he has not developed much at all as a national team player (contributor), much less a starter.
Reyna is behind Haaland and Bellingham, one of the best players in the world and one of the top prospects in the world.... if that's your standard, just wait until you find out how much of our player pool has been doing recently... When you combine this with players who are injured (Pulisic), aren't playing much (Dest, Reyna), or are in weird situations (Weah playing LB), it's a tough period for the pool.- guys like Jedi, Ream, McKenzie, CCV are doing well. But the concern outweighs the positives https://t.co/OBpHLnPRRc— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) February 20, 2023
They both left Reyna behind a year ago, and Reyna has essentially fallen off the map since and is getting left behind the current youth players at Dortmund and with the national team. That is not an opinion, those are the facts. Those are the facts of his career. Reyna is not on the ascension, he is on the decline. At this point you have to start looking at guys like Cade Cowell and Taylor Booth to push for minutes behind Weah because Reyna can’t play himself onto the field for whatever reason.
If Reyna was at the level of Haaland or Bellingham, he would be... the best player in USMNT history by a wide margin. So yeah everyone is quite aware that Reyna is not that already if he ever will be... not exactly breaking news here.
I disagree. A player at his age who cannot get onto the field is missing critical developmental time. I agree that he could turn things around if he would be able to get onto the field for a consistent string of months of games, but if we are expecting that we are expecting something that he has yet to have accomplished in his career. So if and until that happens, the whole thing is quite underwhelming. It’s like discount John O’Brien.
Have his injuries cost him development time? Sure. Should there be real concern his injuries have a long term negative consequence? Sure, though that's far from certain. Is he not getting on the field consistently? Well, that's not true. No, he's not starting, but he's a reserve who plays nearly every game and gets and occasional start right now, which also coincides with his injuries. Let's let him get healthy. He's 20. I have no idea why people have to be so dramatic about everything.
His development time is intermittent and his performance is inconsistent. I’d play Weah, Tillman, and Booth over him for the forseeable future.
And he's a total dickhead as far as I'm (and you're, I gather) concerned. But even though I greatly dislike him as a person, I agree with @gogorath that he just needs to get healthy and that he's got the potential to be a fantastic player. The silver lining to his extended injury may be that he's having to mature as a person to deal with things not going his way. Or maybe he won't deal with it and will become the next what-could-have-been player for us. I'm not making any definitive statements about that at this stage.
I haven’t given up on him, but at some point you have to start making him earn the benefit of the doubt. The doubt is piling up at this stage. The scales are starting to teeter toward doubt, in my opinion. There are some real red flags.
My concerns are health related. Despite the injuries, he has 5g and 2a across 800 Bundesliga and Champions League minutes this year. Everybody has to earn their minutes, but Reyna's production despite the injuries and despite what you view as regression, is better than the replacements you've posited. I've been someone who very much believes in what Weah brings to the team, and how we need more players who contribute off ball, but that doesn't mean Reyna is declining or isn't strongly skilled.