Giovanni “Gio” Reyna US National Team Discussion

It’s baffling. I think some of it has to do with the fact that a lot of people hate G. Berhalter, and Reyna got in a dispute with him, making Reyna the good guy because he’s anti-Berhalter. As if Reyna being petulant about playing time a few years ago somehow means he agrees with certain Reddit subforums about the USSF Old Boys’ Club, calendar alignment, pay for play, prorel, the lizard people, or whatever. So criticizing some aspect of Reyna’s game or even just pointing out that it would be good for him to get more club playing time somehow becomes proof that the person doing it is On The Wrong Side.

 

I’d argue it wasn’t the pace of our center backs but rather 1)Scally recognizing the danger far too late and 2)both Ream and Miles (particularly egregious) losing track of the goal scorer as Paraguay switched the field.

When the attacker is already two steps ahead of you when you react pace isn’t the reason you got beat. Would pace have made a difference? Sure…but only to the extent it would help them recover from their mistakes. But those mistakes were already made.

 

It’s about context. Check out the other threads. The usual suspects only comment on how he didn’t close the CB or ran out of gas.
Gio cant just be Gio, he has to be Brendan Aaronson as well.
Of course there is room for improvement, a lot of room, but this isn’t that. It’s a specific nitpick for a specific player to boost their agenda.

I’ll turn it around.
‘There can be no weak links. Everyone has to have a goal and assist and be a ‘nightmare for Paraguay’ or we will fail.

Cripes, we need the ball in the back of the net. This is simple.

 

Yep. I come to BigSoccer to analyze soccer and to have fun discussing what is theoretically a shared pleasure. I don’t come to win arguments. I don’t care whether other people agree with me. I do care whether people treat me and other posters with respect and whether they treat the discussion as something to be deepened and advanced (or at least enjoyed) rather than some illegal parking lot UFC brawl to be won at all costs.

There is so much anger and motivated reasoning in the world right now. Soccer and soccer boards should be a refuge from that. Not a training ground.

 

There probably are a few posters who have bugs up their butts about Reyna and post irrational things. But I don’t think tomasbernal is one of those or his post was an example of that.

Personally, I think Reyna should be on the WC roster more than Aaronson. And if Reyna stays healthy and gets some club minutes, he should probably be a lock to go to the WC and in the discussion to start. If he stays healthy and consistently plays at the level he’s shown flashes of for years, he should be in the discussion as a key starter.

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t currently some questions about how central he can be to a team that looks like it will rely heavily on aggressive pressing. Just like there are some questions about how central Aaronson can be to a team that needs a lot of its midfielders to provide a spark in the final third. Aaronson has shown he can do that occasionally. He’ll be a more compelling candidate if he shows he can do it more often.

I like Aaronson as a player. I think he has his own irrational detractors. I also think he’s on the bubble because he has important gaps in his game. Similarly, I like Reyna as a player, but I think he has important gaps in his game too. Right now, I’d take Reyna over Aaronson if I had to choose because I think Reyna has a higher ceiling, particularly when it comes to certain offensive abilities that are rare in the USMNT pool. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t improve his case by improving his game and maybe his attitude (or at least his media relations).

I want Aaronson, Reyna, and every other USMNT-eligible player to get better. And I want to come here to discuss what that might look like without wading through a bunch of angry posts filled with personal attacks.

 

"It is important to give full effort on every play" is a nice platitude, but that's not how the game works. Even in a counterpress *when* you sprint, *when* you press, when you recover, who you track which lane you close down, etc... is what's important. For every "Reyna may have been able to get there faster" you can find a "Where the Hell did Luna/Brendo/Roldan think they were going?"

Reyna was fine OOP, and I suspect he wouldn't be on the field of Poch didn't agree.

