Following the departure of Martina Piemonte and then the Swedish international Kosovare Asllani, AC Milan Women decided to sign the Polish international Nikola Karczewska to most probably get a central role in head coach Suzanne Bakker’s Milan.
Numerous changes are happening at Milan to make the team more competitive, both in Serie A and on a European level, after failing to even make it to the playoffs as they played in the relegation round last season.
Although Milan did not have issues finishing at the top of the relegation round standings, this remains a very negative season for the club, as the results were much lower than expected.
Milan will, therefore, need to play better football and achieve better results this season to battle for a UWCL spot.
Why not be more ambitious and challenge Roma, Juventus, Inter Milan, and the rest for the Serie A Femminile title as well?
The Polish forward was born in Warsaw in 1999 and used to play for Górnik Łęczna, where she was the top goal scorer in the Polish league, before moving to France and joining FC Fleury.
Afterwards, she was capable of scoring 11 goals in her first season in France before signing for Tottenham and earning an opportunity to play in the WSL during the 2022/23 season.
Last season, she spent the whole year on loan at Bayer Leverkusen from Spurs, where she scored 10 goals and had two assists.
This rather positive season helped her gain more experience and adapt to different styles of play since she had already played in four different European leagues before joining Milan with a contract until 30 June 2026.
This will certainly facilitate her integration into Serie A, as she has the experience needed to cope with environmental changes and quickly adapt to the new city lifestyle and Italian playing style.
At the same time, we must mention that Karczewska also has some international experience since she made her debut with the senior national team in June 2019 during the match between Poland and Slovakia.
In this tactical analysis and Nikola Karczewska scout report, we will explore Karczewska’s attacking abilities, mainly her goalscoring and playmaking traits, while discussing her role at Milan and how she can be central to their tactics during the coming two seasons.
Therefore, the analysis will evaluate this new attacking signing by examining her strengths and shedding some light on her possible improvements while at Milan.
Nikola Karczewska Position & Role At AC Milan Women
As mentioned above, Karczewska will probably replace Piemonte and Asllani as the Rossonere’s main strikers.
Bakker already started using Karczewska as a striker during the friendly match against Newcastle United.
This means that Bakker is planning on relying heavily on Karczewska for that role, especially if she confirms her abilities and shows positive signs during the rest of the pre-season.
In fact, Karczewska performed well against Newcastle United and scored a goal that highlights the Polish’s goalscoring instinct.
Based on her previous experiences and actual statistics, we can argue that Karczewska can play a stationary striker, blocking defenders, having an advantage on defenders when receiving crosses and long passes, and providing key passes to the midfielders coming from the back.
She can also use her body very well to protect the ball and resist the disturbance of defenders inside or near the box, which would make the difference up front for Milan.
Her role would also include scoring as many goals as possible by exploiting crosses since she has the physical abilities needed to have an advantage over defenders during such actions usually.
She also proved previously that she times her movements inside the box very well to anticipate the defenders’ runs and get to the ball first.
It is true that things can be a bit more complicated in Serie A, as defenders might be more aggressive than in Germany.
Yet, Karczewska has what it takes to still make a significant impact and cope well with the defensive differences, not only thanks to her physical strength but also thanks to her intelligence and excellent decision-making regarding movements and finishing.
Overall, Karczewska’s roles at Milan will most likely be the same as those of the previous strikers who used to play in this position.
The difference however is that Karczewska is more of a stationary striker who does not necessarily have the traits that allow her to drop back and contribute a lot in the playmaking, unlike Asllani for instance.
Karczewska rather has similar characteristics to those of Piemonte, meaning that Karczewska’s movements will more likely be centred inside the box or at the edge of the box.
That being said, she can also lean towards the wings at times to provide passing options to wingers and confuse defenders by getting out of her zone.
At the same time, we should mention the fact that Karczewska was used as a winger on a few occasions and can cope with that position in emergency cases since that’s not the position that allows her to give 100%.
Nikola Karczewska Goalscoring Instinct And Abilities
You have read it right; Karczewska indeed has what we call goalscoring instinct.
