In the tunnel of the Bernabeu in Madrid, Kevin Keegan — then playing for Hamburg — offered a friendly greeting to Nottingham Forest’s Larry Lloyd and Kenny Burns, as the two teams prepared to run out for the 1980 European Cup final.
Burns responded by popping his false teeth out and letting out an almost guttural growl.
As their former Forest team-mate Garry Birtles testified in a 2019 interview with The Athletic: “Few strikers fancied taking on Kenny or Larry … (Kenny’s reaction in the tunnel) was a sign of what was to come.”
At Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge on Sunday, as Nikola Milenkovic stood in line, waiting for the sides’ traditional pre-match handshake lines, you got the feeling Forest might have signed another player with that intimidating presence to follow in the footsteps of Lloyd, Burns and, later, Stuart Pearce.
As others around him on both sides shuffled from foot to foot, the Serbian stood, hands clasped, chest pushed out, barely moving. His frozen gaze, looking straight ahead, did not waver until those handshakes began.
“He is just a warrior, he is a leader. He is the captain of his country — and he is just exactly what you would expect,” Forest midfielder Ryan Yates said when asked by The Athletic about Milenkovic.
Forest conceded 23 non-penalty set-piece goals in the 2023-24 Premier League. It was the most in the division by some distance, with relegated Luton Town next on 19. It was one of the main reasons why Milenkovic was at the top of their list of targets in the summer.
Milenkovic won 79.9 per cent of his aerial duels playing for Fiorentina in Italy’s Serie A last season, with only Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk (81.4) winning a higher percentage in Europe’s top five leagues (among players to have contested at least 100). That rate was over 70 per cent for six of his seven seasons with the Florence club — strong evidence that he can use his 6ft 5in (196cm) frame to good effect.
It is early days, seven games into the Premier League season, but Milenkovic has won 74.1 per cent of his 27 aerial challenges since joining Forest, which is the eighth-best percentage in the top flight. The player with the best rate is his Forest team-mate Neco Williams, 88.9 per cent, although that comes from a relatively small figure of eight headers (from nine duels) won by the Wales international.
Forest have conceded only one set-piece goal and scored three times from corners or free kicks in those seven matches, including Chris Wood’s opener that helped earn a deserved point on Sunday, when the New Zealand international guided the ball home after Milenkovic had headed down a James Ward-Prowse free kick.
Overall, Forest have the joint second-best defensive record in the division, having conceded six goals. Only Liverpool (two) have conceded fewer than them. It is a positive start to the new season.
Their success is not just down to Milenkovic — the regular back four, also including Ola Aina, Murillo and Alex Moreno, are forging a promising unit, while head coach Nuno Espirito Santo’s tactical tweaks have ensured his team give away few chances, with the hard work starting up front.
“We are stronger as a team this season. We have been able to press much better, in higher parts of the pitch. We have defended the box well,” said Nuno, appointed last December after Steve Cooper was sacked, when asked about Forest’s defensive improvement in his press conference before the Chelsea game. “That it is not about the individual. As a team, we can cover more space.
“Since the end of last season, the commitment was to improve on that aspect. There is no way to play in the Premier League if you are not solid, compact and strong in defence. The team is doing well defensively, basically because of the hard work of the players, their resilience and their commitment to put their body in front of the ball.”
Milenkovic, who turns 27 this weekend, epitomises those qualities. While he is an old-school, no-nonsense defender, in his six starts for Forest, he has conceded only three free kicks and has not been shown a yellow card. He defends robustly, but cleanly.
He was also signed because it was felt he could be a good partner for Murillo, who is comfortable in possession, has the passing range of a midfielder and likes to venture forward. While it is too early to make comparisons to the likes of Burns and Lloyd in the club’s glory days, they have the attributes to forge an excellent pairing.
“He is vocal, he is solid, he is compact… he does fit well with Murillo,” said Nuno. “Relationships are so important… the way they communicate among themselves. We are pushing really hard with that aspect, in all parts of the pitch. You need complicity. Being vocal helps. We want our players to be vocal. Nikola is a vocal guy, so he has helped us with that.”
Milenkovic watched the Premier League regularly when he was playing in Italy, so he was aware of the problems he had been signed to help Forest solve — chiefly that frailty from set pieces.
“Defence is down to the whole team, so the whole team must be organised,” he said when asked by The Athletic about the team setup. “Set pieces are an important part of football. We train on them every day and want to improve. But it depends on the whole team being organised.”
Milenkovic is encouraged by the partnership he has formed with Murillo — and believes it will only get stronger as they play more matches together.
“Things happen in one or two seconds and you need to make quick decisions, so you need to know your partner and how he thinks,” says Milenkovic. “You need to know what he will do and be comfortable with him. It is important the whole back four, or five, think the same way.”
Milenkovic, who is softly-spoken but has an intensity about him, talks about moving to England being a big challenge, but how that is what he has always wanted. He grew up playing football on the streets back home in Serbia at a time when the Balkan War of the 1990s was not too distant a memory. Like millions of children around the world, he dreamed that football might offer an escape.
“Each day was a hard time. But tough times make tough people,” says Milenkovic, who still has the Serbia shirt, carrying the name of former Manchester United centre-back Nemanja Vidic — his idol — that he wore during those games in the street.
Milenkovic hopes to follow in the footsteps of Vidic by shining in the Premier League. He also takes pride in following in his hero’s footsteps in another sense — by captaining his country, which he did for the first time in a goalless draw with new European champions Spain in Belgrade last month.
“It was an emotional moment,” he says. “I knew what it meant to my family.”
On the training ground, Milenkovic’s mentality is as determined as it is on a matchday. He is a fiercely professional character.
“His quality, the way he has been working with us shows he is focused, determined, he competes very well,” said Nuno. “He is always trying to do better, every day, and that is the spirit we want.”
(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
