The on-loan Borussia Dortmund midfielder hasn’t got anywhere near the playing time he needs so far
Gio Reyna needed to escape Borussia Dortmund. By January, the minutes had dried up almost completely and, for a player of his age, that simply couldn’t happen. Indeed, the longer time went on, the more obvious and urgent the need became for the USMNT midfielder to find a way out.
In his desperation, though, Reyna may have jumped at the wrong opportunity. It seems that way so far, at least. Now about a month into his time with Nottingham Forest, we’ve barely seen the 21-year-old do much of anything.
The move hasn’t gone to plan and Reyna’s hardly played since arriving in the Premier League. If he wanted to sit on a bench, he could’ve carried on doing that at Dortmund
On Wednesday, though, the midfielder could be about to get a big opportunity. An FA Cup clash with Manchester United is on the schedule and, for a team in Forest’s position, rotation is almost a certainty. That could, and should, lead to a chance for Reyna to show why he deserves far more playing time.
Considering Forest’s place in the table, this could be his first and only shot to really prove his worth. Opportunities will be hard to come by and, if the U.S. talent wants to make this loan worthwhile, it seems like Wednesday has to be the turning point.
The stats so far
After emerging as a super-sub extraordinaire last season for Borussia Dortmund, Reyna looked poised for a breakout campaign in 2023-24. It never came. Instead, he was glued to Dortmund’s bench.
After playing just 271 Bundesliga minutes across 11 matches during the first half of the season, his time at Forest has amazingly been even worse.
Since making the move towards the end of the January transfer window, Reyna has played in three out of five possible matches. In those games, he’s featured for a whopping 38 minutes.
There was a 12-minute appearance in a 1-1 draw with Bournemouth which was followed up by a 17-minute runout against Newcastle in a 3-2 defeat. And then, with Forest chasing the game, Reyna was given just nine minutes to work in the 4-2 loss to Aston Villa.
It hasn’t been enough.
