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Manchester City midfielder Tijjani Reijnders enjoyed an explosive start to his Premier League career and the goals have started to flow again after a worrying few months.
It looked like Manchester City's recruitment team had done it again when Tijjani Reijnders waltzed through the Wolves midfield and clipped a delightful ball over for Rico Lewis to tee up Erling Haaland. A £46.3million signing from AC Milan in the summer, Reijnders went on to cap his Premier League debut with a lovely goal, but things haven't been quite so simple for the Dutchman since that stellar first league outing.
Reijnders enjoyed the best season of his career in goalscoring terms prior to his move to City. The 27-year-old scored 15 in all competitions - with 10 of those goals coming in Serie A - having never reached double figures prior to 2024/25. It was hoped he would bring similar goalscoring prowess to the Etihad, but that opening day strike at Molineux was followed by three-and-a-half months without a goal.
City's over-reliance on Erling Haaland this season has been of concern to Pep Guardiola, so much so that he called on the rest of his squad to do their bit in helping the Norwegian after the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle in November. Haaland spurned a couple of opportunities to add to the 14 Premier League goals he already had to his name that evening, though Guardiola was keen to focus on the responsibility of his striker's teammates after the game.
"Yes [the chances] were clear, but we have to score more goals. Our players have the ability and quality to do it," he said. His City players can't be accused of not listening to him. Phil Foden has been in superb form of late, and Reijnders looks to be the latest to join the goalscoring party.
The Dutchman scored in the barmy 5-4 win at Craven Cottage to bring an end to his barren spell in front of goal, and he has two goals in his last two games, the most recent being the all important opening goal at the City Ground.
His early second half strike against Nottingham Forest was everything you would expect to see of a goalscoring midfielder, finding a pocket of space before drifting into the box, running in behind the Forest defence and finishing in clinical fashion.
Since Guardiola's comments after the Newcastle defeat, City have won eight of their last nine games, with their only loss coming against Bayer Leverkusen immediately after the defeat at St James' Park. Of those eight wins, Haaland hasn't scored in four of them - albeit he didn't play in the Carabao Cup win over Brentford - but the point stands that City are proving it's not a case of 'no Haaland goals, no City win'.
If City are going to win the title this season they need goals from all over the pitch, and Reijnders is proving he's up to the task.
Ross joined the MEN in August 2021. He was appointed Sport Content Editor in February 2022 and became Head of Football in August 2024.
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