Quote:
Originally Posted by flere-imsaho
I'm starting to get the impression that maybe Gio isn't very good. I'm trying to remember the last U.S. Men's highly-touted prospect who did more than underwhelm.
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I think that is harsh. Gio is a very good player. He, Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Weston Mckinnie etc. all range from good to very good players. None of them are Ballon d'Or winners or FIFA player of the year winners, or even CONCACAF player of the year winners. And that is okay. I would be happy with a national team of good to very good players with a proper tactical setup at this moment.
If the American players that go to Europe specifically were just highly touted, that would be one thing. Calling every American that goes to Europe to play some version of Captain America is a completely different thing. I think there is a benefit to playing in Europe because that is where the best players are and that should make the Americans better players. They don't all have to rush to Chelsea, Barcelona or Juventus to improve individually and be better players on the national team. It would be nice to see some of them go to a mid table club in one of the big five European leagues or even better go to Portugal, The Netherlands or Belgium first, be a major player on one of those teams and then move to a bigger club. Gio obviously still has some growing up to do off the field and right now he is nothing more than an impact sub on the field. He has regressed and needs to pick things back up. Maybe being a bigger fish in a smaller pond might benefit him. I think he can still come good though.