it depends on the character. you can't do anything vs bridget or happy chaos on defense aside from not getting there in the first place. but for the rest you can do stuff. typically you just want to know how to fuzzy backdash, mash or jump. gio's jump sucks ass so I wouldn't rely on it. next is faultless defense. people rarely use it but it's a really good option. third understanding the opponent's habits is super important. take ky for instance, they'll do some bullshit and end in dire eclat, this pushes ky pretty far back if you don't instant block, so ky will try to spacing trap and steal a turn. so what do I do? gio buttons are tiny...but 2D isn't. i will 2D spacing traps, sounds silly to use slow buttons, but it works.

fighting against axl, when i'm trying to spacing trap him outside of 2k range, he'll just mash out with f.S because it'll reach. gio has 5H and 2D to reach characters too far out of her abare range, so it's good to represent the option. rotating your defense is important as well because if you're always doing fuzzy throw, the opponent will exploit it.

for offense, you need to implement an important aspect to your game. doing nothing. this option is powerful because if your opponent mashes, you can whiff punish, if they DP they explode, if they fuzzy or faultless defense you know how they're defending. offense for gio is data collection time. once you know how they're defending, things become a lot easier. and also, rotate your offense so they never catch on.