There’s still uncertainty around the contracts of Chelsea centerbacks Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and Cesar Azpilicueta, who is being linked with a move away to Barcelona as soon as next summer. In a recent turn of events, while Rudiger was previously looking like the one who was more than likely on his way out, he now looks like he’s the one most likely to stay. Regardless of how many contracts the club can get extended, it needs a centerback either in this transfer window or the next. Christensen leaving would make the arrival of a new defender more smooth as he could transition into the team while being given the Dane’s minutes.
The Blues have five centerbacks on their roster, one is 37 years old, another is 31 years old and linked with a move away, and two others are in contract stalemates with the club. This means that the only centerbacks Chelsea and its fans are sure of seeing in a blue shirt at the start of the new Premier League season are 22-year-old Trevor Chalobah, an inexperienced Malang Sarr and Silva. Chalobah played for Lorient in Ligue 1 in the ’20/21 season and gathered valuable experience. He has also shown he can make the jump to senior English football with his performances so far in the Premier League. Chalobah is not the finished article though, as he still has some work to do in the aerial department. All this means is that Chelsea needs another centerback. One who is just entering his prime and who ticks several boxes for the system and roles he’d be expected to play.
Fiorentina defender Nikola Milenkovic should be at the top of Chelsea’s wishlist
Kurt Zouma left Chelsea at the beginning of the current season and Chelsea’s aerial threat in defensive and offensive situations dwindled. The Blues need a complete centerback. One who is comfortable defending space on the ground and in the air, one who is very good at distributing the ball and one who is going to give Thomas Tuchel’s men an edge in set piece situations. Chelsea needs Fiorentina’s Serbian centerback Nikola Milenkovic. Here are three reasons Chelsea should prioritize the Serbian over any other centerback option:
Extraordinary defensive awareness
Defensive actions are not a comprehensive way of judging players’ defending ability, but used in the right context, they give a picture of how good a player is positionally. Many may not know this, but Fiorentina averages the second-highest possession per game in Serie A (55 percent) behind only Napoli. This means that the Fiorentina defenders, most especially centerbacks, have much less to do defensively than centerbacks of other clubs. Despite this, Milenkovic ranks in the 90th percentile for tackles amongst all defenders in the Italian top flight to play up to 10 games (2.0 per game), winning 95 percent of his tackles. He also ranks in the 71st percentile for interceptions (1.3 per game) amongst defenders with up to 10 appearances. He ranks in the 94th percentile for clearances (3.0 per game) of all defenders with up to 10 appearances in Serie A.
Milenkovic also ranks in the 77th percentile for blocked shots, which is impressive when one considers that Fiorentina allows the second-fewest shots per game this season, so the Serbian doesn’t really have many opportunities to block shots. All things considered, Milenkovic is doing quite well in defensive actions, considering his team prioritize possession of the ball. Milenkovic leads all Fiorentina players in interceptions per game and not only that, he also accounts for 19 percent of the team’s combined interceptions per game when he’s on the pitch. Milenkovic also leads his team in tackles per game, all of this from the centerback position. He dictates what the team does in and out of possession. Fiorentina has only kept one clean sheet without him.
Dominant on the ground and in the air
At 2.5 ground duels won per game, Milenkovic ranks in the 69th percentile of all defenders that have played at least 10 league games this season. At 59 percent ground duel success rate, he ranks in the 97th percentile of defenders who have played at least 10 games. At 3.3 aerial duels won per game, Milenkovic ranks in the 97th percentile of defenders with up to 10 appearances and ranks in the 98th percentile in percentage of aerial duels won per game this season. In fact, Milenkovic ranks in the 94th percentile for volume of total duels won per game and 97th percentile for percentage of total duels won per game.
Chelsea could use someone who is this dominant in duels. Milenkovic would be better than three out of Chelsea’s five active centerbacks in terms of volume of ground duels won. He would be better than only one player in terms of ground duels success rate, but he’d be better than all five centerbacks in volume of aerial duels won, aerial duels success rate, volume of total duels won and percentage of total duels won. At 1.95m (6-foot-5), Milenkovic would not only be the tallest outfielder player at the club, but would be one of the tallest players in the English top flight. The Blues could use this aerial menace, as they lost almost all threat from set pieces when they let Zouma join West Ham United. At 80 percent of his aerial duels won, Milenkovic would not only be better than all of Chelsea’s current players, but would be better than all defenders in the league that have played up to 10 games. Let that sink in.
Ball distribution
Fiorentina plays possession-based football and to do that, a team needs centerbacks that are superb at distributing the ball. Milenkovic is just that. Milenkovic ranks in the 93rd percentile for accurate passes per game (56.2) at 90.5 percent accuracy. He ranks in the 91st percentile of all defenders to have made up to 10 appearances. At 4.9 long balls per game, Milenkovic ranks in the 95th percentile for volume of accurate long balls per game and at 71 percent, the Serbian ranks in the 94th percentile amongst defenders to have made up to 10 appearances.
Only Thiago Silva completes more long balls than Milenkovic and no Chelsea centerback completes them at a higher rate than the Fiorentina star. Milenkovic’s passing has improved from being good in previous seasons to being near excellent this season. For centerback standards, Milenkovic was satisfying the requirement of long ball accuracy, but now his numbers are outrageous in that department. In fact, Milenkovic has completed 34 out of 36 attempted long balls in the Coppa Italia this season. He has definitely mastered this part of his trade.
Milenkovic also makes more passes under pressure than all Chelsea’s centerbacks except Azpilicueta and Christensen. Milenkovic makes more passes over 40 yards per game (3.07) than any Chelsea centerback, with the highest Chelsea player being Rudiger (2.25), this just shines more light on Milenkovic’s passing prowess.
Conclusion
At 24 years old, Milenkovic would be the perfect addition to Chelsea’s squad. He’s well respected in his team and already sets the tempo for the fundamentals of how it plays. Milenkovic has played in Serie A for five seasons, including the current one. He has played 152 games for Fiorentina and 138 of those games are league games. 138 league appearances in a top five league in the world at 24 is plenty of experience. His dominance in ground duels means he knows how to use his body to his advantage. His aerial numbers shows that he knows how to use his height to win duels, and excellent passing ability means he would be a weapon in passing the ball around opposition presses, as well as pinging a long ball to break multiple pressing lines when necessary. Chelsea should not let Milenkovic slip away.
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