I said at the outset that Forest was not a good choice for Reyna. He should have gone to Spain or Italy. I'd prefer the latter. He'll go back to Dortmund in June, but there is still time to get minutes at Forest. So far, 3 appearances and 38 minutes.
The concern that I have that nobody seems to want to address is the why he isn't getting any minutes? I get that Forest brought him in as insurance. But since he's been there they have not played that well especially in attack the last 2 matches yet he still can't find the field. Makes no sense to me.
I am trying really hard to get some understanding of how Reyna can be sitting on the sidelines (or not even on the bench at all) on a team struggling to score goals yet he's somehow still a top starter for us. Some logical technical explanation that's about Forest and how they play and not something about Reyna.
He was never going to be a starter, and he'll be gone at the end of the season. He needs to do more in games to get more minutes.
"We"? "We" did not do anything. Gio chose that. Again, this is something that "he" has to take ownership of. "We" did not do this to him. Forest did not do this to him. Dortmund did not do this to him. He was the major driver of that decision as he can't be sent anywhere he does not want to go. While I have high hopes Gio gets out of his funk as he has a bagload of talent, we have to accept him 'right now' when we are talking about callups and time on the field for the US 'right now.' Anything less is uncivilized.
I agree with you. But there's no evidence Reyna isn't working hard and doing the right things behind the scenes.
Reyna picked up an injury. This was just a loan with no option to buy. Forrest already have an established attacking lineup The whole deal looks agent and player driven, rather than coach and club driven. This isn't necessarily bad, so long as Reyna draws the right conclusions.
he's 21. I think Forrest was a terrible choice. I would like to see Reyna in La Liga or League 1 personally. Maybe even Serie A. But I think he'd do better France or Spain. We'll see what happens this summer.
Well, aside from that 10 minutes when Aston Villa lost concentration, NF attackers haven't scored in a few games. So hopefully that gives him some minutes.
I don't really think it's fair to say Gio isn't working hard, but for a guy who is fairly inconsistent in defensive effort going to a team coached by Nuno was always a weird choice. Said it many times, I think Gio needed/needs a club where he can work through any weaknesses in his game without fear of losing playing time. This was a poor choice on his part but as we saw with moves like JJ to Blackburn, Mikey to Villa, Dest to Milan, and Wes to Leeds a lackluster to bad loan does not define a player's career. Gio just has to take the experience and learn from it. May also when looking at a move may want to willingly take a step back a level... or maybe if Terzic leaves things improve at Dortmund for him
It does appear Reyna made a poor choice but any other team and staying put could have also been poor. Many here are using deduction to try and figure out why and might be correct. I only doubt because ever since he's been healthy he's looked very good for the US. So good in fact against Canada they took him out. I've also seen many other players get no minutes or even get cut (Victor Ulloa by Hyndman) only to get a chance with another team or coach and succeed. I think it's too early to make a judgment until I get more date as what I see with club and country don't match. Dest is the one that comes to mind the most as a comparison.
Unfortunately Leeds and Nottingham Forest have provided outstanding case studies with Reyna and McKinnie to not seek a loan in England with relegation bait.
People acting like in 2020/2021 Gio Reyna didn't play ~2500 minutes with plenty of goals and assists for a team that finished 3nd in the Bundesliga and made the quarterfinal of the Champions League. [He had the 4th most goals for them that season after Haaland, Sancho, and Reus.] Gio Reyna has already proven he can do this. He's not Victor Ulloa being cut by Schellas Hyndman. He's had a bunch of injuries and lost his place at Dortmund. Now he has a bad loan. It happens. He's gotta get back on track. Maybe that can be at Dortmund again. They extended his contract before loaning him out. Or it'll be somewhere else. Plenty of clubs were interested. ................but his place in the USMNT starting lineup is at risk if others really start performing in club soccer and he's not playing.
What odds do you think you could get on Reyna never appearing in another champions league game for the rest of his career?
