Tijjani Reijnders has been tremendous all season for AC Milan and after the goal last night, he further cemented his position as the best-scoring midfielder in the top-five leagues.
The Dutchman arrived at Milan for the 2023-24 season and initially struggled with the goalscoring, often missing good chances. This season, however, has been the complete opposite as he now has 14 goals in all competitions (10 in Serie A, 3 in Champions League and one in the Coppa Italia).
As highlighted by Sky Italia, Reijnders is the midfielder – excluding wingers and attacking midfielders – with the most goals in Europe’s top-five leagues. It’s a remarkable stat considering he doesn’t take penalties for Milan, even if you could argue that he’s sometimes had an attacking midfielder-esque position.
.@T_Reijnders has scored the most goals (14) among all midfielders in the top-5 leagues this season, considering goals scored in all competitions.
[via @SkySport] pic.twitter.com/snTGcQGBjy
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) April 12, 2025
It’s no surprise that big clubs are knocking on the door for a transfer, with Man City expressing an interest, but Reijnders renewed his contract with Milan at the beginning of March. In other words, he has no intentions of leaving and the Rossoneri certainly don’t want to sell him.
Hopefully, he will continue on the current path for the season finale as Milan still have the Coppa Italia to fight for. The return leg against Inter is scheduled for April 23rd, following the 1-1 draw in the first leg.
He’s already employed by a big club
Bruno Fernandes at MUFC has 16 goals, including eight in the EPL, two each in the League Cup and the FA Cup, and four in the Europa League.
Florian Wirtz at Bayer Leverkusen has 15 goals, including nine in the Bundesliga and six in the Champions League.
#Accuracy
Both are attacking midfielder
#different
Yes but they have mostly more offensive positions
Good.
Now the only thing he needs to do is to play like an actual midfielder.
Shots fired.
This.
Not surprised considering he’s usually the furthest man forward. How many goals is he responsible for going the other way? Something similar. This is also true when he plays for his country.
Even vs Udinese he refused to stay behind the ball and was constantly above Jovic. Against a team with a semi competent midfield he gets overrun. He does this constantly. Defensively, he is a liability at best.
343 worked because Theo and Leao need space to operate and protection behind them. Reijnders actually effects both negatively in the 4231 by running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. As a 6, or in a 2 man midfield we will struggle against well organized teams.
Udinese was not well organized. A well organized team would have punished him and Fofana for one of them not staying behind the ball in transition
He leaves the defense exposed every single match for dangerous counters and his attacking characteristics dont make up for his lack of consistency or defensive “ability”
Unfortunately, he basically has to play as 10 and hes incapable of staying in position there either.
Reijnders is most hated player i don’t know what did he do wrong he is one of the best players in this world if he scored so many goals he can’t make them happy he the leading player when it comes off the ball he is also part of our defensive duty ball recovery, interceptions it’s first time to see fans hate their own player for scoring them i wish he leaves to get people who appreciate him
“i wish he leaves to get people who appreciate him”
I just wish he defends more and trop overcarrying the ball, that’s it.
If Théo and Leão are constantly bombarded by criticism for lack of defensive duties, why not him ? Is he too good for criticism because he is one of the “new guys” ?
Before you said anything go check our stats the best midfielder when it comes defensive duty is reijnders go check for your self
Sure,
He is in the 1th percentile in tackles (among midfielders)
51th percentile in Interceptions.
3th percentile in blocks
6th percentile in clearances and 4th percentile in aerial wons.
Compare just an example (just an example) with Hakan who is in the 38th percentile in tackles.
82th percentile in Interceptions.
18th percentile in blocks
26th percentile in clearances and 4th percentile in aerial wons.
In the Milan team, again defensive stats, if you toggle stats per 90:
Reijnders is bottom third in tackles, below Théo.
Around half in blocks, below Théo, Pulišić, Fofana, Abraham,…
He is fourth in interceptions though, and around bottom half in clearances.
Sorry that doesn’t scream defensive duty.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the guy, I do find him sympathetic, he has good work ethic and his shooting improved A LOT compared to the previous season, but he is quite overrated in this website.
All my friends and collegues who are fans or like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Arsenal, PSG,… aren’t very impressed by him and some of them didn’t even know about him. And if you watch our games this season, his defensive game and playmaking game is quite lacking. Take away his goal contributions and he doesn’t look impressive anymore, which will be ok if he was a striker, but he is a midfielder.
Dummies complaining about Reijnders when he’s both our most effective in attack and defense don’t watch the matches. This is what you get when people just read the match and don’t watch or watch illegal streams instead of the actual game.