I think it has a lot to do with our players and agents understanding the difference between a move that's good for their careers and a move that's good for their pockets/prestige. The idea of a young American going to Chelsea or Man City sounds great but they're going to end up in a meat factory, competing for attention with 60 other players from the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, all for a handful of first team places, knowing that at any time the GM/Director of Football could decide to plump for that £100 million established star instead. But you can earn more on perma-loan from Chelsea than you could make signing directly for a Eredivisie, Jupiler Pro or even a Ligue Un team.
He didn't produce in the Copa America or its tune-up games against the quality of players he would see in the Bundesliga if he played much over the past 4 years. He was largely anonymous and invisible. I would imagine a scout looks at that and sees a guy who shows flashes, but is not a high level contributor yet. Im not looking at his tape from 4 years ago.
Wake up, dude. He hasn't really played club ball in nearly 4 years. Its not me who is believing an illusion. 4 years is a lifetime in a sports career.
I worry that you have to build a team around Reyna because he has such a unique style/role. It was perfect when he had Haaland as an outlet but Haaland is Haaland. He looked great as a pivotal number 10 against Mexico in the NL last year but hasn't reproduced that performance and he's not so comfortable out wide. If you're going to build the team around him he needs to be starting regularly at club level.
How do you build a team around a player who always gets gassed by '60? and that's without a good defensive effort.
He looked better on the wing against Uruguay, but still not a difference maker and he needs to be a difference maker. A coach wont play him because he looks like he could make a difference. He'll play him because he does make a difference. With Haaland it should be clear to us by now which of them was the difference maker. Its clear to Europeans and his teammates which of them it was. Reyna has yet to create his own story.
Haaland is also three years older. If I’m looking at timelines and comparing, this is the year Gio needs to show up. It looks like he’ll get a shot at Dortmund. He needs to be that guy from the jump because they won’t wait patiently for him to do so.
Like she already hasnt. "You know Herr Sahin it would be sooooo awkward if some photos of you eating a pork loin while dressed as Batman surfaced,wouldn't it? So anyway,my son is really happy you didn't send him to Crawley Town,but would like to play a little more.Also,his favorite number is 10.Hope to see you soon!Smooches!"
The best thing Gio has done for himself is to decide that he’s a central midfielder, and he’s improving in the areas necessary to be top level at the position very rapidly. There is no easy.
I actually thought he looked much more pedestrian at the Copa than he had, didn't look like improvement to me. Admittedly at least some of that was down to what he was being asked to do, seemed his job revolved around showing deep for the ball. But earlier on he was a dynamic attacking presence and I'm seeing a lot of that fading into a skilled guy who is content to hold possession and stroke the ball around. That's all fine and necessary but it's also something not nearly as special as a guy who can bring goals to your team. This is especially true in Europe where skillful players who can hold the ball a bit are much more common. It's more valuable in the US since we lack guys who can hold the ball in traffic and are smooth in possession. If he wants to be a deeper midfield player, we're losing a lot of the promise he showed in attack and he may end up a much less impactful player unless he develops over time into something special. This season will go a long way to showing what kind of player he really wants to become.
Seems like a reasonable approach. He clearly hasn’t achieved the level of MGW or Julian Brandt yet, but he’s much more likely to get there with a manager that rates him in that role. Berhalter does, and was rewarded. Terzic didn’t because of work rate. Sahin has always seemed to. Time will tell.
I wasn't thrilled by his Copa performance either. He missed quite a few obvious passes that would have broken lines in the defense that I don't remember him missing in the past. He's better closer to goal and he was waaaaaay back for much of the Copa America.
That was Berhalter's strategy. It worked like a charm against Mexico in the Nations League final. It really helped break the press to have somebody more comfortable on the ball playing back like that. We did sacrifice some in the attack. In case people have forgotten, which I guess they have, Gio Reyna was named the Best Player of the Nation League in 2024 while playing that role. But whatever.............................. You take a step up against the likes or Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, etc. and its a different story.
I think losing Dest was a much bigger deal than we thought at the time. Without him Reyna had to drop deep to advance the ball because none of the defenders or Adams could do that. Musah could but when he plays a solo d-mid it changes how he plays (probably by coaches instruction) so that he doesn't cough up a ball deep. I hope we get to see more of Ledezma at right back as he does have similar skills if we need a like for like backup.
Gio did the same things at Dortmund. I have several posts about it here from that time. Many were loudly saying that he needed more freedom to roam, and roam he did. They called this meandering amoebic obfuscation "#10". He was too positionally undisciplined, tactically ignorant, and socially obtuse to play that role. Teammates became visibly frustrated with him as he invaded their space and destroyed the shape when they had the ball. On top of that, he did not generate chances or improve offensive performance. It was not a success. After 4 years with this club and extended exposure to these teammates, some for his entire career, to have these sorts of performances is odd and Im not exactly sure what to make of it other than that he has stagnated and regressed over the nearly 4 years he has basically been on the bench.
That is not quite the point. The idea is that by now in 2024 the pool should be large enough and strong enough that we can find 11 players that start in reasonably high leagues. Sitting on the bench in top clubs does not help us. We shouldn't even be calling in players who do not play, no matter the level. For a young player selecting a club, the principle here is to go to as high a league you can go to at a club where you will have a reasonable chance of starting. For most players, that will mean a mid-table club. Stay away from relegation clubs for obvious reasons and avoid the top clubs unless you can walk straight into the starting lineup. Sitting on the bench anywhere is failing. Youth development is lacking, youth coaching is failing, and players are making terrible career decisions. Since you mentioned Chelsea and Arsenal, I do not think the EPL, for example, is even a good league for a young field player to develop. Goalkeepers are the exception. The Eredivisie, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga 1, Primeira Liga (Portugal) are better for development. You go to a league like the EPL when you are already a finished product and you have been getting lots of playing time and have a reasonable chance of continuing that. Youth development has been failing in this country for a long time, and only recently it's starting to turn things around. I also think Berhalter built a bit of a "snowflake" culture with the National Team and the next coach will have to root that out.
I would say it discourages players from making bad career decisions. Hey, chit happens. You go to a club with a manager that values you, he gets sacked, a new manager comes in and suddenly you are left on the bench. It seemed like it would work out and it didn't. Each case should be evaluated on an individual basis. But the big picture is that do not want to take a team of substitutes to an international tournament. The sentence "it's a lot easier to implement when your player pool is better" speaks exactly to the point I was making about youth development. Overall, our player pool is smaller and weaker than it ought to be from a country the size of the USA.
Like Tyler said, the next coach needs to be ruthless….although Morocco tried it with Ziyech and it didn’t go so great.