Why Manchester City's latest multi-million-pound midfielder Tijjani Reijnders is more than just replacement for Kevin De Bruyne: THE SHARPE END

Pep Guardiola has never been shy about his love for midfielders. As he said back in 2018: ‘If I could play with 11 of them, I would.’

So much of Guardiola’s philosophy – and his success – has stemmed from dominating the centre of the pitch. Control the middle, says Pep, control the game.

He loves those players who read the game and have the technical ability to win the ball, keep it and move it forward.

Manchester City’s woes this season happened because they lost control of the middle. Guardiola was without Rodri, the best ball retainer in the world, nearly all campaign. Kevin De Bruyne, one of the all-time great creators, struggled with injury and has now left the club. 

Ilkay Gundogan, so key to Guardiola’s teams over the years, is 34 with his best days behind him. All of this led to Guardiola’s first trophyless season since his City debut.

It is also why City wasted no time in sealing a £46.3million deal to sign Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan this month. He takes many of the best parts of all of them. He is the perfect Guardiola player.

COMPLETE MIDFIELDER? 

Reijnders, who made his City debut against Wydad Casablanca in the Club World Cup last week, is in many ways the complete midfielder. He excelled in a poor and inconsistent Milan side that finished eighth in Serie A last season.

Among his team-mates in league action, he ranked first for shots (77), interceptions (38), passes (1,491), progressive passes (230) that move the ball up the pitch, carries (561) and progressive carries (275). 

He ranked second for shot-creating actions (117), everything from passes to dribbles and drawing fouls that led to Milan attempting a shot at goal.

He drops deep to collect the ball from defenders and build attacks from the back, is superb at receiving passes in tight spaces, can carry the ball up the pitch, split defences with his passes and can score goals by getting into dangerous areas. Traits all managers value in a midfielder, but especially Guardiola.

He has made an immediate impression on his new City team-mates. ‘He could be very important for us,’ enthused Nathan Ake after the 2-0 win over Wydad. ‘From the first week in training, you could see straight away that he fits in really well.

‘He did very well in midfield against Wydad, he kept the ball really well. He kept us moving and defensively as well he was very good too. He can play multiple positions, he can get in the box, he can get you moving and we know he’s got a lot of quality.’

Boss Guardiola agreed: ‘He’s a really good player. Really good. You feel it, you smell it. When he gets the rhythm he will be top.’

PASS AND CARRY 

Without the expertise of Rodri and De Bruyne in the engine room, City’s numbers plummeted. They averaged their lowest possession in a Premier League season under Guardiola at 61 per cent, falling from 71 per cent in 2017-18. 

Despite having less of the ball, they also won it back less than ever as his ageing midfield struggled to swarm their opponents. They played their fewest passes into the final third and into the penalty area under Guardiola.

Their big drop off was in how many passes split opposition defences and open teams up. They played nearly 500 fewer line-breaking passes this season than last. 

Their completed passes ‘between the lines’, what Opta define as ones ‘to a teammate positioned in between the defending team’s defensive and midfield lines’ dropped from 973 in 2023-24 to 722 this term.

There are few better at it than Reijnders. He played 229 line-breaking passes in Serie A this season, with 47 of them splitting the defensive line, more than any other player. His passes broke two lines of opposition players 26 times, according to Opta, the third most in the division among non-defenders.

Against, Wydad he completed 68 of his 74 attempted passes (a remarkable 92 per cent) — and the six that missed their target were all in or into the final third. With him on the ball next term, Erling Haaland will be licking his lips.

Few carry the ball like Reijnders either. Only one non-defender carried the ball at least five metres on more occasions than the Dutch international. Only former Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi, now at Lazio, made more progressive carries towards an opponent’s goal.

RUNNER AND SCORER 

A key weapon in Guardiola’s armoury over the years has been goals from central midfielders like Gundogan and Bernardo Silva. How often have we seen Gundogan make those charging late runs into the box to sweep home chances.

Reijnders’ 77 shots were the most in Serie A by a non-striker as he consistently found space in scoring areas. 

Scott McTominay, the newly-crowned King of Naples, was the only central midfielder with more league goals than his 10.

Many of them came from those Gundogan-esque runs, typified by goals against Parma, Roma and Como.

He’s not the strongest in the tackle with his ball recovery numbers among the lowest among midfielders in Serie A but he makes up for it by his excellent reading of the game that allowed him to make a decent number of interceptions. 

He’s no slouch out of possession — you can’t play for Pep if you are — and had a strong work ethic installed in him from an early age. Reijnders’ dad Martin, himself a former striker at Zwolle, didn’t want his son to take his burgeoning career at the same club for granted.

‘I used to stock shelves at Aldi,’ revealed Reijnders Jnr in a 2023 interview. ‘I’d work behind the till too and earn a few hundred euros a month.

‘Recently I was talking with my family about the contrast (between working a regular job and playing football) and we concluded my time at Aldi was really good for me. I’ve seen both sides of the coin.’

Reijnders played most often this season played in a sitting midfield two for AC Milan in a 4-2-3-1 but also featured in a three in a 4-3-3 or even a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1. 

His versatility was on show against Wydad, where he was the deepest-lying midfielder in the first half - even taking the ball from Ederson at goal-kicks - but moved into a more advanced role after Rodri came off the bench on the hour.

So whether it’s alongside the Spaniard or tucked in behind Erling Haaland next season, Reijnders is primed to help City not just replace De Bruyne but also recapture the best bits of the other great midfielders Guardiola so loves.