Although there are still months to go before the summer window opens, the rumors about Manchester United's transfer are still boiling. On April 1, the Italian media all-Juve network broke the news that Manchester United had set their sights on Lazio midfielder Milinkovic, known as The White Pogba, and was ready to meet the Blue Eagles' asking price of 70 million euros to bring the 27-year-old Serbian midfielder to Old Trafford and become a replacement for Pogba's departure.
From the technical point of view, Milinkovic really fits the requirements of Manchester United very well. Born in February 1995, he is 27 years old and in the middle of his playing years, and his excellent foot skills, strong physical confrontation, tank-like ball-holding advance and first-class passing shots are impressive. In 39 games this season, Milinkovic has cut a quasi-double-double of 8 goals and 10 assists, including 8 goals and 9 assists in 29 Serie A games, averaging 1.76 steals, 1.00 interceptions and 1.10 clearances per game, sending 38 key passes, 36 creating fouls against opponents, and the pass success rate reached 81%.
Manchester United's biggest problematic position now is the back, Nemanja Matic has a large area of accurate coverage, but he is 33 years old and cannot continue to fight for the team. Scott McTominay's physical fitness is strong defensive interception ability is good, but organizing the ball is not his strong point, Fred has good offensive ability, and the defensive end is also very positive, but unfortunately, his height and strength are congenitally insufficient, and the auxiliary defense is acceptable but the frontal confrontation is weak. In the Solskjaer era, Fred and Scott McTominay were his fixed back-back partners, and the two played well with complementary characteristics, but after the arrival of Ronaldo and Sancho, Pogba withdrew from the left forward position, and the opportunities for the two to partner slowly decreased. But doing so not only kept Pogba away from the goal, wasting his offensive ability, but also infinitely magnified the weaknesses of the three major backs.
Milinkovic has height, skill, confrontation, is a classic B2B midfielder, and can even be said to be a more disciplined Pogba, an enlarged and enhanced version of Nemanja Matic, a technically excellent McTominay and a height of 1.91 meters Fred. Such a brilliant midfielder is naturally the man united dream of recruiting his subordinates. His ability to hold the ball and attack is a perfect combination with B Fee's forward attack.
In fact, back in the Mourinho era, Mirinkovic was United's target. But at that time, Lazio's opening price reached 120 million euros, such a high price that the wealthy Manchester United was also deterred. In the following seasons, Milinkovic's personal data declined, and his value once fell by 50 million euros. But this season he returned to power and his value in the German market rose back to 70 million euros. At this price, it is not too high for Manchester United.
Of course, Manchester United are not without competitors, and Serie A giants Juventus are also one of Milinkovic's fans. However, after signing Vlahović for more than 80 million euros in the winter window, Juventus has no intention of bringing in his compatriots. So, United signed Milinkovic with basically no rivals, as long as they met Lazio's offer.