Tijjani Reijnders is currently preparing for the Euros and is expected to be a starter for the Netherlands, having impressed with AC Milan. However, despite this success, a new role awaits him for next season.
Few knew about the midfielder when he arrived from AZ Alkmaar in a deal worth around €20m plus bonuses. However, it’s safe to say that he’s taken us all by storm with his performances, displaying a fantastic ability on the ball.
In the end, he managed four goals and four assists in 50 appearances for the Rossoneri, which is okay but it could have been even more for him. Furthermore, he was the most-used player after Theo Hernandez with 3869 minutes on the pitch, which says a lot.
Reijnders was really good in the friendly against Roma yesterday and it reminded us all that he needs a new role for next season. When driving forward with the ball, he’s almost unstoppable and he’s fantastic in tight situations on the edge of the box, which often helps Milan unlock situations.
With Milan leaking at the back this season, though, the 25-year-old was forced to do a lot of defending and this is something that might change over the summer. With the arrival of a defensive midfielder, he could be given even more freedom and exploit his qualities to the maximum.
Monaco’s Fofana has been linked with the Rossoneri and Paulo Fonseca, the expected new head coach, surely has a plan in mind for Reijnders already.
If we didn’t have leao, I’d sat an Xmas tree formation with him and puli as the CAMs would be great to try.
I said it before he should be playing in a 4-3-3 formation or 4-2-3-1 with him as CAM, if he works a bit more his shooting he could be a very good attacking midfielder. Pioli tried to play Loftus there but he isn’t fast or technical enough to play there.
Totally agree and said it before. Reijnders is an AM. He doesn’t belong on the double pivot. I hope fonseca plays him at the 10 with a DM and Bennacer/RLC in the pivot.
He needs to improve his shooting
The best thing to do is play with a 3 man midfield lotus cheek in the middle, Adli on the left and Tijanni on the right…
Honestly I prefer a 3 man mid with Tijjani-Fofana-Bennacer if Bennacer doesn’t leave this summer I would prefer him over Loftus and Adli
Respect
The writing here never ceases.
The guys stats are terrible. He failed as an AM was moved back to DM, then switched to 433 where he still failed as a CM.
Let’s take a look at his “taken us all by storm with his performances”.
He scored 4 goals and had 3 assists all season. Pretty poor by any attacking midfielder standard.
But let’s look at who the goals were against?
6 games 1 Euro goal 0 assists.
6 games 0 CL goals 0 assists.
36 games Serie A 3 goals 3 assists
but who did he gets the goals against? Big teams yes?
He scored against Cagliari, Slavia Prague, Monza and Lecce. So no, he never turned up in any big game for Milan.
What about his passes? Per whoscored he averages:
His shots per game is at 1.2, his key passes per game is 1.4, his dribbles are at 1.
While shorts per target is not great for an AM, his shots on target is astonishingly worse. The guy is blind.
It gets worse. His fouled rate is less than 0.6. No one cares when he has the ball. He’s not a threat. Yet he losses the ball more than he wins it back by a wide margin. Disposed per game is at 1.1 at so is unforced errors at 1.1 per game. TERRIBLE!
Ok, let’s continue with defense. His blocks is 0.2 per game. His forward dribbles are 0.6 per game. His dribbles per game is 0.6, atoningly low for a guy who has “taken us all by storm with his performances” while his interceptions are at 0.5.
This probably means nothing to you because you never bothered to look at real life statistics.
So let’s compare vs a midfielder that we all know, Hakan Calhanoglu
Hakan 13 goals, 3 assists.
Passing:
Passing rate is 92%, better than Reijnders 89%
Shots pg rate is 1.9, better than Reijnders 1.2
Key passes 2.2, better than Reijnders 1.4
Defense:
Disposed is 0.1, better than Reijnders 1.1
Unforced errors is 0.8, better than Reijnders 1.1
Tackles 2.1, better than Reijnders 0.3
I could keep going here with more stats and especially Reijnders xG which is non existent.
There isn’t a single area that Reijnders outperformed Hakan in. Not a single one and it’s not even close.
Absolute fake news article. You should be ashamed of writing this. Everything that you posted is word salad but none of it is based on facts or real life statistics.
Are you being paid by someone at Milan to post this? Serious question. This article completely removes reality and tries to entirely push a fake narrative.
That’s the biggest bs I seen here, Tijjani never played as nr10 for Milan, tell me one game when Pioli played him in that position. He was the most important mildfilder we had this season and is his first season in Seria a, Hakan has been way worse than him, he started to get better when he went at Inter he was way older and different team and coach. Saying that Tijjani failed is nonsense
The meez guy went full Rijkaarded
Lol thank you @Meez. Saved me the trouble.
