Tijjani Reijnders has expressed his excitement after his move to join AC Milan from AZ Alkmaar was officially confirmed earlier today.
Through a statement on their official website earlier today, Milan announced that Reijnders has joined the Rossoneri from AZ Alkmaar on a permanent basis with the Dutch midfielder having signed a contract with the Rossoneri until 30 June 2028.
Reijnders spoke to Milan TV and gave his first official interview with the club, speaking about a number of topics from his reaction to Milan’s interest to his preferred role.
“Very excited, very happy to be here. Also very proud to be part of this big club. When my agent told me AC Milan are interested in me, I was very excited, very happy, I was like ‘wow, such a big club are interested in me’,” he said.
“The choice for me was very easy, I have to say. I didn’t have to think twice about this decision.”
Reijnders joins a line of Dutch players who will pull on the red and black shirt after the legendary trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard plus others like Clarence Seedorf and Jaap Stam.
“My father when he was young he always watched Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and he always told me about the times that they played here [at Milan] and that made me also watch those kind of clips,” he added.
“They had a lot of impact at this club, it was unbelievable and I’m very proud that I can be the next Dutch guy who can play for this club.
“Last week I was watching some clips and I saw Ronaldinho and he was my biggest idol when I was younger. I talked a lot with Teun [Koopmeiners], he told me that life in Italy is so nice, the league is very good and it’s a great league to improve yourself as a player. That was also a big part of my decision of course.”
There has been some debate regarding the position where the 24-year-old shows himself best, amid reports that Stefano Pioli plans to use him as the anchor of a midfield trio.
On his best role, Reijnders said: “I’m a box-to-box midfielder who loves to play attacking football, to create chances or create goals for myself as well. I am also not lazy with defending as well, so I’m a typical box-to-box midfielder.”
Reijnders was also asked about his personality away from the field, the parts of Italy he is looking forward to and his choice of number.
“I find it easy to make friends with people, to make jokes and have fun. My hobbies are travelling to see different places in the world, and gaming (laughs).
“I love the culture, the food and the coffees are very nice here. I hope to taste more of it.
“Of course number six was always my first choice, but you can’t take the number of a legend of AC Milan, and number 14 made me think about Johan Cruyff, a big player for us in Holland so it’s a beautiful number.
Finally, a message to the fans: “Hello Rossoneri fans, very happy to be here. I want to win a lot of trophies with you here at this club and I can’t wait to start.”
Ok, can everybody stop pretending like he’s a regista now? You heard it from him.
I looked far back at his games and he never played in the middle of the 3 (but he did play as a DM in a 4-2-3-1). All the articles that suggested he’ll be the deep lying midfielder must have never seen even clips of him.
Nope. I don’t think they saw clips of him. I have to agree with u here and As I said below, he’s more offensive than defensive. If he’s in the pivot he could be the more offense oriented one. I also tried to see him in actual games too to get a feel.
Maybe is RAFA two with his Smiles…..lol❤️🖤
Finally got around to seeing a Reinjders compilation on YouTube from offense to defence and I’ve got to say, I’m not sure what the all fuss is about Lol. But I get other more professional ppl would see it better. Was going to post this in the scouting article but better late than never.
Sorry, what were supposed to be his strengths? I’m assuming offense because those tackles are awkward esp if they’re the HIGHlights.
The league is clearly slower so he looks relatively faster than the rest..in Serie A I’m guessing he’s going to have normal pace..nothing special. He does have a good outside shot but I can’t tell if it’s the piss poor defending, no one closing him down or the abysmal goalkeeping. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt there. Accuracy in long shots is hard to come by and I can’t understate how well he strikes the ball. He’s very very very good at it. Again, I can’t say enough about the way he shoots the ball. It’s clearly by miles his best feature. He could be used as a support striker. He does have goals which the keeper doesn’t matter and those are the goals I look for (ie even if it was Courtois in goal he still would have scored sort of thing) and that’s a good thing. And he does have a few of those.
However., Some of the offensive movements he won’t get away with in Serie a esp the dribbles…many of those were poorly defended but again that’s the league. He also sometimes over dribbles. But he does dribble nicely and can pass out of a press on the dribble. Also the defensive movements are not polished. His frame is also small. I actually thought he was built bigger, so that’s why I’m leaning towards an offense mid. He could play CAM but I haven’t seen his link up play well in the highlights. He also seems to have space afforded to him and roams alot. He gets alot of freedom in AZ which I’m guessing will be taken away in Italy. Would be interesting to see how he manages that. I think he could be good but he needs to polish some stuff out. Support striker or AM is not out of the question though.
