It really is a thing of beauty when he is on his game. I guess where I get stuck is that he seems to be that luxury player, as many on here have labeled him. It maye be a tradeoff when you play him - your going to get that on-the-ball control/ability/vision/passing, etc, but you may lose some aggression/work rate in the midfield; which may have been the dilemma all his managers faced. But if the USMNT or BMG can afford that tradeoff or build around it, then he has a great claim to be on the pitch. And like you said, maybe he will become a full 90 player and also improve in other departments along the way.
It's a thing of beauty when he's off his game too. Reyna didn't start a game for 6 months prior to winning 2024 CONCACAF NL Player of the Tournament. Arguably the best field player the United States has ever produced. He should be on the field for us every minute his body will allow it.
I like the enthusaism. But "Arguably" is doing alot of work in that sentence. IMO we can't even begin to speculate on something like that until there is a decent body of work to assess. And judging that from CONCACAF NL tournaments is not going to cut it, I am afraid. Yes, I have seen his highlight reel and his great games from Dormtund years ago, I agree the talent is fantatsic. Still a fan of him, still rooting for him, but not gonna jump to those conclusions just based on the nice aesthetics of his game. We'll see down the road.
There are of course differing levels of luxury players with Messi at the top and say Lucho Acosta down a lot lower. Where does Gio fit on the scale and will his fitness and therefore running, sprinting and defense improve the more minutes he gets? I'd say yes but can't say by how much. An encouraging sign was he got taken down pretty hard a couple times and he got right back up. That indicates to me he might be mostly over injuries and being afraid of reinsuring himself. As someone mentioned he did chase back and body someone and I think we forget he's a big guy and he should be coming into his own strength wise. The US usually has a lot of undersized players especially mids but they could throw out Tessmann, Reyna, Johnny and McKennie and flex some muscle if the coach desired.
Yeah that is the worry. Could also work out the other way. Where he stays healthy, ends up as the best player on the team, a player who they need to rely on, and he leads them out of the relegation zone. The vision and passing are great to see, but they are not really surprising when it comes to Gio. But I have to be honest, I'm kinda cautiously optimistic after watching those highlights. I thought he seemed to be showing a bit of a spark on the physical side that we haven't seen out of him at Dortmund for a while now. Feels to me like there finally could be light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to Gio.
I think he showed plenty of aggression and work rate in those clips. Luxury players don't chase down the keeper from 20 yards away, track players from behind in the midfield or fly into challenges like he did.
I am a bit worried about this coaching change. Depending on which way they go, BMG may embrace their role as relegation battlers and lean in to a defensive, counterattacking, or pressing style. None of these would suit Reyna. Meanwhile, Seoane was clearly a fan.
I'm still optimistic that he'll have a role no matter the system or coach. His teammates don't look very good, at least judging by last week.
They didn't fire a manager three games into the season because they are looking to embrace a role as a relegation battler.
Not very different than the team that came in tenth last year. There's enough talent there to be mid-table. The players they added should be pretty close to the level of the guys who left.
Just kind of meh. There were a lot of better ones tossed out. Still waiting on the new coach to be names so we can doom guess how it affects Gio.
I like it, don't think it's negative at all. I take it as a weight lifted off of him. It's a fresh start. It's got to be a huge relief to just get back to getting on the field and getting to play soccer.