Giovanni “Gio” Reyna US National Team Discussion

It seems to get said often that one bad game does not mean the player involved is trash. I wonder how so many people seem to be anointing Gio as the second coming of Pele based on one good game.
He may be just as good as his pundits say he is but it will take several more games to show that he is not the sniveling crybaby he has been cast as.

Personally, I think he is back on the possibles list but he is not even close, yet, to a lock to be at the next WC.
I want the best 23 (or 26 or whatever) to be at the WC and, right now, Gio is on the outside looking in.

 

Assuming we take four attacking 10’s, which is how we seem to want to play going forward, who ya got?

 

Who said he's washed?

A conversation specifically about his defensive intensity, and generally an ability to get pressure on the passer when your defensive line is high being valuable to preventing goal scoring opportunities against... that has exactly nothing to do with him being "washed".

 

Many people here have said he's washed. That has been the entire narrative for months now with lots of people citing some weird top end speed data to support their claim.

What kind of pressure do you expect your 8/10 to get on the ball in the other teams half when they have a 5v2 there?? That's wild to expect that kind of running, and it's certainly not sustainable. Gio did his job in that he did get pressure to the ball and made the play predictable into a situation that the team should have had covered. It's crazy to expect more from him there.

 

No one that I can see in this digression about pressing/intensity/Gio's minutes has said anything even remotely close to "he's washed". I don't see that in this thread, so I guess I have a lot of people on ignore. Maybe you should take my lead, that's a dumb thing to say.

Being concerned about his ability to move around and, yes, sprint, especially considering he's playing for Poch... that is yet another 100% reasonable concern considering Gio's very apparent history in terms of his injuries, his defensive intensity, and, frankly, his attitude.

Tell you what I don't expect... starting form a very casual jog when your backline is pushed up the way the US was in that moment, that's for damn sure. And I pretty much guarantee Poch agrees.

But regardless, the problem isn't this play -- Scally & Robinson both have more culpability here. The point raised was about how he fits in to this side with these assignments.

 

Ouch. I actually appreciate the guys like Nietzche and others playing devils advocate on Gio. I think disagree, and it looks more and more like Poch does too, but it’s valuable to hear the maximalist anti case.

 

That is totally up to the coach. Nether you nor I have any real say in selections. We can speculate on who the coach might choose but the actual selection belongs to the coach and my choice or yours is totally meaningless. I also do not feel the idea of "system" matters. It is said abut game day, "pick the best 11 you can and then set them in a system that makes them the best they can be." That seems to apply to total rosters as well. If your best players are all "attacking mids" then it is up to the coach to change/adapt whatever "system" he wants to use and then inform the players what to do. A national team coach should NEVER have a preset system and, unless you happen to be coaching Spain, he should be willing to change if the situation warrants. BTW: Spain can run a pretty straight up possession game as virtually all the Spaniards have the same or similar set of skills and strengths and weaknesses.

 

The CB had the ball, head up, at the top of the center circle, defensive half, looking for a pass for 4-5 seconds as Gio slowly closed in. It was half speed, then maybe 3/4 speed or 2/3 speed and looks like he actually made contact with the guy when he passed it as the guy fell back a little. Maybe a 2/3 speed run and he would have gotten there and prevented the pass. That's the way I see it.

I'm a Gio supporter, not a detractor, but that's the way I saw that play.

 

Of course you aren't seeing people claim that he's washed right now. It was always a wild claim, and it would be absolute bonkers after what we just witnessed. It seemed like the generally accepted opinion though as evidenced by the very small number of people who thought he could make the World Cup squad amid all of the speculation that came from the sprint speed data. That while we were always going to have to wait until this fall/winter to really see where Gio was. People just couldn't help themselves (which is not an uncommon BS/message board phenomenon).

You want your 8/10 to be sprinting at center from 15 yards away when it's a 5v2 in their own half? How long do you expect that player to play? How connected do you expect the team to stay behind them with all of these players running like chickens with their heads cut off? That's just not remotely realistic.

