World Cup 2022 team guides part 27: Serbia
This article is part of the Guardian’s World Cup 2022 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 20 November.
The plan
It is not difficult to understand Serbia’s gameplan: it is to score a goal. And after that? Well, to score more goals. If there is a single unquestionable thing about the Serbian national team these days it is the fact that they have enormous potential in attack.
The chances they create often stem from the midfield. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Dusan Tadic are able to dictate most games; they are the beating heart of the midfield, their perception and flair essential assets of Dragan Stojkovic’s team. In front of them operate Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic, goal-machines who have both had good years (but come into the World Cup carrying knocks).
Add to that fast wingers who are capable of high-quality crosses and it is easy to see why Serbia are an attacking side. Opponents have to deal with either the ball being played through midfield or on the flanks to get to the strikers. A third alternative is long balls to the target men, who are hungry to contest any second balls that fall their way.
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Serbia group fixtures
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“This Serbian team is at the top of their game,” says Veljko Paunovic, the coach who won the Under-20 World Cup with Serbia in 2015. “They are certainly aiming high and that is bringing the best out of everyone.”
Against stronger teams, expect Serbia to play in a 5-3-2 formation with the wing-backs given important defensive duties. If Stojkovic expects an easier – or at least even – game, then it will probably be a 3-4-3 with Tadic tucked in behind Vlahovic and Mitrovic.
For years, some in Serbia have called for the national team to play with a three-man defence but it was not until Aleksandar Kolarov and Branislav Ivanovic hung up their boots that it came to fruition. It feels safer than a back four and is now the default defensive setup.
The coach
Before a crucial World Cup qualifier against Portugal in Lisbon, a journalist asked Dragan Stojkovic if he felt Serbia could qualify for the tournament in Qatar in the end. The coach replied: “What do you mean ‘in the end’? There are no question marks, we will go to the World Cup.” The coach oozes confidence and that, coupled with the authority he has from his remarkable playing career, means that the players trust him and his ideas 100%. After the first training session one of them joked: “Where have you been all my life?” Stojkovic sums up his coaching philosophy as being: “It’s not enough just to win – how we win is also important. We want to play well, to play attacking football and to score a lot of goals.”
Star player
You could pick any of the quartet Milinkovic-Savic, Tadic, Vlahovic and Mitrovic and you would not be wrong. Lazio’s Milinkovic-Savic is hugely sought after on the transfer market, Vlahovic is a rising star at Juventus and Mitrovic is now a Premier League-certified goal threat. But the leader of this team is still the Ajax captain, Dusan Tadic. He has gone from being out of the squad, or on the fringes of it, to being instrumental and the player who understands exactly what Stojkovic wants from the team. He is an example to all the other players.
Dusan Tadic is the crucial midfielder who makes Serbia tick. Photograph: Srdan Stevanovic/Getty Images
Unsung hero
It is hard to find an unsung hero as most of the team are being praised by the media but Filip Kostic is perhaps the best option. His name is never mentioned when discussing Serbia’s best players but after a fantastic season at Eintracht Frankfurt he joined Juventus in the summer to link up with Vlahovic, which he has done to good effect. The most impressive thing, though, is that the versatile left-sided player is even more telepathically connected to Mitrovic when playing for Serbia. Kostic runs hard and is totally dedicated to the team. “Kostic is a serious and very focused player,” says Stojkovic. “When he is on the field you know that accurate crosses will arrive in the box. He is like Frecciarossa (the high-speed Italian train).”
Probable lineup
Qatar stance
Serbian players have not made any comments about the human rights situation in Qatar and the conditions for migrant workers. The Serbian FA does not have an official position on it either. The general opinion in Serbian football is that “the focus should not be diverted from football” by talking about any other topics, whether that is the war in Ukraine or the issues in Qatar. Tadic, Serbia’s captain, will not wear a rainbow-coloured armband at the World Cup.
National anthem
The Serbian anthem Boze Pravde (God of Justice) was written in 1872 as part of the theatre Markova Sablja (Mark’s Saber). It soon became the anthem of the principality and subsequently the kingdom of Serbia. After the second world war, when Yugoslavia became a republic, the anthem was Hey Slavs, which is still popular in parts of Serbian society today. God of Justice returned as national anthem again in 2006 when Montenegro broke off from Serbia, but the lyrics were tweaked. Instead of “God saves, God protects, the Serbian king, the Serbian kind,” it is now “God saves, God protects, the Serbian land, the Serbian race”.
All-time cult hero
“He is a legend,” Arsène Wenger once said when asked about Dragan Stojkovic, and any passerby on any street in Serbia would say the same. Piksi, as he is affectionately known, is an object of worship. At the 1990 World Cup, which was Yugoslavia’s last as a country, he scored two fantastic goals in the last 16 against Spain and was the best player on the pitch against Argentina in the quarter-final, Diego Maradona included. Even after Yugoslavia dissolved he continued to be a true leader and captain of the national team. “Piksi is on par with Cruyff, Maradona, and Pelé,” the Argentina legend Gabriel Batistuta said recently while Dejan Savicevic quipped: “He’s even better than me.”
Uros Jovicic writes for Nedeljnik. Follow him here on Twitter.