 

The personal attacks aren’t helping, but I get it in a sense. It’s a reaction to smug posters who claim to know soccer better than anyone because they played once.
There’s a discussion to be had. Certain posters should probably recuse themselves, as they aren’t arguing in good faith.
If we switch Tillman and Gio, and all the same events occurred, Tillman would be lifted to the heavens without a peep of his failure to close down a center back. That’s the reality, and where the push back comes from.

 

I mean, maybe. But you don’t have to go back very far in time to see people judging Tillman to be useless or overhyped or whatever. Some of that may be agenda-driven. But the same is true of some of the anointing him as some sort of savior. I think people get emotional and partial, which results in inaccurate analysis. But that’s fine. We all get stuff wrong. And we’re all on here to discuss soccer. My problem is with the frequency of personal attacks based on the assumption that if a poster disagrees with you he’s not just wrong but hypocritical, agenda-driven, or even shilling for the USSF. If I want to listen to people shouting insults without even knowing what the person they’re shouting at is saying, I can open a window and listen to the bars empty out at closing.

 

Now did you just come up with this yourself? Or did you borrow it from someone else?

Either way, I'm using it next chance I get.

 

I agree that there was no indication either way over Reyna's physical ability to press on that play. that being said, I didn't notice anything about Reyna's lack of pressing on that play so I rewatched it (several times). Frankly, I really don't see much wrong with his pressing on that play. He began a good 30-40 yards away from the ball and closed. Admittedly, he wasn't sprinting 100%...he closed at 60-75%ish speed and upped the tempo a bit when he was 5-10ish yards away. The defender made the pass over the top before he got to the ball but I don't think you see too many players sprinting 100% on a press that begins 30-40yds from the player with the ball. The blame for that goal wasn't Reyna's. It was on the defense (plural). Scally let Almiron get behind him, Robinson let his man go free and the goal was scored from inside the 6yd box on a cross (Freese's responsibility). In addition to the errors mentioned, there seems to have been a communication breakdown (primarily Ream, Robinson, Freese imo).
If you are going to blame, Reyna for his lack of pressure, Balogun should get blame on the pass that went to Reyna's man and there is probably someone to blame before Balogun as well...

 

Yeah, agree. My only thing is, for someone is Gio’s precarious position regarding making the team, I’d really like to see the all out sprint to press more often. He’s probably not going to affect the play, but it’s important to show he wants to.
I’ll be looking for a little more effort from him going forward. This was a great start to get back in the picture. It looked like he recognizes he’s behind, that’s an important first step.
I do think the early goal hurt him a bit in this regard. Hurt and helped. Helped because he wasn’t playing tight, hurt because he lost some urgency.

 

Here are my thoughts on the goal conceded.

In soccer, let’s be honest, the typical goal is scored either because

1. One defender really screwed up or
2. Several defenders made small errors, and the attacking team took advantage

Their goal was #2, and Reyna’s pressing is on the list for small errors. It was the first error, sure, but IMO the smallest.

Another thing is, often times fans evaluate defending like attacking. Here’s what I mean. If a forward is crap for 88 minutes, missing chances, losing the ball, all that, but finishes his two chances, he’s MOTM.

I don’t think that works as well when evaluating defending. I’m sure there were plays where Balogun or Tessman or someone didn’t close down well, but no goal came of it, so we’ve all forgotten them, if we even noticed it at all.

Reyna is a weak presser. We can agree on that, right?

Just pulling a number out of my ass for illustrative purposes, let’s say his poor pressing costs us .1 XG. So out of 10 matches, 9 it won’t matter, but one it will. I balance that with what Reyna can and did do to help our attack. So he was a clear plus player on the night, AND he doesn’t press well and last night was the 1 out of 10 match where it cost us. Both can be true.

Will you marry me?

 

I agree as I'd love for him and Aaronson to be combined. He's still working his way back so it's possible as he gets fitter he can do more of that. As we've all see it's also very possible he gets injured again and misses the WC. It's no longer just him in that spot though. A year ago or so would anyone have bet that Reyna might be back, healthy and contributing while Jedi is out for over a year? I do think that some that weren't here would have if it was the actual WC.