Can’t always be spitting the stats lol 😂
Lower teams like I said below. That’s how these guys show up to play against.
I think the guys lack objectivity sometimes, albeit Oliver who is good to remain neutral. But overall they do a good job to provide us the news.
Anyway I share your opinion, Reijnders only started because of the lousy competition. Even Krunic was a starter. And Reijnders was benched by Adli… But I will try to watch him during the Euro since he seems to be a key player for Netherlands now. Hopefully he’ll be better next year but this season was average at best and you summed it up well.
He is not a DM and he is not an AM. He is a n8 that gives his best as left sided midfield on a 3.
He played there only for the first part of the season. I agree his contribution can improve, but he was played out of position most of the times. If we buy a proper DM, Reinjders will benefit a lot.
Agreed I see him as an attacking no.8 or box2box mf … nonetheless the maint point is probably valid, that he’d benefit a lot from having a true DM sitting back covering.
Not sure if Fofana is ideally the guy but looks like he’s cheap enough with an expiring contract so we’ll probably go for him.
Hakan clearly a level above Tiji
How dare you compare TJ to Hakan who has been in the league(Serie á) since when.
Why not compare him with another player with same position play, serie á experience In number of years and almost same time played?
Albeit, TJ and Hakan aren’t on same level.
He’s been in form????? What sort of form was that? I must have missed it. The invisible form? Dude is as average as you can get. His passing is great and……yea that’s it. Maybe he’s used wrong I dunno. But this is a load of BS to be saying he’s on form.
“However, it’s safe to say that he’s taken us all by storm with his performances, displaying a fantastic ability on the ball.”
He did ? He took us by storm? Dude only shows up vs lower teams then articles and accolades come out for some reason praising him like the next coming. But when he goes missing in big games like all the new signings, not a word about how bad he was. Matter of fact the opposing team doesnt have to be big, just above average and he’s missing. He can run, is not injury prone and can pass. Thats it.
“When driving forward with the ball, he’s almost unstoppable” . He doesn’t drive the ball forward. I’ve barely seen him do this. He’s so easily pressured it’s not funny. You guys are trolling us now
Did you watch the friendly in au @meez the min he got sub out. we had no possessions not holding midfielder for the entire final half of the game. plus this is his first season in seria A give me a break. i bet all you do is maths what’s the difference btw you and moncada. damn hilarious management and fans
4-3-3 gk:mike cb:tomori cb:buongiorno:rb:tiago santos lb:theo dm:fofana rcm:reijnders lcm:bennacer rw:pulisic/chukwueze lw:leao st:zirkzee or 4-2-3-1 with reijnders/bennacer and fofana in the pilot and pulisic cam
Reijnders is similar to Paquetá in this way. He is a true mezzala, who functions best when playing in a 4-3-3 and not so much as a pure offensive or defensive midfielder in a 4-2-3-1
He’s ok but nothing what media are trying to portray of him. At least from his first season.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt since he was shuffled a lot around the midfield this first season. Hopefully with Fonseca, who tends to play a lot more offensive football and with technical players, he’ll show more next season.
In my opinion he needs a role in three man midfield similar to Seedorf (not a comparison by any means since Seedorf is my all time favourite player).
Meez maybe there is another reijnders, in milan we only have one midfielder and that midfielder is reijnders the guy is passing is topnotch and everything about him is excellent pioli played him in the wrong position that’s why he didn’t score much goals how do you want DM to score 20 goals
He played excellent in the first few games when he was used as n8 on the left half space. Than Pioli started using him as more DM or in a double Pivot, losing lots of his qualities. To be fair to Pioli, the lack of a proper DM was a huge hole in the squad especially after Krunic left. And on the left you already have two very offensive players like Theo and Leao, so I understand his reasoning. The only game Reinders played on the left was when Theo was missing against Fiorentina in Florence, and he was excellent again. I think sacrificing Theo to get a more defensive LB and financing the transfer market is not a bad idea from a tactical standpoint, having already Leao and Reijenders on the left.
First few games were lower clubs so he played well. The the derby came. After that we resorted to mostly 4231. And as u said, Krunic left along with any semblance of midfield defence.
With our management, wouldn’t be surprised if we sell him if a 50+ mill offer comes and replace him with a DM
I’d sell him for 1/5 of that and I’ve only ever been to America once
In form?
I love you all
Milan has so much intelligent fans.
I enjoyed your comments.
Please no insult.
God bless.