Reyna is not a starter for me. Neither is Musah. We may have to consider moving on from the MMA that did so well in Qatar. Adams is unlikely to return the same as he was. We have guys like Tillman and de la Torre who demand attention.
I don't think anybody should be saying Gio is finished, and while I agree that this loan was a terrible move I do think it's fair to say Gio has some things he needs to work on and that he may need to take a step back just to build the MOJO back up
With club, not with country as long as he continues to produce. What is it? 3 goals, 2 assists in last 5 games, and they aren't some Caribbean tour sort either (although he does have a key goal in the NL match with T&T, which ended up being pretty critical considering how total --- we played). Some of us called this happening from the jump. I just really really hope he wasn't so stupid and thoughtless as to have chosen his destination based on wages rather than opportunity. If he went to NF I cannot even begin to express how thoroughly idiotic of a decision that was. Landing spot is so damned important as we learn from American drafts, and when you learn about the caliber of teams in France, and Spain that were interested versus the trash pit in Nottingham, good God man, please don't tell me he went there because: wages.
Anyone else think Gio has looked to be less aggressive this season when he has been on the field, both at BVB and what little he has played at Forrest? Last season when he would come on down the stretch he was immediately attacking goal, scoring and setting things up. This year when he has played, he's looked more content to keep possession and stroke it around a bit while sitting deeper. I have to wonder if that's not part of the reason he has gotten less minutes, maybe he is trying to hang back too much in the face of criticism of his defensive work. Sure, everyone needs to play defense, but when you're looking to bring an attacking player off the bench, you are more often than not going to want that player playing aggressively. Last season, his attacking numbers with goals and assists were extremely high in his minutes while playing in a top league on a very good team. To those who think he's done nothing, last season he was one of our most effective attackers anywhere for the minutes he played, earning time at a very high level on a big club. And he also showed this ability when he was with the US. His struggles have been mostly confined to injuries until this season. He has struggled this year, but a longer view of things shows that the rest of his career looked to be on a very good trajectory and he's still barely old enough to buy a drink. He's the same age as Tillman who has only this season started to show his worth. Gio was putting up strong numbers and was making a strong case for more time and progressing nicely through last season after finally getting over a string of injuries. But, this season he's put absolutely nothing on the board and has struggled. Yeah, he's gotten a lot of short shifts, but we see guys like Pepi coming on in scant minutes and scoring and Gio himself did so last year. I'm not sure he's made a case to be a necessary piece of the attack when he's nothing to show for his time on the field over the last several months at two different teams. He's still a talented young player who has demonstrated a very high level of play both for club and country over time. He just needs to get himself back on track and if others start competing for his minnutes right now, that's also OK. Sometimes Players need to fight through a bit of adversity to reach their potential.
Its hard to make many conclusions based on so few minutes. He's still played less than 400 minutes this club season across all competitions. I watched his last performance for Forest. When he came on against Villa, the game was done and dusted. Villa was shutting up shop. So yes, I thought Reyna looked uninspired. But at that point, everyone else on Forest looked that way too. The game was over. I just have a hard time drawing conclusions based on 9-11 minute cameos at the end of games. .....................but I'm also watching Tillman, Pulisic, and others excelling in club soccer right now. You have to reward that as well.
I agree with what you wrote. The problem I have is that this is exactly when I want to see a young player bust his butt. Try to make something happen. That's how you earn more playing time. Trotting out on the field and just waiting for the final whistle is not what I want to see. Far to easy to just say "well the game was over....the whole team had packed it in" yada yada yada.
🚨 Gregg Berhalter on USMNT international Gio Reyna heading into the Nations League. “We know Gio is a creative player. We know he’s a great player for the final pass. We have to see what he can do in terms of workload, how long he could last in the field because he hasn’t been… pic.twitter.com/PKgasiI6xk— Takes 🇺🇸 (@USMNTTAKES) March 6, 2024