Gio did exactly what he needed to. He cut off the pass (first priority is NOT pressure on the ball. First priority is actually to cut off passing lanes...), and he made the play predictable. The long ball should have been dealt with. If the line was pushed up, they need to be aware of the space in behind and ready to deal with it. They shouldn't expect Superman Gio Reyna or any other miraculous superhuman effort to make it so that they can just wait for him to intercept the ball from 15 yards away.

You mention, "How does he fit in with this side with these assignments?" Do you really think he is being assigned to sprint at every defender no matter where they are on the pitch, no matter what the numerical and positional aspects of the game look like at the time? These are wild expectations that Poch certainly does not have.

 

Are we really discussing Gio's pressing? Our press was great last night. It was inevitable we were going to win because we were eventually going to score on a turnover.

 

It was three seconds from when that center back received the ball until it left his foot. He got the ball from a 20 yard square pass with Gio triangulated 15 yards from that point. There is NO WAY IN HELL that any coach would expect a player to do anything other than make that next pass predictable. That is a win in that situation.

Gio isn't half speed. He goes in at a nice pace to close it down, checks himself as he gets closer in order to be able to react if the center back passes at that point, and then accelerates again when he takes another touch to open up his hips for the long ball. He steps in and even makes contact with the player as he's releasing the ball, but there wasn't any way he could have actually put in a challenge on the ball.

Players don't run around the pitch at a full sprint. That expectation is insanity, and it's not an effective way to play even if it were sustainable.

 

I see it differently, but that's OK. Looked like a jog to me for the most part. Since he got there in time to make contact with the player as he passed it, it stands to reason that a little bit faster movement and he could have prevented the pass. Doesn't even have to be a sprint, just 15-20% faster.

 

How?? Was your expectation of Gio to actually intercept that ball?

 

Cross post. See above. I'm done. The back and forth isn't adding value. We don't agree and that's fine.

 

Gio’s been so washed for so long the last eye-popping USMNT performance he turned in was in 2024. Hell, he started and went 70’ against Barca in the Champion’s League last season and the three chances he created didn’t even get converted.

 

I’m going to back you up. I’ve seen them too.

There’s a certain mindset on social media where people want to be the first to bury someone, whether an athlete, a musician, heck, even politicians.

That’s a dumb mindset and I just roll my eyes a little bit and move on.

 

All good. I'm not trying to pick on you. It's just kind of a cop out to say, "We're going to see it differently" instead of actually considering all of the points and evidence that someone has put forth. If you've actually read that and considered it, then I respectfully wonder how.

All good, though. Cheers.

 

I think it's a kind of "small person syndrome" that social media unfortunately perpetuates. I'm not talking about small in stature but more so in confidence and sense of community. Rather than see someone succeed, people root for others to fail so that they don't have to deal with their jealousy. This negativity towards others is so easy on social media because people are interacting with so many other people that they don't actually know.

edit: I am not accusing people who have been down on Gio for this necessarily. I think the Gio phenomenon could more likely be that people just really like following and analyzing the national team and they want to have their own takes and opinions that might or might not be right. It gets weird when people cling tightly to a take even if they are actually very uninformed about the situation.

 

I made points and provided evidence as well. We don't see it the same way. It's fine.

 

Well put. Obviously Reyna’s a flawed player and there are totally legit criticisms of on-the-field performance. But I’ve been giving this some thought and I think there’s an element of “thwarted meritocracy” going on too. He hasn’t been playing for club. There’s no reason whatsoever he should be a key contributor for the USMNT when he can’t even get regular starts for his club side. Poch said that was a prerequisite for getting called in.

Then Poch broke his rule for Reyna even going so far as to say he did it because Reyna’s a “special” player. Then he comes into camp, totally undeserving, Poch sees him in training, actually *starts* him, and he balls out.

None of that is fair. None of it makes sense. And it keeps happening. Makes us feel like Salieri from Amadeus.

 

Roldan and Luna probably most responsible for the second goal of anyone. None of the diggers ever get enough credit.

 

This 100% - probably my biggest pet peeve is people don't appreciate this facet of the game. I suspect it is because most never played the game at a high level. These guys are all pros...if you give them time they will all pick you apart. Take Paraguays goal...no pressure and a pro did what a pro will do.