A twist of fate, or maybe not. The fact is that Nikola Milenković since he left Fiorentina to accept the court of Nottingham Foresthe landed in the Premier League for 14.3 million euros and had an incredible impact. THE Reds they are doing great in the league, in seventh place on a par with a certain Tottenham and even above Newcastle, but what is surprising are the data of the solid defense for which Nuno Espirito Santo is so proud.
A stronghold
In fact, the good start to the season which even saw league leaders Liverpool fall 1-0 at Anfield, without forgetting the other narrow victory over Chelsea just before the international break, deserves an honorable mention. Because numbers in hand, Nottingham after 8 Premier League matches have only conceded 6 goals, placing themselves as second best defense overall behind only Arne Slot’s battleship.
Standing ovation for Milenkovic
And among the absolute protagonists of this masterpiece is Milenkovic. To focus on the work offered by the Serbian defender – according to what was reported by Sky Sports UK – and two facts are enough from our teammates: the first says that Nottingham hasn’t conceded any goals from corners (out of 45), the best ever in the league. Allowing only 7.8 expected goals against – i.e. the statistical measurement of opponents’ scoring chances and the probability of them being conceded: the second best data recorded in the Premier League.
The Milenkovic effect pic.twitter.com/2kVldvzhAO
— Callum Castel (@CallumCastel7) October 21, 2024
Carragher’s blessing
As a commentator for Sky Sports UKrecently Jamie Carragher thus commented on the absolute strength of Nottingham’s rearguard. Also and above all thanks to Milenkovic: “This boy seems like a real high-level defender to me and I think that at Nottingham Forest there is the feeling that they can’t believe they signed him and that he didn’t cost much. If you think about the players who have arrived in the last two years, many are not sure where they will fit in or where they will play. And when you think about Nottingham Forest now, you think that if you are a team that wants to stay at the top, you think: ‘Will you manage to do that. maintain a clean sheet?’. You have two top-notch power plants.”