We aren't going to suddenly bin Lindelof and Bailly is in discussions over a new contract. I don't think a CB especially an expensive one is top on the priority list
Nikola Milenkovic
- Thread starter Adnan
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Does he say any alternative options that we are interested in?
If there is any truth to the romors about United buying this guy, then the club will need to sell Tuanzebe to free space in squad (we don't need more than 4 CBs). Perhaps a team like Wolves or Palace might get him for 15m - 20m
I think the club will renew Bailly's contract this summer, Maguire & Lindelof are the preferred starting CBs at the moment.
I think the club will renew Bailly's contract this summer, Maguire & Lindelof are the preferred starting CBs at the moment.
There’s no need to sell any of the centre backs for a place for the new one considering none of our centre backs are ever fit to be in contention anyway. Unless you mean for a place in the physio room.
I’d be open to bringing this guy in, the last Serbian CB we got worked out to be above average
I don’t think he is as slow as people think, quicker than Lindelof, obviously not as quick as Bailly though.
Hes quicker and better in the air than lindelof. Less rash than Bailly and a lot less injury prone. He'd arguably be more reliable than both
He's a different centre back to Lindelöf. They aren't comparable to me. If anything, you should compare him to Bailly and Tuanzebe instead and Lindelöf to Maguire. With this in mind, I personally find Bailly to be better than Milenkovic, but if Bailly is not available, then we'd still be well-off with Milenkovic beside one of Maguire or Lindelöf. We can also potentially play Milenkovic at right back given his past experience in that role as well as how he plays the RCB role in a back 3.
I'm guessing this is from one of the Talk of the Reds podcasts with Whitwell a while back, right? If so, they were stating that this was mainly driven by his agent, which could be why the Italian media are adamant that we're ahead of other teams when it comes to acquiring Milenkovic. This may indicate that we got in touch with his agents and established a relationship with them, and if we ever want to, we can acquire him quicker than expected.
Anyways, here's more from Italy, this time from La Repubblica, which is a national newspaper.
They're saying that multiple teams are interested in him (like Atletico Madrid and AC Milan), but Manchester United are likely to have the most convincing package for him.
That explains everything. This feels similar to the Varane links where our prior history is being used to determine that we're further ahead of the rest of the clubs.
If we need to stretch the transfer budget to bring him in, no.
Can anyone describe him? Does he have great pace? I know he's supposed to be quite a physical defender - i.e. an actual defender. And what's his technical ability?
He's not speedy, but he's no slouch, either. He can keep up with quick players, but don't expect him to particularly outspeed anyone. For someone who's 6'5", that's really, really good.
Defensively, he's aggressive and tends to go in for early challenges (like a full back would), but he does tend to get tunnel-visioned with his defending. I've seen several moments where he'd push up to his man, who'd give a pass out to someone else, and he'd start ball-watching instead of going back to his position. He does take up decent starting positions when the right wing back comes back, though.
Technically, he's decent on the ball, though because of Fiorentina's playing style, he tends to be risk averse. Maybe he's better than he is, but we don't know. He doesn't have particularly heavy touches or terribly loose passing, but I can't say if he can pass the ball out from the back. He can, however, carry it thanks to his experiences at right full back.
On the ball watching, I think that’s something that can be improved with time. Luke Shaw is an example of someone who was guilty of this but has become better.
Your summary is consistent with my own views otherwise. He is still 23 so some room to improve.
What's his acceleration like? A lot of tall players can be nice and fast but take a few steps to really get going, especially if they have to turn. Smalling for example could sometimes be caught out over the first few steps if he had to turn, but of course he was fast enough that 90% of the time he'd catch back up. In an ideal world though they wouldn't have that issue at all.
That's true, and other defenders who started out similarly improved over time. With Milenkovic, the fact that he spent so much time at full back professionally means that he is further behind the likes of Pau Torres and Cristian Romero in this regard, and if any team is to sign him, they will have to deal with those growing pains of his in the immediate future.
He defends on his toes when he's not on the run rather than plant his feet. He's quick on the turn and can deal with the dribbler's shimmies and changes in direction quite well. Because of this, he has a fairly quick start and rarely lunges into challenges.
Hasn't this been a theme since Ole joined that Woodward and Judge will line up a number of deals for players in a certain position i.e. CB then make a decision on which one to proceed with. I cant recall where i read it but it sounded sensible. Sounds like Utd are doing that at CB with a number of players. Be interesting to see who they finally go for.
Thanks for excellent feedback. Had no idea he used to play at right back. We probably do need someone who has that recovery pace though, if we are to employ a high line more often. But that may also depend on the GK situation at the start of next season. Dave with a high line is asking for trouble I think.
The only sources linking us with him so far have been gutter sources from Italy that spout nothing but total BS, tuttosport and Calciomercato.
On the contrary, the majority of the news has been coming from local news outlets such as La Nazione and Corriere Fiorentino with outlets like Calciomercato, Gazzetta dello Sport, and Corriere dello Sport rehashing their stories. La Repubblica (national newspaper from Rome) has also been involved, and they don't tend to get involved with BS stories. Outside of Italy, Sky Sport Germany confirmed our interest in him whilst reporting Dortmund getting in touch with Fiorentina, and in England, Laurie Whitwell confirmed our interest in him.
Watched some clips. He's a beast. Holds off people and easily overpowers. Looks decent technically too.
