It was not any surprise for Serie A fans when the coach of Manchester United came to personally scout Nikola Milenkovic in 2018 for a league match.
Drawing comparisons to compatriot and defensive legend Nemanja Vidic, Milenkovic was a potential target, althought later they would choose to sign Harry Mguire, a world record fee for a defender.
However Milan have been linked to the defender with the player reportedly close to a move last summer, Milan under Rangnick has also been touted for a move this summer albeit in a player swap with Lucas Paqueta.
Continuing the trend of scouting our defensive targets this summer we look at Nikola Milenkovic
Player Profile
Age: 22
Nationality: Serbia
Current Club: Fiorentina
Foot: Right
Height: 6 ft 5 inches
Transfermarkt valuation: €25 Million
Position
While Nikola Milenkovic prefers playing Centre back he is also versatile playing as a Right back and has been deployed whith varying degree of success. Under Montella he was deployed on the right of three at the back formation. His unnaturaal pace has made him flexible to slot into full back position during a crisis.
Defensive Ability
What makes Milenkovic special as a defender is his unique combination of intelligence, reading of the game and physical ability. It is no surprise by now to say that being 6ft 5 inches tall makes him aerially dominant and wins headers.
Milenkovic main strength is his ability to come out with the ball in 1v1 situations. With his height and long legs milenkovic is able to reach out quite a distance to tackle and dispossess his oppinent. Even with fancy dribbling techniques or skills it would take quite an effort to beat Milenkovic.
An example of his technique can be seen in the image below. Shaqiri is approaching milenkovic at pace with the ball. Milenkovic positionings himself in a distance not too far not too close that he can be beaten by a quick jink.
Another aspect that Milenkovic has imbibed with himself is his agressive pressing. In the below example, he press gomez very high that gomez is forced to retreat into Atalanta’s defensive third
In the image below, gomez tried to turn and loses posession to milenkovic which is turned to a counter attack by Fiorentina and eventually scores.
Attacking Play
Milenkovic possess good ball playing ability. Not only does he not panic when pressed, he has the ability to play or pass his way out of tight situations which makes him a very desirable player when you build up play from the back. Milenkovic also knows how to spot players making runs and picks out passed to advance play to the forward.
In this image below, you can see how player 1 which is milenkovic has the safe option of passing to player no.2 or player no.3 but chooses to advance play to player no.4 and split the lines with his pass.
Weakness
Milenkovic despite 3 seasons in Italy still is an unpolished diamond. His pass success rate is quite low at 76.8% despite a lot of his passes being towards the keeper. The player needs to expand his range by distributing the play better.
And like any other young player, he is still inconsistent and lacks exposure which can only grow with time and experience.
How He Would Slot Into Rangncik’s System
Milenkovic, could slot into the system as a Right centre back who advances forward pressing very high and to pick passes. And with Italian teams prefering to sit back milenkvic’s on the ball ability could come in use especially with Rangnick’s 10 second rule (best opportunity to score a goal is within 10 seconds of winning the ball back)
Defensive-wise his pace along with his intelligent positioning could be tailor made for Rangnick to win the ball quickly from the opponent or even to prevent counter attacks
Stats for the 19/20 season
The Milan Blog 