Milan Skriniar is wanted by several big clubs in Europe. In this report, we analyze the fundamentals of the game that the Slovenian center-back best dominates, and we predict, thanks to Olocip’s artificial intelligence, where he could best fit in the future.

FUNDAMENTALS THAT Milan Škriniar DOMINATES

Block: Defending the space

Fundamental: Step to help full back whose been beat always knowing that the central defense has an advantage.

Milan Škriniar is a versatile player who can play as a right central or left central, as well as as a full-back. Despite being a corpulent player, he stands out for his agility.

As we can see in the example, on this fundamental, he is a difficult player to beat, in this case starting from the left. The winger is beaten by and Škriniar makes a fantastic reading of the game and quickly goes to the help of his teammate. These actions leave the attacker without options to reach the baseline to make the cross, and obtain a positional advantage, since the attacker is on his back with very few options in progression. In addition, we cannot forget his great ability to defend duels for the ball using his body. Result of the play? Throw-in!

This fundamental is very important for this profile of tall centrals, since at no time do, they doubt or suffer if they leave that central lane “unprotecting the goal” fearing that they will not be able to regain their position.

Block: Defending in the danger zone

Fundamental: Defending individually the possible threats from crosses

His main strengths are in the defensive aspect, as we have mentioned previously, but not only in helping his teammates, but also at an individual level.

In this new foundation, the center-back finds himself facing a possible situation of a lateral cross against 2 forwards and perfectly identifies his responsibility in marking. The fact of raising his arm to try to control his forward warns us of a high degree of attention, concentration, and responsibility in danger zones, where the attacker’s shot can cause a goal.

It is not only important to cover and win the individual duel’s, but also to focus on the clearance to the side channels or to a teammate to try to keep the ball as we see in the last image.

Bloc: Security passes

Fundamental: Complete passes to the second line to avoid pressure from the rival and/or catch them in behind (shared but not simultaneously)

One of his visible characteristics at the offensive level is his quality at delivering long passes, looking towards the back of the defensive line and/or on the weak side through the change of orientation.

Furthermore, Milan Škriniar tends to look for the movements of fellow attackers while being both pressed and free. For this reason, we highlight the named fundamental. This behavior allows him to perfectly find the spaces between the defensive line and the goalkeeper or even the interlinear spaces that are produced by a separation of the midfield in a situation of rival pressure.

Another feature to consider are also the possible drives that can be made to fix / divide or overcome rivals after their theft, in order to reach the opponent’s goal with their power to find the shot on goal.

Bloc: Identify the player to mark

Fundamental: Maintain the vigilance with the striker while the other team attacks

The Slovakian player really likes those situations of defending a 1 against 1 both with spaces behind him and near the area, as we have mentioned before, he is a difficult player to overcome and very attentive.

When the team who is attacking in the construction or completion zone, the fundamental of to keep watching for threats begins to appear, that is, he is capable to identify which player should he mark by standing nearby in order to disturb their possible reception. It is precisely what he shows us in this situation, in which he is placed at a close distance and gives him time to anticipate that possible reception that would allow the team not to have to make an attack-defense transition.

Sometimes, when playing with 3 center-backs, the ball, being in opposite areas, he will be positioned as a pivot, to continue to perfectly perform the surveillance after identifying the free player.

HOW DO WE PREDICT THE FUTURE OF MILAN ŠKRINIAR?

Thanks to Olocip’s artificial intelligence, it is now possible to perform a predictive analysis contextualizing the player in his possible new environment (club, league, teammates, coach, game system …) and thus make honest comparisons scientifically validated with the aim of reducing the uncertainty and make better decisions.

Prediction of performance in related to interceptions 
The data in relation to interceptions refers to quantify the number of times a player anticipates getting the ball steal when his team is in the defensive phase or in attack-defense transition.

As we can see in the graph, the data tells us that his performance in relation to this data would be much higher if he signed for Manchester City or even Manchester United, thus exceeding his records for the current season.

That is, with Milan Škriniar, and taking the previous data as a reference, the fundamental can be related to go out to help the beaten full-back as long as the center of the defense has an advantage. In conclusion, with the statistical analysis we can say that the 2 English clubs will be able to further promote this quality.

Prediction of performance in relation to vertical passes 
The data recorded as vertical passes are those actions in which the player plays forward with the intention of overcoming rivals.

On this occasion, with the data we have, his current club would be the best option in order to enhance the positive aspect that it has.

It would be interesting to also evaluate the game model of Manchester City and Manchester United to determine how they affect their respective game models when playing the ball out and thus find even more the reason why it would not fit.

Prediction of performance in relation to defensive duels

Lastly, we are going to analyze the data referring to defensive duels, they are quantified as those defensive actions that the player is in a 1 against 1, either in a low block, medium block, or high block.

On this occasion we once again obtain a positive result in his current club than by the teams that seek his incorporation.

It should be taken into account that at Inter Milan they play with 3 center-backs and in which you can feel more secure by getting quick aids, on the other hand, normally both Pep’s team and Solskjær usually play with 2 central defenders.

• Name: Milan Škriniar
• Current Team: Inter de Milan
• Position: Central
• Age: 25
• Market Value: 46.5M de euros (according to Olocip)

RESUMEN DEL ANÁLISIS

• Fundamental: Step to help full back whose been beat always knowing that the central defense has an advantage.

Capacity to identify quickly when a teammate is beaten or could be beaten to step in to help.

• Fundamental: Complete passes to the second line to avoid pressure from the rival and/or catch them in behind (shared but not simultaneously)

Capacity to have a Good long range of passing to advance within the game, breaking rival lines or to switch the point of attack

• Fundamental: Defending individually the possible threats from crosses

Capacity to identify the close player in the zone and defend him individually with the objective to close the shooting angle.

• Fundamental: Maintain the vigilance with the striker while the other team attacks

Capacity to concentrate before switching roles to mark possible receivers with the objective to slow down, win or anticipate the ball

• Performance prediction: After the predictive realized we can affirm that Inter Milan would be the ideal team for the strength in the fundamentals for Milan Škriniar.