Tijjani Reijnders showed with his goal against Monza on Tuesday night that he is capable of the extraordinary, and Paulo Fonseca hopes he will become an all-action midfielder for his AC Milan.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, Reijnders became a key man for the Netherlands at the European Championship over the summer. He played six games out of six as a starter in a run up to the semi-final, with Ronald Koeman putting his trust in him after a good first season at Milan.
The technique has always been there with Reijnders, but in a delicate role like his the real difference is made by tactical intelligence. Even if it was only a friendly, the match against Monza confirmed that this will be a Milan even more dependent on Reijnders, for two reasons.
The first reason: next to him, most of the time, he will have a partner that will battle like Ruben Loftus-Cheek and/or Youssouf Fofana which means he can focus on creating, with the utmost attention to not unbalance the team of course.
The second is that a more dynamic attack is expected with Rafael Leao, Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze behind Alvaro Morata, and the Dutchman in this sense appears perfect to serve their runs and fuel the dynamism.
Reijnders was asked at the beginning of July about the way he likes to play, stating: “Running forward with the ball and shooting, but next time I have to score… I’m a box-to-box player: sometimes I carry the ball, other times I put our attackers in the right position. That’s how I can help the team.”
In this Milan under Fonseca, who teaches the team to play the ball and have possession, Reijnders seems the perfect player. Tijjani did not take part in the tour in the USA because he was on holiday, but he had already made contact with Fonseca.
“I spoke to the coach. I’m waiting for the new season, with all his new ideas, after the holidays I can’t wait to start again,” he said in Germany. The first match with Fonseca went very well, now it’s a matter of keeping up the promises.