Tijjani Reijnders once again took on the task of leading the Netherlands midfield last night but he did so for the first time in a knockout stage game at a major tournament, and he did another fine job.
With a 3-0 win against Romania yesterday the Dutch booked their place in the quarter-finals, where they will face Hakan Calhanoglu’s Turkey on Saturday evening at 21:00 CEST for a spot in the semi-final of the competition.
Once again, as Radio Rossonera relay, the Italian press – more specifically La Gazzetta dello Sport, Tuttosport and Corriere dello Sport – praised the performance of Reijnders who played the full 90 minutes and was the metronome in the middle of the park.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (7 out of 10): “A vending machine: even without putting a coin in, it distributes balls with 96% accuracy. The best? For Dumfries.”
Tuttosport (6.5): “He manages to perform in box to box, fifty metres with the ball at his feet to give numerical superiority in the attacking half of the pitch.”
Corriere dello Sport: 6.5.
Reijnders numbers vs. Romania were as follows: 90 minutes played, 88 touches, 69/72 passes completed (96%), 2/3 long balls completed, 4 ground duels won, 2 clearances and 2 tackles. The all-action midfielder continues to take the Oranje toward potential dreamland.
He is consistent. He once again proved that he does play pretty well against overmatched opposition.
I have been reading what many have been posting about TJ!! And I laugh cos they all emmit mediocrity!! Who wld not know that reidjners is a top player just by the way he handles t he ball?? People are just hating
Is it hating to write that Reijnders doesn’t have any impact? Why Milan fans would hate their own players? Some people are not excited by lateral passes, that’s it. He’s doing what he’s supposed to do, a few mistakes which is good but he’s far from a star player. Again, he can’t defend and he can’t shoot on target. A good display yesterday, against a very poor team of Romania. He has to be more consistent and to eventually have an impact on the games, especially against top opponents. Maybe his average performances were due to Serie A adaptation, maybe it was Pioli’s system, we’ll figure this out this season.
Objectively he did good as a DM last match. If 97% passes completed is not “star quality”, then idk what is it “star quality” (for MF).
It’s not a crime for backpass in football (no it’s not NFL).
Heck even British player praised him for what he did earlier, because this edition Romanian squad was hella GOOD AT DEFENDING, and their MF did PRESSING.
I’m not dutch or american, but i watched and IMO he was great (on that match).
“It’s not a crime for backpass in football” where were u during the Krunic debacle? 😂😂😂Around these parts backpass is a crime apparently
Before the end the new season, you’re gonna get a Reijnders Jersey, B. I promise 😉 He will have converted you with his Hollywood smile and stellar play. LOL!!!
To be fair, I think we’ll start reaping the rewards of last season’s signings this season having broken them in properly. Especially from the likes of Chuk and RLC.
He had some good run-ins and some passes but he still lacks courage. He needs to grow some balls because there were many opportunities where he could do more in vertical play or pass but instead opted for a safe back pass.
Hope Fonseca unlocks his true potential.
He is the ONLY one at Milan who drove the play vertically last season from midfield, Teddy.
And if there aren’t any channels open to run into or pass into, all you can do IS pass it backwards instead of turning it over. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s easy to judge what a player could have and not have done from the couch, man. 🙂
Have you watched Spain play? A LOT of passing forth AND back. It’s part of the game. No team only predominantly passes forward.
I also saw him make defense splitting passes in that game. Credit when it’s due, brother.
Why triggered man? I’m talking about last night match against Romania, I specifically took note of Reijnders. Like I said he had some good passes and vertical play but many times he left a lot to be desired. I remember saying to myself many times last night, come on man there’s an opening, passit! He saw it but stuttered and decided to pass it back or lateral. Many times last night.
Is that your favorite word? “Triggered”? Hahaha I have to be triggered to comment on your post?
Or do you automatically take my replies as a direct attack on you?
Well now that I took a better look around this comment section, you’re right you’re not. You’re just talkative guy who just happens to reply to anyone having a critic on Reijnders. My mistake.
To your comment below, you’re right. 🤣
I did write a full disclosure down below.
Only blind or dumb people can deny reijnders’s quality he needs good DM next to him ugarte, amrabat, florentino luis, wieffer, if he get one of thse players he will do wonderful job next year
Mantappp coment yg bagus.. forza milan
Agreed. He’s the closest thing we have to Kaka in the way he plays and drives forward since kaka left. The Brazilian wasn’t much of a defender either but God Damn he had a good shot on him. Reijnders would do well to improve his shots on target.
You should ask management to play him infront of double pivot not in double pivot.
He is very poor in defense and finishing the pass at best place for wingers or CF and to other midfielders when counter attacking phase.
He is not a star player which many are claiming, yet to prove a lot to say that.
He should improve his defense otherwise people always say something.
He is far from Kessie, Bennacer, Tonali level.
Putting Reijnders and Kakà in the same sentence ? Come on.
I guess it says more about how many bad players we had since Kakà left.
Okay, you just went overboard with this one. Kaka was a pure number 10, and the best at his prime, while Reijnders plays his best further down the field. Tijany is great, our best summer transfer, but he needs to show a lot more to be in the discussion of best in the world. There’s really no comparison between the two, they are really different players, but I do agree that Reijnders is the best in the squad at driving the ball forward (although still would like to see Pulisic there as well).
Schouten was impressive. I like his all round style. He had more progression play in the time he was on the field, not sure if by design. Deers took all of 75 minutes to get going if we are to be serious about an assessment but he did get going. He does well against regular teams as per usual. You won’t find these posts against teams like France for instance. Passed backwards and laterally alot against light pressure. Let’s hope he has a better upcoming season
Full Disclosure: I’m a Reijnders fan and may be impartial in my assessment of the Flying Dutchman. Hope that helps when you read my comments. 🤣
And no, I’m not on Reijnders’ payroll.
I don’t understand why people hate Tijjani, he’s a great player and definitely a step up from what we had. Seems more like people still crying over that useless piece of crap from Lodi. Who led us to 5th along with broken Bennacer. Tijjani oozes quality, whereas that idiot who wouldn’t have even made our Euro’s team doesn’t. He’s better than every midfielder we’ve had over the past 8 seasons except for Kessie, Tonali doesn’t even go above our former Captain Montolivo who’s way better than him. He’s already turning into Bertolacci 2.0, Newcastle saved us with that purchase.
People always cry about us not signing Italian players but as an Italian our last big money signings Bertolacci €20m, Conti €25m, Caldara €35m have all been massive wastes of money. €80m and we got 86 league matches out of them joint.