Nikola Milenkovic 2020/21 — Scout Report

Player Profile: Nikola Milenkovic

• Nationality: Serbian
• Age:23
• Date of Birth: 12/10/1997
• Current Club: Fiorentina
• Position: Centre-Back
• Other position: Right Back
• Preferred foot: Right
• Transfermarkt value: £25.2m

Nikola Milenkovic has been one of only a few standout performers for Fiorentina this season under Giuseppe Iachini. The Serbian is a right-footed defender, who stands at 6 ft 4 and was initially signed from Partizan Belgrade for £4.5m in 2017/18.

The Serbian has played in over 3,000 minutes in each of his last two Serie A campaigns, highlighting his importance to the team. Fiorentina often rely on Nikola’s defensive ability in their favoured 3–5–2 formation. A system which has been used in 100% of games under Iachini this season in the league, in which Milenkovic often lines up as the right centre-back.

Tactical Profile

First of all Nikola’s heatmap below from the 2019/20 season illustrates the defender's behaviour on the pitch. As you can see the Serbian rarely ventures to the left-hand side of the 18-yard box, fixing himself fixed to the central area and the right-hand side wide space.

The heat map also implies that Milenkovic is comfortable advancing with the ball when Fiorentina are in possession, a confident user of the ball who can often be found looking for a progressive pass to break the lines of the oppositions defensive structure.

Defensive Responsibilities

Milenkovic is a proper defender and combines the intelligent reading of the game and positioning with strength and superb aerial ability. Of course, his height helps him to dominate in the air, last season the Serbian won 77% of all aerial battles, a figure which positioned him in the 95th percentile of centre-backs in Serie A.

One aspect of Milenkovic’s impressive defensive game is his individual defending. He’s got a very good technique when defending on his own and for his age shows a great wealth of experience in terms of his decision making.

In the above image against Udinese Rodrigo De Paul plays the ball to Roberto Pereyra in space whilst Milenkovic is positioned as part of Fiorentina’s defensive block.

The Argentinean, known for his flair with the ball at feet is a threat to Fiorentina. Identifying this and also calculating that the rest of his defensive unit have sufficient cover, Milenkovic opts to press the midfielder and uses his long limbs to tackle his opponent.

Moments later Udinese threaten the Fiorentina goal again after la Viola give the ball away cheaply after trying to play out from the back. This time Nikola who is isolated holds his position, allowing his opponent to enter the box prior to making an exceptional tackle.

Milenkovic possesses an innate sense of positioning with the ability to angle his body perfectly to cover passing options while also maintaining the balance needed to defend against the opposition attacking players.

Ball Playing Ability

For a team like Fiorentina, who often enjoy the majority of possession against sides they face in Serie A, it is essential that their central defenders are comfortable in possession of the ball. We see an example of how Nikola Milenkovic is with the ball at his feet in the image taken from the game against Udinese below.

The opposition are well organised and their press has closed all forward passing lanes, leading to Fiorentina playing the ball back towards their own goal. As soon as Milenkovic receives the ball in this position his first thought is to drive forward at the opposition.

This movement of the central defender towards the opposition forces the opposition to move out of their positional slots to close Milenkovic down. This movement towards the ball opens a forward passing lane, allowing Nikola to progress the ball into the oppositions half to the feet of Patrick Cutrone.

If Milenkovic was not comfortable carrying the ball forward in this manner and simply looked to sit on the ball and look for a passing option then the opposition players could have maintained their defensive shape and space would never have been exploited.

Another example of the Serbian’s confidence and vision with the ball at his feet can be found against Sampdoria. I Bluerchiati are deploying a low block with two banks of four spanning the width of the penalty area, as Federico Chiesa makes a movement into the wide space Tommaso Augello has to shift his position to cover the Italian.

This movement creates an opportunity for Milenkovic to get a shot/pass off on goal, in this circumstance Patrick Cutrone reads the play like any good forward and is able to get on the end of the ball from Nikola and slot the ball past Emil Audero to equalize.

Conclusion

After his initial season with Fiorentina concluded, Nikola has only missed five Serie A games since the start of the 2018/19 campaign and has become an integral player at the club.

The Serbian has developed his game a lot during his time in Florence and will no doubt move on after this season due to the fact that he only has two years left on his current contract.

The likes of Manchester United, Tottenham, Milan and Inter all have shown a strong interest in securing the signature of the 23-year-old who should look to sign for one of Europe’s elite clubs as he looks to test himself at the next level.