MN: Bright spot to question mark – Pavlovic’s difficult Serie A adjustment continues | OneFootball

When the first international break arrived in September, Strahinja Pavlovic had been one of the few bright spots for AC Milan. Now, he is a curious case.

As MilanNews write, Pavlovic showed plenty of good things in his first few appearances but two months later he has become perhaps the biggest question mark of the summer window. The Serbian is playing in a league that’s very different from the Austrian one, and is still adapting.

Paulo Fonseca, on the eve of the Champions League match against Club Brugge, spoke about his decision to go from giving Pavlovic regular starts to then benching him.

“This is a different reality for Pavlovic, it’s a different way of playing compared to the one he had in his last club. He is someone who always wants to anticipate, he is a physical player,” he said.

“We want a more balanced central defender. I think he did better, but I also think he needs to grow: he didn’t have a game without errors [in reference to Milan-Udinese] but he did well. If we make a comparison with his other games he has grown a lot. But there are still things to improve.”

Pavlovic started against Napoli, Monza and Cagliari. Against the league-leaders he lost a physical battle to Romelu Lukaku early on which led to the opener, and in Sardinia he was a ‘disaster’ with his positioning and reading of the game.

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The early signs suggested that the former Partizan Belgrade man had the grit and determination that Milan needed but just needed some tactical adjustment, and yet if anything that evolution seems to have turned into a regression.

There are some interesting comments worth reviewing such as from Igli Tar , who was very close to bringing him to Lazio when he was the sporting director there.

“He arrived at the best age to express himself at his best. I think he still has a lot to improve in the football that counts, that is, top-tier football because he is a complete player in some ways but in the defensive phase he still has to improve something,” he said.

Savo Milosevic , the coach who gave him his debut at Partizan and who knows Serie A very well having played at Parma, said similar a few months ago.

“He has to learn tactically, there’s no doubt about it, because Italian football is different than elsewhere. And I’m sure he’ll learn quickly because he’s a boy who never stops. His choice to go to Italy was excellent.”

Patience is needed, but while Milan’s defence continues to let in multiple goals per game in half their fixtures, there isn’t much patience to dish out.