“This guy plays ping-pong not to enjoy it but to win,” Nuno Espirito Santo tells Sky Sports. “And if he loses, he just wants another chance to beat you. He is so obsessed. His mindset is like that. He is a very competitive person. This is his character.”
The Nottingham Forest manager is discussing Nikola Milenkovic in an office at the City Ground in the knowledge that Sky Sports will soon be speaking to the Serbian defender over at the club’s training ground. Putting the tale to Milenkovic a little later, he just smiles.
“Yes, I am a little bit competitive,” he acknowledges. “Of course, I like to win. Everything I do I like to win.” He cites the example of the legendary basketball player Nikola Jovic. “The Serbian people do not play for enjoyment. They want to play to win.”
Milenkovic is winning a lot with Forest at the moment, a team transformed since his arrival from Fiorentina in the summer. They now boast the second-best defensive record in the Premier League and could move fifth in the table with a win at Leicester on Friday.
Something had to change. Forest had more 3-2 defeats than clean sheets last season. And while Nuno insists that this is a team effort, a product of perspiration in pre-season, nobody underestimates the impact of the 6’5″ centre-back now leading their defence.
Defending corners had been an issue. This season, they have yet to concede from 51 of them. Milenkovic ranks second for aerial duels won per 90 minutes by defenders – second only to Virgil van Dijk. “I work on it, to take up positions, to jump,” he explains.
Nikola Milenkovic’s aerial duels won per 90 minutes put him second behind Virgil van Dijk
“I am almost two metres high, so it must be one of my qualities to win aerial duels. Set-pieces, I think, are just about focus and concentration.” Ever the perfectionist, he pauses the interview to find the right phrase in English. “The desire not to concede,” he adds.
“It’s not just about our back four and goalkeeper. It is about the whole team, how the team sacrifices for each other. Our team has a good team spirit. Our team has a good mentality, a willingness to do that one extra run, to help each other on the pitch.”
Nikola Milenkovic’s defensive action areas for Nottingham Forest
Nuno agrees that the improvement is mental as much as physical. He sees Milenkovic as a catalyst. “He is contagious to be around. This is what makes him so valuable for us, his character. He brought us stability, leadership, aggressiveness,” says the Forest boss.
“Defending requires the physical part also but it is a lot about mentality. You have to be relentless. Attackers have a different mindset. One mistake does not mean too much. Back there, it needs 100 per cent focus. Every minute, every action. Nikola has that.”
It reflects his experience. Milenkovic is 27, a veteran of two World Cups and someone with seven seasons in Serie A behind him. The trend is towards splurging on potential but Forest have acquired the finished article for around £12m. “Good business,” says Nuno.
Italy was once the home of great defending. It remains fertile ground. “Serie A is more tactical,” Milenkovic explains. “The Premier League is more intense, more physical. Here, football is faster. The referees do not whistle so many fouls, they let you play.”
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Milenkovic was just a teenager when he moved to Florence, signing off with Partizan Belgrade by scoring the winner in the cup final against Red Star to clinch the double. He recalls the influence of Franck Ribery, a team-mate for two seasons at Fiorentina.
“It was a pleasure to play with him. He is a really, really great person, a great champion. He has a culture of incredible work, a really professional player. He helped us young players a lot. He always gave advice so we could learn a lot from him.”
Did he ever kick the old maestro? “He always trained 100 per cent, so sometimes maybe.” A more natural icon of the game for him to be inspired by was his compatriot Nemanja Vidic, the sort of committed figure on which a defender’s game could be moulded.
Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic was an inspiration to the young Nikola Milenkovic
“When I was young I watched a lot of games of Nemanja,” says Milenkovic. “Of course, he is our best defender ever in Serbia. I grew up with him. I also watched all the video clips on YouTube. I learned a lot from watching him. I enjoyed the way he played.”
Just as Vidic had Rio Ferdinand, Milenkovic has a defensive foil of his own, the joyous Murillo with his long-range free-kicks and equally ambitious passes. The young Brazilian is benefiting from a steadying influence alongside him. They are two very different defenders.
Murillo is left-footed. Milenkovic prefers his right. Murillo’s supposed weaknesses is his height. Milenkovic is a monster. Nuno readily admits that the presence of one impacted the thinking in bringing in the other. “More than anything, it was the profile,” says Nuno.
“They complement each other. I really believe in that. Two centre-halves have to work as one. They cannot ignore the distance between them. It has to be really, really, really tight sometimes. The covering, the communication. And they have been doing really well.”
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Will we see Milenkovic firing off a few goal-bound free-kicks of his own? “Maybe. We will see.” But there were 17 goals for Fiorentina and while he names the win over Liverpool as his favourite moment so far, there was also his assist for Chris Wood away to Chelsea.
“With my almost two metres, I need to be dangerous in the opponent’s box. Of course, I have to do more than this. I can do more than this. And I will do everything.” And somehow, you just do not doubt that he absolutely means it. Nikola Milenkovic plays to win.
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