Beware, England: Aleksandar Mitrovic is Serbia’s monster scoring goals for fun

For England’s defenders, the hulking figure of Aleksandar Mitrović represents a familiar yet formidable foe. Gareth Southgate’s backline know all about the threat posed by Serbia’s bruising target man, but that knowledge will not necessarily make him any easier to stop on Sunday.

In the right position on the pitch, with the right service from the wings, there are few players at this summer’s European Championship who are more capable of inflicting major damage upon an opposition defence. Mitrović is a monstrous presence on the international stage, scoring more goals for Serbia than anyone else, and he remains his nation’s great hope.

“He is the main man,” says Serbian coach Aleksandar Janković, who most recently managed China and is working as a pundit for this tournament. “In the national team, his level of performance is magnificent. He has been consistently scoring important goals for Serbia over the last seven or eight years.”

For most in England, Mitrović has been out of sight and largely out of mind since he left Fulham for Saudi Arabia last year. It would be a significant mistake, though, to think that his move to Al-Hilal was effectively a step towards semi-retirement. While that has been true of many players who accepted Saudi Arabia’s lucrative offers, it is certainly not true of Mitrović.

In 28 appearances in the Saudi Pro League last season, he scored 28 goals. Only Cristiano Ronaldo scored more. And yes, the standard of football is not as high as in the Premier League, but there are plenty of big names in Saudi Arabia who produced much less: Sadio Mane scored 13 goals, and Riyad Mahrez scored 11. Karim Benzema and Roberto Firmino, meanwhile, struck just nine each.

“The only question in Serbia was whether he could maintain the same level of intensity, after a year in a lower-intensity competition,” says Janković. “But there are no worries about him for the first game. Guys like Mitrović are always hungry, always happy to compete, no matter how rich they are.”

Mitrović, for his part, claims to be in the best shape of his life, physically and mentally. That will be concerning news for England, who know they must avoid being riled by a player with a long history of getting under the skin of his opponents. Mitrović is aggressive and powerful, and he is always up for a scrap. England must not fall into his traps.

Of course, Mitrović’s hot head can sometimes get the better of him. In April last year, he was banned for eight games by the Football Association after pushing a referee in an FA Cup match. Earlier in his career, he was famously booked just 22 seconds into his debut for Newcastle United.

Age and the Saudi Arabian weather does appear to have calmed him down a little, at least in terms of his on-field behaviour. In 43 matches for Al-Hilal, he has picked up only seven yellow cards — and zero reds.

Still, it was slightly strange to hear Dusan Vlahović, Mitrović’s attacking team-mate, describe the 29-year-old as “so calm”. Speaking at Serbia’s training base in Augsburg, Vlahović said of Mitrović’s personality off the pitch: “He is very different. He is so calm, he is funny. A lovely person. He is very important for us.”

Under the management of Dragan Stojković, Mitrović has scored 21 goals in 23 competitive appearances for his country, with more than half of those coming from headers. Overall, his international record stands at 58 goals from 91 caps, a similar return to Harry Kane’s for England (63 goals in 91 games).

Like Kane, Mitrović is not just a goal threat. He is also the platform upon which Serbia’s attack is built, and his work in build-up play could be just as dangerous to England as his power in the penalty box.

“The way Serbia play, all the corridors to Mitrović are open,” Janković tells Telegraph Sport. “If there are any small difficulties in the build-up, they play the ball to him. He keeps it and he gives oxygen to the whole team. This is precious. He is the player with the biggest impact on the way of playing and the results of Serbia.”

There are other dangermen in the Serbia side, but none like Mitrović. If England can wrap him up and shut him down, they will reduce much of the opposition threat. Sadly for Southgate’s defenders, who are in for a bruising battle, such an approach is far easier to discuss than it is to execute.

Terry Butcher: I know Serbia’s coach, England must be wary

Gareth Southgate could have done worse than bend the ear of one of England’s greatest defenders ahead of this weekend’s Euro opener. Terry Butcher struck up an unlikely partnership with Serbia manager Stojković when they worked together in China and knows him better than most.

Butcher was sounded out in 2019 for suitable candidates for a defensive coach at Guangzhou R&F and ended up with the job himself. His work with “Piksi”, who was manager, was on strengthening his backline but he does not expect the great Yugoslavia playmaker to be defensive in Gelsenkirchen for the opening Group C match.

They struck up a friendship through their work, with Stojković discussing living through the Balkans conflict and his love of Serbia, his birthplace. As a coach, Stojković has the attacking instincts that he had as a player.

“Dragan will set them up in a way where he feels England are vulnerable. He won’t park the bus, he’ll have a go for sure. I know what he’s like,” Butcher said. “Their players will hang onto his every word and he’ll be so proud to lead them out. I can see it being a tough test for England.”

Stojković’s coaching career included having Arsene Wenger as a mentor, with the pair still in touch after he was coached by the Frenchman at Nagoya Grampus Eight. Stojković followed in Wenger’s footsteps by managing the Japanese club and had been earmarked as a potential successor at Arsenal.

His career path took him to the Chinese Super League following the competition’s initial explosion and heavy spending, mainly on attacking players from South America and Europe. This is where Butcher came in. Guangzhou signed Mousa Dembele from Tottenham and Eran Zahavi, who went onto play for PSV Eindhoven, but they needed work at the other end of the pitch. Butcher struck up the friendship despite bringing up a previous encounter when they first met.

“I reminded Dragan we’d played against each other in 1987 when England won 4-1 in Belgrade,” he said. “Looking back, maybe it wasn’t the best opening way to impress your new boss, but he just nodded and said, ‘I remember, you blew us away!’

“We got on well from that moment and he impressed me both as a football man and as a human being. He’d ask me about players and tactical developments in England and, after a couple of beers, he’d explain what it had been like for his family to live through the Balkans conflict. You could see the passion he had for his country.”

Butcher believes his former boss’s passion for his country transmits to his players as they prepare to face England.

“I’m not surprised at all that ‘Mister’, as we called him, is at the Euros,” he said. “He was a fabulous player with Red Star Belgrade and Marseille and went to the World Cup twice. He is very knowledgeable about the game and they love him to bits in Serbia.

‘He [Stojković] was a very amenable guy but had a tough streak in him. He’d demand a lot from the players and have a go if they fell short. He could be spiky with the officials because some of them weren’t very good. Dragan is a lovely man but I know him well enough to understand England have to be wary.

“I’m just glad this is the first game because if things don’t go well for either team there is room for recovery.”