Wonder if he'll go up a level or two if he plays in a more dominant team. From the very little I've seen, I like him better than Koundé.
Wonder if he'll go up a level or two if he plays in a more dominant team. From the very little I've seen, I like him better than Koundé.
Is he a Vidic light?
Not yet, though if he plays more in a back 4 setup and irons out his overall reading of the game, he may.
Lindelof can play RB as I am pretty sure he did on occasion with Benfica and Axel did a job on a good Sanchez a while ago.
On paper he's the most suitable candidate because he is tall, physically very good, has decent pace to compliment Maguire, aggressive but, are we in the situation to take a punt to sign unproven CB?
Milenkovic is proven Serie A CB but at his age he's still very young and he is unproven in top level because he's been playing in a mid table environment level. I think we are very closed to turn our squad into title challenger and that's why I believe someone who has played in top level will be better option in the current circumstances.
But as part of investment, this guy is not a bad idea since considering his age and the number of games he has played in Serie A, that shows he has some talent.
Milenkovic is proven Serie A CB but at his age he's still very young and he is unproven in top level because he's been playing in a mid table environment level. I think we are very closed to turn our squad into title challenger and that's why I believe someone who has played in top level will be better option in the current circumstances.
But as part of investment, this guy is not a bad idea since considering his age and the number of games he has played in Serie A, that shows he has some talent.
Jumping, timing, heading ability and upper body strength are all related attributes when it comes to defensive headers. But they're not the same thing.
Lindelof is physically weak on set pieces because of a lack of upper body strength. His aerial duel numbers might look good, but this belies the fact that he's often targetted and then loses the physical battle on long balls. This can then negate a lot of his other qualities and so make him a weak link.
Bailly's current problem is his timing, which causes him to get caught under the ball at least once per match. If he could stay fit, I'm sure he'd improve at it. But that's a big 'if'.
I'm not too fussed about Milenkovic's heading stats. What matters most imo is that he doesn't get easily bullied - which I'm hopeful of, given his size. Everything else can be developed with experience. He only needs to learn how to get in the way of attackers and force them into awkward jumps. Maguire is already one of the most dominant aerial presences in Europe, so he can do the rest.
I like the idea of powerfully built big CB with pace and aggression. A less injury prone Bailly, but with a bigger frame.
Lindelof is physically weak on set pieces because of a lack of upper body strength. His aerial duel numbers might look good, but this belies the fact that he's often targetted and then loses the physical battle on long balls. This can then negate a lot of his other qualities and so make him a weak link.
Bailly's current problem is his timing, which causes him to get caught under the ball at least once per match. If he could stay fit, I'm sure he'd improve at it. But that's a big 'if'.
I'm not too fussed about Milenkovic's heading stats. What matters most imo is that he doesn't get easily bullied - which I'm hopeful of, given his size. Everything else can be developed with experience. He only needs to learn how to get in the way of attackers and force them into awkward jumps. Maguire is already one of the most dominant aerial presences in Europe, so he can do the rest.
I like the idea of powerfully built big CB with pace and aggression. A less injury prone Bailly, but with a bigger frame.
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Would happily take him as our CB signing provided that we can get a proper RW/ST too
During his time in Serie A has he been linked to some other big teams?
He's recently been linked to AC Milan. Besides that, not really as other teams already had good, young centre backs by the time he started to break through. For most of his time, he's been linked with United.
So the Caf wants a CB with VVD quality, but for the price of Daniel James. Good luck with that.
Bit of a Serbian Smalling as far as I can tell. Very big and strong, good defensively. Pace meh, technique pretty average. Right footed. I cant help but think that if this guy was really what we were looking for we wouldnt have sold Smalling.
Maguire played majority of his time at Leicester on the left, always on the left for England and all the time here. just because he is right footed dont mean he prefers on the right side.
Playing a left footer at LCB and a right footer at RCB is in vogue at the moment. It gives the said defenders more angles for redistributing the ball especially if they are instructed to send it down the channels.
I've watched a fair few clips now and I would say the one player he reminds me most of is Stam, not that he's anywhere close to that level, but his physicality is quite impressive. And he looks technically a lot more sound than Smalling. But of course, these are just clips.
I am impressed with his injury record too.
Lot more comfortable in possession than Smalling ever was. Funny thing is, as maligned as Smalling was, he was actually a decent defender, good in the air, quick, it was just he basically crumbled when the ball was passed to him. At 23, to be as imposing as he is, is a credit to him, think this lad in the right team could be quality. Think he's perfectly suited to the PL.
Not a bad player to be compared with at all
If he’s an upgrade on what we have already and probably available for £20-£30 million due to having a year on his contract then it’s a no brainer, leaves more money to sign Sancho and a pure out and out defensive midfielder.
We are in for a CB so links like this will keep coming. Just hope we don't invest in another not good enough player like Lindelof. Next CB should be a clear upgrade on him, so we can fix our issues for good. Budget will be tight but fixing that area is as important as buying another attacker..
I would totally do this deal if it mean he's available for 20 to 30m which gives us an opportunity to get a DM, ST & RW.
Milenkovic (assuming this deal can offset by the sale of Pereira and Lingard)
Haaland
Bissouma
Sancho
Milenkovic (assuming this deal can offset by the sale of Pereira and Lingard)
Haaland
Bissouma
Sancho