How Tijjani Reijnders’ barnstorming start to the season turned sour

Tijjani Reijnders must barely know whether to smile or frown.

Having completed a £46.5m move from AC MIlan this summer, the Dutch midfielder enjoyed an eye-catching start to his Manchester City career, producing an exquisite lobbed pass to lay on the opening goal in a 4-0 win over Wolves, before adding a second himself.

That performance, on the first weekend of the Premier League season. was enough to earn the 27-year-old the club’s player-of-the-month award. Yet he struggled to reach similar heights in the defeats to Tottenham and Brighton that followed, and the international break has not brought an upturn in fortune.

The Netherlands currently sit top of World Cup qualifying group G with 10 points and a goal difference advantage of seven points over Poland, with whom they drew 1-1 at the Stadion Feijenoord last Thursday, having played a game less. But neither that nor Sunday’s 3-2 win over Lithuania in Kaunas, where Memphis Depay scored a brace to become the country’s all-time record goalscorer, have proved enough to silence criticism, with Reijnders singled out for particular censure.

‘€60 million? I didn’t see it in this international’

“It wasn’t Reijnders’ night,” said the online outlet Voetbal Primeur of the midfielder’s display against Poland. “The midfielder started strongly with a powerful shot against the post, but then dropped back, occasionally making noticeably sloppy turnovers. This allowed Poland to create some danger.”

There were further brickbats after the win over Lithuania, when the former Dutch international Wim Rijsbergen, a veteran of the 1974 World Cup final, suggested in De Telegraaf that Reijnders was failing to live up to his Manchester City price tag.

“With Reijnders, we know we have a man on the pitch for whom Manchester City paid €60 million,” said Rijsbergen. “That’s many times more than the value of the Lithuanian team. But I didn’t see it in this international. 

Promising footsteps

“There was little space, and Reijnders, like [Jerdy] Schouten and [Jurrien] Timber, got out of position. That doesn’t help.”

Such verdicts go with the territory following a high-profile move. As a multi-million euro export, it is inevitable Reijnders’ performances will come under the microscope, be it from the Dutch media or their British counterparts. The latter might be more appreciative of the unique demands of the Premier League, and the bedding-in period new arrivals often require, but that will soon change. The onus is on Reijnders to deliver more box-to-box performances of the quality he produced against Wolves. 

Not that the Etihad faithful are likely to be unduly perturbed by a few poor reviews of their new man’s international efforts. Reijnders, after all, is only the second City player to score and assist on his Premier League debut. The other was Sergio Agüero, who apparently did OK.