Just watching AC Milan is enough to show how important Tijjani Reijnders is to the system in terms of his ball carrying and creativity, but the numbers back it up too.
Even in a complicated away match like the one on Friday in Florence against Fiorentina, Reijnders managed to show his full repertoire by providing the assist to Rafael Leao for the goal that allowed Milan to return to winning ways at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
The more that the games pass, the more the Dutchman lives up to expectations, also because the data from Kickest (in Serie A, via MilanNews) show he is third in the squad for completed passes, behind only Theo Hernandez and Fikayo Tomori.
Considering the area of the pitch in which the former AZ Alkmaar man plays, the 1173 successful passes acquire a different value than those of his team-mates
Ranking for completed passes:
1. Theo Hernandez: 1290 successful passes
2. Fikayo Tomori: 1212 successful passes
3. Tijjani Reijnders: 1173 successful passes
4. Davide Calabria: 944 successful passes
5. Malick Thiaw: 862 successful passes
6. Mike Maignan: 804 successful passes
7. Yacine Adli: 784 successful passes
8. Simon Kjaer: 666 successful passes
9. Alessandro Florenzi: 661 successful passes
10. Christian Pulisic: 605 successful passes
When moving the discussion to key passes the stats are perhaps even more revealing. The Rossoneri’s No.14 is in fact second on the list with 42 key passes so far this season, behind only Rafael Leao who has five more. Again, the positions they both play must be taken into account.
Ranking for key passes:
1. Rafael Leao: 47 key passes
2. Tijjani Reijnders: 42 key passes
3. Theo Hernandez: 38 key passes
4. Christian Pulisic: 33 key passes
5. Olivier Giroud: 30 key passes
6. Alessandro Florenzi: 27 key passes
7. Rubén Loftus-Cheek: 22 key passes
8. Filippo Terracciano (part of season with Verona): 18 key passes
9. Yacine Adli: 12 key passes
10. Ismael Bennacer: 11 key passes
Moreover, Reijnders is top five in the squad when it comes to Big Chances Created (5th, with 3), Passing Accuracy (2nd, 91.71%) and Assists (joint-4th, 3). He is also doing his bit for his country too.
