Typical calm and composed performance on the ball for Gio today. Just nice to see him back on the field. Was basically a training match when he came on with Dortmund up 4-0 already.
Appears that he didn’t get hurt. And he’s still trusted enough to play UCL matches. Hope that’s something.
He did his gesturing thing early on, waving his arms and calling for the ball, but nothing came of it. He made one horrible crossfield ball to an opponent in midfield and lost the ball several other times. Otherwise he passed back crisply a bunch of times. He was just barely adequate. To be fair, there was really no need for heroics from him with Dortmund leading by 2, but he didn’t do anything that will help him force his way back into the lineup.
Yeah he was not crisp at all. He is a known quantity to his coaches though. He's got his issues but ball security is not one of them, it's normally a strength. On the plus side, he didn't get hurt, he was willing to get his shirt dirty and play some defense, and I also felt that he was trying to get forward more than at times in the recent past. He looked to be playing ACM.
I counted only two positive passes completed and they were both just short-to-intermediate square balls that kept possession. This was probably the worst I have ever seen him play. He wandered about the field aimlessly, gesticulating for the ball when it was clear that his own bad angles and shapes eliminated him from the play. A guy can’t pass the ball to you when his defender is between you and the ball, Gio. His movement is not thoughtful nor intentional nor focused. He’s not aware of defenders (his own or the others around him), not staying mentally ahead of tactics on the field. The whole thing is very odd. To come back from time off and just kind of jog around the field disconnected from play like you’re not sure what you’re supposed to be doing is odd. People get back into the swing of things and have success, but that CL stint looked just like he did before they shipped him off to Nottingham Forest. Not good.
That's not odd at all. You see new signings and debutants do it all the time. How much playing time has Reyna had with this collection of Dortmund players under this coach? He has like 4 games worth of minutes at Dortmund in the last 18 months - he basically needs to be reintegrated from the foundation.
So, just like he was at Nottingham Forest . . . only more so. Who was the genius that decided to give him a contract extension and is he still at the club?