AC Milan's Dutch midfield star, Tijjani Reijnders, has granted an interview to those at The Athletic.
Here are his words, ahead of the Coppa Italia final against Bologna:
"If it's a good season with Coppa Italia trophy? No no, we cannot say it was a good season. Of course, you would have won two trophies, but in Milan you have to compete for the Scudetto and go further in the Champions League. That didn’t happen. Luckily, we have the final and we can add another trophy to this club. But no. It’s mixed feelings."
On Milan's negative season, Reijnders replied:
"It’s frustrating, because we have quality. We won against Real Madrid, for example, and then we drew against Cagliari. It’s always different when a new coach comes in because he has another vision on how he wants to play and has to transfer that to the team as soon as possible. But yeah, for us, it was a discussion about what was going on. Sometimes we were unlucky. Sometimes we weren’t there from the beginning of the match. And there are things we have had to develop much better and much quicker."
On the Bologna team, Reijnders said:
"They’re a tough team. They play man-to-man all over the whole pitch, so we need a lot of movement in that game. Besides that, they have quality with the ball. They have wingers doing very well. We should not go there with fear of Bologna. We are AC Milan and we have to show it, for sure."
On his father, he said:
"I have to give credit to my father for learning about the game and my way of playing. After every match, we call one another and ask: ‘What did I do good? What can I do better?’."
From these conversations, family analysis sessions, Reijnders learned to be more composed in front of goal...
"The problem is not the technique, the way I was shooting. It was the calmness before I got the ball because I had a couple of situations where I was like: ‘Oh, I need to shoot’. When I got calmer in front of goal, you realise you have more time. That’s what was lacking last season. I’m a typical box-to-box player, helping the team build up and find the connection to the attack, either serving my teammates with passes or being in the box myself and being important with goals."
He added:
"When I got older, I looked (up) a lot to Kevin De Bruyne. I watched his games, YouTube clips, especially the way he was scanning the pitch before he gets the ball so he always knows where the space is. I try to do the same.”
Reijnders on the next season:
"The important thing is to go back to basics and start from there."
