Tijjani Reijnders and the Netherlands will kick off their Euros adventure this afternoon, taking on Poland at 15:00 CEST. The AC Milan man is set to play a leading role in midfield, having impressed a lot with the national team.
The midfielder arrived at Milan last summer in a €20m deal from AZ Alkmaar, becoming a fan favourite almost immediately. He made his debut for the Netherlands in September and hasn’t looked back since, now ready for the big games in Germany.
As highlighted by today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), Reijnders is crucial for the Netherlands and Ronald Koeman, able to play as a mezz’ala, playmaker and attacking midfielder. ” He has become great in a very short time, he cannot be left out,” Koeman has stated.
It’s even more evident today as the likes of Frankie de Jong, Teun Koopmeiners and Martin De Roon are on the sidelines with injuries. Reijnders will thus have a key role in the midfield and the manager believes in him a lot, expecting his through balls, vertical passing and even shooting ability.
While he only scored four goals in 50 games for Milan this past season, he has showcased his shooting ability before (one screamer for the Netherlands) and more consistency on this front is his next step.
Reijnders for 20ml absolutely we robbed that club
I started to think that maybe I missed something with Reijnders as he is described here as the new Kakà or one of the best midfielders in Italy, so I went on YouTube. There is a video named “Tijjani Reijnders 2024 – Highlights – ULTRA HD” from “Just Football”.
Honestly it’s ridiculous… 3 869 minutes of play for this. Mostly missed shots and lateral passes… He has to improve A LOT if he wants to cement himself as a solid Serie A midfielder. The fact that he’s starting for a depleted Netherlands midfield doesn’t reassure me either. There is A LOT of work ahead. I’ll pray for him to la Madonnina.
People on this blog treat him as our new Kaka. Some even compared his arrival with the one of Kaka. Delusional. Fact is, he’ll need to show a lot more than he did in his first season. I’m just watching Euros match against Poland and to be honest, he lacks. He’s there on the ball but most of the time he’s invisible. No crucial play considering he’s Holland only creative spark in the middle or at least they expect him to be. Nothing special really.
Yeah some people will argue that he’s a starter for Milan so he’s good. First, that Milan midfield is terrible. Second, at some point we had guys like Kévin Constant, Lucas Biglia or Riccardo Montolivo as starters. I really wish he becomes the new Seedorf but he’s really, really far from it.
Anytime this site bigs up Deers or RLC before a game they always flop or are average