 

I know this is the majority take, but I think it overstates things. Luna, Brendo are all *great* pressers: Why? Because they give 100% total effort all the time. Reyna, weak presser. Why? Because he's not giving 100% total effort all the time.

But we've seen situations where the opposition is able to break the press because our super high-energy MFs are overcommitting, or not taking up the right positions, etc...

I think Reyna's an underrated presser. Would it be better if he combined his positional awareness, being able to read the game, etc... with sprinting 100% for 90'? Probably. Would Luna, Brendo, Roldan be better pressers if they were smarter about it? Also probably.

 

^^^^^^^^

Fair points, and with some nuance, which I always appreciate. Repped.

 

I agree with both points. Nothing wrong with pointing out Reyna's weaknesses while still being quite impressed with his strengths, and coming out strongly positive on balance. That's where I'm at. And I still believe that there's some component of "weak presser" that is about effort, and it's something Poch could have a conversation with him about. Part of it is just Gio's style of play. He's "cool", he's smart, he doesn't run for the heck of it. But is there another 10-15% you could squeeze out of him on the defensive effort side of things.

 

There is plenty for Pochettino to go over with the team on that play. I couldn't see what was happening at the game until just before Almiron hit the cross (bunch of folks walking in front of us with their beers and chicken fingers). .Was there a turnover that started the sequence? Looking at highlights, it picks up just as Paraguay RCB has the ball and you can see we are not in great shape to defend (spread out in our half). There is a collective defensive failure with shape and pressure regardless of who should have been there and to top it off a good long ball to Almiron who made a good play. Looked like Ream was trying to hold a line, MRob a little less so while Scally was concerned with getting burned and dropped deepest of all the defenders. Also, while I can understand that at times it looked like Scally was a RCB, he was more a RB in a 4-2-3-1.

 

I just rewatched this goal sequence, and what's interesting is Scally seems to immediately read the danger as Almiron begins his run, Scally is covering him full-tilt watching the ball in flight, then suddenly checks his run just for an instant before resuming full sprint.

Almost like, in the moment Scally was trying to remember if he was an RCB or RB

 

Whatever Gio’s relative weakness in the press vs say a Brendan Aaronson, he more than makes up for defensively with his ability to dictate play in tight spaces.

I think far too much of these discussions bifurcate offense and defense like it’s Hand Egg.

Good pressing is reliant on dictating and predicating the shape of the opponent and the nature of and position from which the counter will occur.

In the role and position on the pitch that Gio is occupying in that half space, his rythym and time he buys on the ball is far more valuable defensively than the chaos created by the type of frenetic hustle donkey that is often inappropriately praised for their pressing contribution.

 

He’s out of position a lot. So other players have their roles complicated when Gio is playing. He’s not where he needs to be when he needs to be there. We saw this at Dortmund a ton.

At this level you simply cannot jog to defend. You have to close the guy down quickly. He was the first defender in that play and allowing a guy to get his head up, scan the field, and pick out a pass is simply unacceptable.

The goal was encouraging, but I didn’t see a whole lot else that was encouraging outside of a couple of combinations in/around the 18.

 

This is not how soccer works.

 

Regarding the Paraguay goal, I understand the desire to point out imperfect play so we can cast blame on someone, but it's pointless here.

It's a three player, three touch sequence where two of the players were at a full sprint that took six seconds and covered about 95 yards. The execution level needed to pull that off is incredibly high.

Sometimes a really good goal is just a really good goal.

 

I'm amused to see that I was right in the pbp thread that the haters would decide his pressing was at fault for the goal. Hilarious, it just never stops, the seething contempt for the player, anything and everything save actual credit they'd give to anyone else they stan for. It's just absurd.

 

Yeah, sometimes we have to sacrifice our team to get the players we want on the field.

 

This is exactly what someone would post who is shilling for the USSF or MLS!!!!!!