Following Tijjani Reijnders' move to Manchester City from AC Milan, Opta Analyst's Ali Tweedale looks at what the Dutchman will bring to Pep Guardiola's midfield.
Manchester City don’t often get their transfers wrong.
Part of the reason for that is their resources. They can research and scout players more thoroughly than most other clubs, and then they can pay transfer fees and wages that few else can match.
On top of that, they can also convince just about anyone in world football to join them, given how consistently they challenge for and win the biggest trophies.
But another reason they are usually so successful with their recruitment is the environment that new players arrive into. When everything else is so stable, and one player just needs to slot into a fully functional team led by one of the greatest managers of all time, it tends to be easier to succeed there than it is elsewhere.
This summer, though, things aren’t quite as they usually are at the Etihad Stadium. Pep Guardiola has just endured the worst league season of his career, while Man City have just finished outside the Premier League’s top two and entirely trophyless for the first time in eight years.
They have also just lost one of their best-ever players and a genuine Premier League legend, with Kevin De Bruyne leaving the club at the end of his contract. That leaves a huge hole in their midfield and some colossal boots to be filled.
Injuries meant De Bruyne started only 34 of a possible 78 (43.6 per cent) Premier League matches across his final two seasons at Man City, so the club have done plenty of on-field preparations for his departure.
But while they have mountains of attacking talent in their squad, they don’t have anyone quite like De Bruyne. There is no direct replacement for a player like him, but there may be some hope that with the signing of Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan, for a reported £46.3million, they can make some headway in replacing one aspect of the Belgian’s game.
That is because of Reijnders’ ability to break lines with his passes in attacking areas of the pitch – something at which De Bruyne is one of the best in Premier League history.
Reijnders, 26, broke the opposition’s defensive line with a pass more times (47) than any other player in Serie A in 2024/25. He also ranked seventh for the number of times he broke the opposition’s midfield line, with 147.
He broke two lines of opposition pressure with a single pass 26 times – the third-most among non-defenders in Italy's top flight – and even broke three lines on three occasions, which was also the third-most in the league.
Clearly, he has an eye for a defence-splitting pass, but when he breaks the opposition’s defensive line, his passes don’t generally lead directly to a chance; of his 229 line-breaking passes over the course of the season just gone, only 10 directly created a chance for a team-mate (4.4 per cent).
As the below graphic shows, his line-breaking passes tended to go from in to out – from a central position out towards the wings rather than towards goal. Perhaps that would change with the runs of a striker like Erling Haaland to target at City, though.
Reijnders also gets on the end of balls into the box himself. He scored 10 league goals in 2024/25, which is by far the best return of his career, and a tally that only one other central midfielder in Serie A could top. That player was Scott McTominay, and he only overtook Reijnders with a scoring spree of five goals in three games in April as he fired Napoli to the title.
Reijnders is similar to McTominay in how he breaks into the box with runs from deep, while he is also happy to make runs beyond the striker in behind the opposition. The two still images below show Reijnders in 2024/25 Serie A action as the Milan player who was highest up the pitch, making a run in behind from which he went on to score.
His total of 77 shots in 2024/25, the 10th-most of all players in Serie A and the most of all non-strikers, shows just how often he gets into a position to threaten the opposition goal.
Click here to zoom in on image.
Reijnders' dynamic style, seen in how tirelessly he makes runs to support attacks, extends to when he gets on the ball, too. He excels at receiving the ball in tight spaces, turning away from pressure and moving swiftly towards goal. This particular skill makes him adept at receiving passes in crowded positions in the middle of the pitch, but also higher up, between the lines, where his work is more likely to lead to a chance on goal.
He progresses play consistently by carrying the ball forward. In Serie A in 2024/25, only four players recorded more carries – moving at least five metres with the ball – than Reijnders' 561, and three of those four players are central defenders. Of the top 20 players for total carries, only one moves further on average with each of his carries than Reijnders (11.8m).
The Dutch international tends to move vertically with the ball, too. Of non-defenders, only Lazio’s Matteo Guendouzi (365) made more progressive carries (moving at least five metres towards the opposition’s goal) in Serie A last season than Reijnders' 275.
Reijnders ranked sixth behind four wingers and a striker for shot-ending carries, with 26.
Click here to zoom in on image.
It’s also worth pointing out that Reijnders was playing in an underperforming Milan side. They finished eighth in Serie A in 2024/25, their lowest final position in a decade (10th in 2014/15), and yet Reijnders produced impressive numbers nonetheless. Perhaps the ability to shine while playing with struggling team-mates is something that made him attractive to the Man City hierarchy.
However, for all of his good attacking work, Reijnders’ defensive output leaves a lot to be desired for a player who spent most of the season as part of a double pivot in a 4-2-3-1 or in a midfield three in a 4-3-3.
Click here to zoom in on image.
His rate of 0.8 tackles per 90 minutes was the lowest of all midfielders in Serie A to play at least 1,000 minutes last season, and his total of 3.6 possession regains per 90 minutes was among the lowest in that same group.
At Man City, he will be helped in that regard by the presence of Rodri, one of the best ball-winning midfielders in the world. Reijnders should most certainly be viewed as someone to play alongside the Spaniard, rather than as a replacement for him if he gets injured again.
In many ways, this isn’t the best time to be joining Man City. Reijnders isn’t walking into a slick, well-oiled, winning machine, helping tie up the few loose ends it leaves. Instead, his job will be to play a role in immediately improving an expensively assembled but underperforming squad.
But it is also the case that expectations are lower than they have been in a long time at the Etihad. A title challenge next season is probably the minimum requirement, but Guardiola’s side won’t be expected to sweep everyone else aside as they have done for much of his time in England.
That could afford Reijnders a bit of time to settle and grow into life in the Premier League, which will only help his chances of succeeding there.
Most big signings do pretty well at City, and there is a decent chance of this one doing so, too.
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