Rood-Witten (& Blau) Malik Tillman at PSV America (olf Bayern Munich)

Pretty hard to compare stats between a player at AZ and one at PSV. Does Malik need to be surrounded by good players to shine? I mean I guess that is what ManCity and Bayern are but they can buy whoever they want. How about thinking of Tillman as Musah's replacement? It's not like for like but both versatile and roughly same age and fills the whole of an American leaving with another American.

 

Actually that's what I predicted to a question by an AC Milan fan:

 

Reijnders starting today at DM

 

Except CF/Striker. That was the break down up front this season. AC's stop scorers were CP, TR and Leao. That's a problem. Their D is sus, and has been for a couple of seasons, but in 23/24 they scored their way out of it (and to a much lesser extent in 22/23). This season they could not. They just didn't bring in a striker who could strike.

 

The defense has been poor and Reijnders has been a big part of that. As I said, if you want to build an attack through the wings, the midfielders have to carry their weight on defense. Reijnders either cannot or will not play defense. While soccer may not be a stats-driven game, surely there's something to take away from this. Reijnders defense stats:

Statistic Per 90 Percentile
Tackles 0.79 1
Interceptions 1.01 55
Blocks 0.54 3
Clearances 0.70 4
Aerials Won 0.14 3

Tillman may not ever be as valuable as Reijnders is right now, but I think what he offers makes him a much better fit for Milan, particularly with Allegri coming in. Tillman defense stats:

Statistic Per 90 Percentile
Tackles 2.77 82
Interceptions 1.41 80
Blocks 1.64 89
Clearances 0.85 11
Aerials Won 1.22 68

 

Reijnders looks good today, sharp passes

 

He has been a more accurate passer than Tillman. His passing is likely why Manchester City spent as much as they did on him.

 

he typically plays deeper than Tillman

 

Except - of course - AC's defense was no better the season before TR joined - because Theo and Leao on the same side is a team built to outscore, not shut down, the opponent. And once Giroud left, TR had to step up and score, since the goals were left to the midfield.

 

Agreed but I’d argue that even with no cf/striker this season they probably would have made the top-4 with a defense. Obviously long term yeah you need to find a striker as well.

 

https://www.footitalia.com/news/ricardo-pepi-transfer-news-milan-serie-a/

The latest Ricardo Pepi transfer news has revealed that Milan are interested in signing the PSV Eindhoven and USMNT striker.

 

Yeah, I think a big part of the Theo/Leao trade off is "we're just gonna have to outscore them fellas" but when you are relying on one of your 2 "cm/dms" to be your 2nd leading scorer... it's a tough slog. I also think that if you rely on the unbalanced Theo/Leao left side attack you might think about slipping a Tyler Adams/Wes type in one of the Dm/Cm slots, but then you're not getting 10 goals or whatever.

I don't think the Tillman rumors are real, but it would be cool to see him play with CP regularly.

 

Depends on who the new coach is. Alonso is guaranteed to be a hard act to follow to begin with and had an unusually large say in the recruitment. If the new guy isn't a good fit, it could be a difficult move in the first season at least.

 

You missed the new coach appointment?

 

Nice article.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6435289/2025/06/19/malik-tillman-usmnt-psv-my-game-my-words/

also

https://www.instagram.com/p/DLAfFpAIHFN/

 

I did. And now that i know it's Ten Haag I'm going to make damned sure of 2 things

1) miss every game Leverkusen play
2) toddle down to the bookmakers and put 10 euro on him being fired before Xmas
​

Stay out of Leverkusen please Malik.

 

maybe it'll be more Ajax and less Man Poo

 

I'm ambivalent on ManU but since all coaches there have looked poor since Ferguson is it the coach or the team / FO?

 

Depends on who the sporting director/director of football is. Overmars had that role at Ajax and was very powerful. Ten Haag worked very well with him but had nobody like that at Man U, leaving him free to recruit players himself with the consequences that we've seen.

It may well be that he's a good training ground coach who couldn't combine that role with a wider managerial role loaded on top. Going back to a continental managerial structure may work very well for him and left him grow into the coach he was supposed to be - or expose him as a guy who was never more than Overmars' instrument.

With 7 permanent managers in 12 years, most of them with completely different playing styles from each other, it's got to be the club. Continuity of style would suggest that they're not very good at recruitment. The mish-mash of styles every 2 years says they're bad at recruitment because they have no idea what kind of football they want to begin with

 

🚨⚫️🔴 BREAKING | Bayer 04 Leverkusen have opened talks to sign Malik #Tillman!

B04 are open to activating the release clause and consider him an exciting player. No full agreements yet. More talks scheduled.

His contract with PSV Eindhoven is valid until 2028.@SkySportDE 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/7P741ZxMuR

— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) June 23, 2025

Florian plettinburg: bayer leverkusen opening talks to sign malik tillman.

 

I’m confused about the Bayern Munich buyback clause, as a PSV friend is telling me it’s only for next year, which is nonsensical to me and everything I’ve read indicates it’s through next season and they could trigger it now if they wanted.

Any of y’all have clarification?

Why wouldn’t Munich trigger it if they can? Seems like free money even if they didn’t want to keep him specifically and given his versatility and multiple statements from him saying it’s his dream club, home town, mom lives there, etc. Wouldn’t he be ideal cover/rotation piece for them?

 

Munich can try to trigger it, but if Malik is not interested in signing a contract it will not go anywhere. Why would Tillman agree to a transfer is the only results are to the fee for the team that gave you a chance (PSV) and increase it for the team that wants you (Leverkusen)?

 

Could be pre-agreed terms between Bayern and Tillman in the event of the buy-back clause being executed.

 

My understanding is that Bayern triggering the buy-back only to turn around and sell to Leverkusen could constitute a "bridge transfer", which could result in sanctions from FIFA. Although a player can be registered to 3 clubs within a season, they cannot complete two transfers within a 16-week window without FIFA starting an investigation into a possible bridge transfer. The goal of this rule (again, as I understand it) is mostly to prevent abuse of the solidarity payments system, but also to avoid situations like this, where Leverkusen and Munich could conspire to lower the market value of Tillman by having Bayern use the buyback mechanism, and Bayer pay the buy-back price + a small profit for Bayern which would ultimately be less than Bayer would directly pay PSV.

 

Again, pretty sure this would be frowned upon by FIFA as a "bridge transfer", but I could be wrong. Most of this kind of stuff is pure guesswork for everyone looking on from the outside.