‘Stop making excuses for Gio’ – USMNT star Reyna sent warning as Americans ‘bend over backwards’ for him during difficult Nottingham Forest loan spell

The 21-year-old playmaker completed a move to Nottingham during the winter transfer window, with Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund happy for him to leave Germany in search of regular game time. Those opportunities have been hard to come by in England, with Reyna restricted to just 39 minutes across four substitute appearances.

Former USMNT star Lalas has told his State of the Union podcast when it comes to Reyna and the attention that he continues to attract: "The Gio conversation is – he came on with a couple of minutes left [in an FA Cup defeat to Manchester United] and obviously didn’t change anything – it’s not gone well. Thankfully, it’s short-term. He’ll chalk it up maybe in the same way that Weston [McKennie] chalked up his time with Leeds, and he’ll return.

"But, it again brings up the point – at some point we have to stop making excuses for Gio and he certainly has to, not that he is, stop making excuses. You are never going to have the perfect place. At some point it is on you to do the things that you need to do to get on the field. Again, I don’t see him everyday in training so I don’t know what’s going on over there when it comes to Forest, I hope that it gets better but we sure bend over backwards a whole lot when it comes to Gio."

Lalas went on to say of Reyna’s failure to earn a regular role in Nuno Espirito Santo’s plans at the City Ground: “No coach is going to shoot himself in the foot by not playing a player that could possibly help you win games, could possibly help you stay up in terms of a relegation battle. So the situation right now is, this is an opportunity. This is simply an assessment of ‘you know what, he’s no better – and maybe in certain instances he’s worse – than what we have right now, so I’m not putting him on the field and even coming off the bench, he’s not my first look’. Nobody is promised anything, no matter where you come from and how good you are, or how good you have been told that you are or how good we all think that you are.”

Reyna will be hoping to get onto the field for Forest when they entertain Premier League leaders Liverpool on Saturday. He may yet have an important role to play for the Reds as they seek to steer clear of relegation danger.