defensive involvement from a starter vs an offensive sub are very different things. we just used him as a dlp, and that offensive wandering resulted in a goal and no defensive breakdowns, but sure- that time dortmund brought him in to hopefully sneak a goal (not that he has an impressive record of that for them) he wasnt also defending in the box. every player doesnt have to check every box, but gio checks a whole damn lot of them. he shows offensive brilliance at times. does he really have to balance that out with the gritty, only found in mls defensive workrate of a kyle beckerman? and where is the constant handwringing over, say, haji wright? he barely runs in one direction. the nats are built on defense and ball-hunting pressure. even being a very solid defensive/pressing midfielder (depending on role, which he is) hes not going to be one of mma- which is a good thing if you like occasionally scoring goals. but this always impending fall off a defensive cliff is make-believe. in the world cup defense wasnt a part of reynas role. nor is it when he is brought on for 7 minutes (including stoppage time) hoping for a miracle, with dortmund or forest. its interesting someone finally noted that reyna came on (literally) behind reus, because thats where he played (and started, as an 8- reus played reyna-minutes those couple of years) for far better managers than terzic as a teenager. and defense/pressing were a fairly large component of his role in the team then. so think whatever you think, but pulling one play from dortmund this year as some sort of referendum on gios defensive workrate (in a purely attacking role) is as lazy as saying that one mazy run against mexico that led to nothing (a musah special, if you will) like two or three years ago is what we can expect from him as an offensive player. and spoiler alert- he barely reached a jog in beating those 6 guys like 9 times.
He was rumored to have been sitting between Dick Cheney and Barack Obama at the most recent Bohemian Grove Cremation of Care.
After hearing his coaches talk about him some, I don’t think it’s a lack of effort. I think that its a lack of understanding. He’s a young player and he’s VERY young mentally. He’s maturing. I saw some things during the last two games that have started to turn my opinion a bit on him. He has taken his lumps, which he deserved. He is now putting in the effort he needs to put in to match his teammates. He is much more emotionally immature than I thought. It’s likely that he’ll always be a bit difficult to manage, but he has made a good turn. Berhalter deserves some credit for how he has managed Gio. It’s clear that he hasn’t held a grudge and that he is doing what he believes is best for the team. Without a deeper analysis, it appears that Gio is better under Berhalter than he has been under any other coach. He is trusted more and produces more. For Berhalter not to hold a grudge after what Gio’s parents did to him is really something else. Berhalter could have ruined his career in many ways, but instead he provided him opportunity and trust. I don’t know what to think about that, honestly. We’ll see how it turns out.
I guess I'd like to know how close the families really were growing up meaning did GB know and watch Gio grow a lot? If so it's understandable how he's treating him but just bizarre about how the Reyna's overreacted at the WC. Of course GB screwed up on the conference and likely wishes he could have a do over but otherwise he values the kid and has always involved him.
The words for that are petulance and immaturity. Not "unable to run" or "unable to contribute." Gio was no more "unable to contribute" than Tyler Adams was at the most recent Nations League. Tyler was able to make a huge contribution in spite of not being 100% fit. There are always going to be some exceptional players who can make a vital contribution in spite of not being 100%. When they are not 100% you use them judiciously but as much as you can. Especially when you are in a long tournament and there is a potential return from investing in those players in the group stage so you can more out of them in the knockout rounds.
Gregg spent a summer in Argentina with Claudio's grandparents. I'd say that's pretty close. These issues always come up with Joisey guys who grew up together playing and fighting with each other.
I give Berhalter blame and I give him credit. He screwed up in various ways re Gio and to his credit has found a way to get a lot out of him since being rehired. He also screwed up with Pepi. But they moved on and my hope is we get the most out of Pepi as well.
I think the integration of more runs in behind would be a better enhancement to his game, at this point, than focus on defensive positioning…and that will lead to more moments of defensive mis-alignment not less.
It was a no win. No one grabbed the positions. All were in various stages of meh in smaller leagues. No matter who he chose unless they lit up the WC he would be judged to have grabbed the wrong group. Look at who we chose leading up to it. We didn't do any better. So easy when you have Pulisic level players to make the slam dunk choice but not so easy when there's no obvious choice.
Going to give me a source on that? That's a very definitive statement that is untrue from what I've heard from people a lot more informed than I. Plus a little common sense -- why would a player who desperately wanted to play refuse a fitness test? I guess it could be petulance, or it could be they were hiding an injury. The latter seems a ton more likely. Not if they can't run very fast.
Uh. I think there are some interesting counter examples. Plus we do not know if Gio's top speed was impaired or not.
Agree. Solution is to restrict his area of movement and add a mobile player in combination. Aaronson + Reyna ~ Adams + Johnny, say. Most people think of Aidan Morris as a 6. I always liked him to develop as a 10. The Athletic just posted a chart of his defensive actions this season and he has 2.5 x as many in attacking end as defending end. USMNT Olympics watchlist: Which MLS players could go to France for the Games? - The Athletic He also has a good shot on goal. Against France, his defensive action in the attacking end led to one of USA's goals. Players like Aidan and Aaronson are "giant killers" but the Reyna's steal the spotlight.
If he were as smart as he thinks he is, he'd have found a seat next to Warren Buffett and Charles Schwab
Sorry bub, he wasn’t fit and the public tracking data shows he didn’t open up his legs against England. The non-public data says he couldn’t sprint in training.
Gio rarely played as an 8 for BVB. The vast, vast majority of minutes have come on the attacking line behind the ST at AM, RM, or LM. In the game where Terzic subbed Gio at halftime BVB played their typical 4231 with Gio at LM and Reus at SS. Gio was deeper and tucked in, near the center circle, and Reus was up closer to the box when the break took off. The trend in modern soccer has been towards more physical output and more two way play from every player. The number of players who are considered to be good enough at attacking that they don’t need to defend has steadily dwindled. The classic 10 has died because of this. The avg low block teams now play is as deep as the deepest Guatemalan bunker we faced in the aughts.
Gio became petulant after his attempt to hide his fitness status was discovered (because the physical output data was showing that he wasn’t training like normal and he wasn’t sprinting). His role was reduced in response. The day before the Wales match he relented and agreed to do the fitness testing and was cleared to play 15 minutes based on those results. Pre game the staff decided Gio would need to show he could sprint in order to play. He was asked to sprint in warmups and refused. He wasn’t risked.
There are fewer and fewer jobs at the top of the game where a player can pick and choose when and where to defend. If you want to pick and choose get ready to learn Arabic/MLS. There is a consistent bare minimum required that is more demanding than it used to be. I think Gio largely has met or exceeded this but it’s more of a mental lift for him than say it was for Dempsey or Donovan. However people remember high profile mistakes that are punished and it seems like BVB’s current manager saw enough that he didn’t want to give him a chance at redemption.
It’s indisputable that more runs in behind (something the BVB manager was also looking for from Gio) will lead to more time out of defensive position. I think Gio should push himself toward the former at the risk of the pundits/coaches calling him out for the latter.
In possession schemes are built for this and what coaches dislike is when a player fails to put in the effort to recover in transition. In offense to defense transition Gio’s mark is going to be a CB or a FB. Making a run into the box is usually only going to put him far away from one of those guys if they are out of position themselves. In BVB’s structure there are two CMs and usually one FB who are tasked with providing cover for the 4 most attacking players in addition to the CBs.
That makes complete sense. I'm looking forward to Gio's next matches for club and country specifically to keep an eye on his defending.