Dutch international Tijjani Reijnders has become indispensable for Rossoneri coach Paulo Fonseca. The Milan midfielder has started every match except for the first one against Torino, where he came on as a substitute with half an hour left. But he has no intention of slowing down: “The important thing is to recover well after matches and take care of your body, but at the moment I feel good. I have a lot of energy.”
The current situation at Milan is negative. At the event organized by BMW at Malpensa airport, which the entire team attended, the midfielder commented on the Rossoneri’s recent period: “After the victory in the derby, the Rossoneri beat Lecce, but lost to Bayer Leverkusen and Fiorentina. Reijnders, however, has a lot of confidence in the group. “The last few matches haven’t been the best in terms of results, but the important thing is to stay united as a group and be compact. We have the quality to turn this season around: we want to win. The upcoming matches are important. I have a lot of faith in this group, we can do better than this.”
Can Milan fight to win the championship? “Yes. There have been changes, we’re improving game by game. We need to understand how the coach wants us to play and we’re doing it slowly. We’re developing our game. We have a great group, with great quality, now it’s up to us to show it with victories.”
First as a midfielder, then as part of a two-man midfield. Fonseca is looking for the right fit for Milan and for Tijjani, who has a clear preference for position and formation: “The coach has mainly played me as a number 8, which is the position I played the most with AZ. There I can have more impact. I’m a box-to-box player, I can play as a 10 or as an 8. But what matters is having an impact for the team and doing well. Is AZ’s 4-3-3 replicable? Of course, we do it at Milan. It’s not a true 4-3-3, there are two forwards, it’s particular. But with the 4-3-3 I can do well and play as a number 8.”