Let me make a coffee before reading this genius essay…
You can also move along too. That’s also an option
“Finally got around to seeing a Reinjders compilation on YouTube from offense to defence and I’ve got to say, I’m not sure what the all fuss is about Lol. ”
Yeah. Clips tell you everything. I mean, did you watch the CDK clips a year ago? Didn’t he look awesome in those highlights? Right? 😀
I don’t understand what this have to do with CDK but yes I also looked at CDK 🤷♂️
But yes I need to check the full games. How else would u assess a player if not to look at the player
play 😂😂😂..sorry I might hv missed the point. I’m pretty sure most ppl on the forum only see highlights too. I bet most dont watch full length games
“But yes I need to check the full games. How else would u assess a player if not to look at the player
play 😂😂😂..sorry I might hv missed the point. ”
Point was exactly what you thought: most people will only check the highlights to judge a player. I watched the CDK clips last summer and have to admit I thought he might be worth buying. Now that I know the attitude he has I’ve changed my mind. He doesn’t have the mental strength to make it in Milan.
Ahhhh Oh ok I see. Makes sense now. Thanks for clarifying.
Yea about CDK, man I don’t know what happened but I wish him all the best. I still think there’s a good player in there somewhere
“Yea about CDK, man I don’t know what happened but I wish him all the best. I still think there’s a good player in there somewhere”
Yeah. He’d be better off in a smaller team with less pressure. Or he needs to hire a mental coach ASAP and get his head sorted.
Nah even CDK highlight clips were very ordinary, we got conned
TR looks a really quality player, I’m excited to see him in action.
Funny enough i thought his close control dribble was CDK best asset at Brugge, and after a season at Milan his close control dribble is still his best asset lol. If you look at his season HIGHlights for us this season he doesn’t look bad but it’s the other intangibles and movements in the formation, the challenges of the new league etc. that got him.
For the deer 🦌, i find myself weighting the Lazio performance more because 1. It’s a Serie A team and 2. Was a high pressure game. And he did quite well, impressive game (but he also over dribbled in his own box sometimes). If he can do that consistently then yes TR would be a good buy. But u never know how these things turn out
Maldini got conned. And then he got fired.
He’s dominating Lazio Midfield though. So he can handle the pressure of “faster” pace on other Serie A club
Interesting ,his long shoot are somehow AC Milan missing . Long shoot from midfield . But yeah agree, he is not that great at defensive, maybe krunic or yunus will do dirty job as ball winner in midfield ( thats if ACM buy yunus , if not buy yunus then krunic are ACM best option to do dirty job) . But i hope this reijnders can play well and fill bennacer role till he recover
Some of his long shots are like looping shots with pace. I’m thinking they’re trying to have options against the low block teams. Up and over. The other would be a player of guile that’s good in tight spaces and can dribble (Pulisic?)
It’s obvious this guy is super excited to join our prestigious club with great tradition. He’s gonna play with his heart for my beloved club. Been in love with this guy the very moment I learnt we were after him…. Do great for us , big man!❤️🖤
Welcome Reijnders 🙏 but we still need a DM. Pretty sure we’ll get one even if we can’t shift dead wood like CDK and Origi.
Welcome Tijjani. Wish you all the best but most of all, I wish you shut my doubtful mouth.
I don’t get why Italian media has repeatedly said RLC-Reijnders-Musah would be a midfield with Reijnders sitting furthest back. Unless they are getting that info actually from Pioli or other insiders who know that is his idea, it doesn’t make sense to me on its face. Musah is the one who is best suited to play that role, and who has done it for his national team very well. I wouldn’t pay much attention to how he was used at Valencia because they are an absolute dumpster fire. He is the one of the three who is best suited to play the defensive role, and it’s not even close IMO. This is all assuming that is the midfield trio, of course, which we know is not a certainty right now.
Guess we will play with 3 box to box midfielders next season
Inter bettered us in Midfield many times last season with mhykitarjan(Brozovic)/calha Traitor/Barella none of which are specialized DM’s.
I think Pioli wants a dynamic , powerful midfield that are less predictable. How he is going to line them up is Pioli’s job but if we can get Musah(so much potential!) With Reijnders, Loftus, Krunic & eventually Bennacer we can have a very interesting midfield mate.
Everyone who frequents this board should know by now exactly who your starters in MF are. Regardless of whether they sign Musah—and I’m going to consider they do when stating the below—your starters are exactly the same. And I know we’re probably wishing otherwise but it’s as good as gold… your day 1 starters are:
RLC Reijnders
Krunic
That’s it. That’s the lineup. There never was—and there isn’t now—any other option, whether they signed 1 MF or 8 MF. It was always Krunic at 6. ALWAYS.
Most probably. At least until Bennacer is back to his old self.
Hahahaha I love it. this is so true. I keep seeing Krunic missing in ppl starting XI. bro Krunic is 10000% starting mid whether pivots or otherwise. The rest will have to compete for their spots 😂😂😂😂😂
TR is definitely not a DM capturing the ball. He is also not a AIM making offensive runs, creating depth.
So Krunic will be at the center of 3 in 433. I don’t mind. He is now good in defensive duties and deliver accurate simple pass. He is more like an anchor, not as regista/deep lying midfielder. It will protect our backline more. So offensive duties wiil be carried by Reijnder and RLC.