She knows exactly when and how to move to anticipate defenders’ movements and get to her teammates’ passes/crosses first.
That’s what makes her a valuable striker who can still improve a lot and be even more crucial in front of goal.
Milan will certainly help Karczewska become a more decisive striker, while the latter will surely contribute to winning more points than last season by scoring plenty of goals, especially if she gets the needed passes from her teammates.
That’s why a lot of work is needed by the coaching staff and the players themselves in order to create good chemistry between the attacking players and the midfielders while developing numerous attacking plans to use according to situations and opponents.
On her first appearance with the Rossonere, Karczewska has already shown positive signs.
She scored the following goal and stressed that she is very intelligent in terms of movements inside the box and that she can be very quick and beat defenders when chasing passes.
What is also important is that some chemistry is already being created between her and the wingers, as we saw significant understanding and few errors between them.
Karczewska noticed her teammate’s run to get the ball on the right side and immediately started running faster to surpass her marker and be the first on the ball to score it.
With 0,56 average scored goals per game and 1,81 shots per game, we can argue that Karczewska can improve her numbers a bit further at Milan and focus on scoring more and more on target while trying to improve her goalscoring numbers as well.
That being said, we cannot overlook the Polish’s impeccable goalscoring traits since she deals very well with crosses and uses complicated and sometimes acrobatic movements when needed, too.
This goal example highlights Karczewska’s excellent reactions when dealing with crosses.
She was able to resist her marker’s disturbance and execute a volley that went inside the net.
Such actions might look easy but are difficult to execute with success.
Eventually, using this goalscoring talent further by serving Karczewska many similar crosses would be very useful, especially if she maintains the same level of attention and skills when dealing with such situations.
Another important trait that characterises Karczewska is that she is a very dynamic and agile player despite her height and weight, which might represent an issue for other players with the same physical characteristics.
Karczewska, however, uses her physical shape in her favour and adds a lot of dynamism to it to always be first on the ball, even if defenders have the advantage at first.
This extra effort she does so often makes her win a lot of duels and be more impactful.
This goal example shows how she was capable of scoring a goal, mainly thanks to her sliding shot attempt, which allowed her to touch the ball before the defender, who had the advantage, could.
Not all strikers have this kind of intelligent and anticipatory reaction when trying to execute their final touches, and that’s what distinguishes crucial strikers from average ones.
Moreover, Karczewska is outstanding in terms of second balls as she always positions herself in key spots to be the first on second balls and score them.
Thanks to second balls, she was capable of scoring numerous goals and will eventually score more goals with the same approach, especially if her teammates attempt more shots from distance per game.
Playmaking And Ball Protection
Karczewska can also be very important for the team in terms of playmaking, as she can block defenders and win aerial duels at a high rate.
This will allow her teammates to win extra free spaces and use them in penetrating towards the box or in shooting after Karczewska blocks defenders and provides key passes.
Karczewska is already accustomed to applying this role; therefore, it will not be complicated for her to do it again at Milan.
However, training on different plans and times for these actions well is needed to avoid unnecessary confusion between the players during games.
On some occasions, it will also be essential to vary her solutions after blocking defenders with her body.
Karczewska already started doing this at Bayer Leverkusen.
She confuses defenders by pretending to control the ball while blocking her two markers, then dribbling between them with a backward touch.
In this example, she was capable of winning a penalty thanks to this confusing dribble that highlights the player’s excellent decision-making and awareness of her surroundings.
Karczewska provides 76% accurate passes on average and gives 0.08 assists per game.
Her passing accuracy can be considered good enough, if not excellent, for a striker, especially since she provides 64.3% accurate passes inside the penalty box.
Nevertheless, her assists average needs to be improved in order to make Karczewska an even more useful and complete striker for Milan.
She has also shown that she can provide assists using her left foot especially when she plays alongside a second striker or a winger who joins the box so often.
Working on increasing the number of her key passes per match will be very important for the team as it would increase the team’s attacking solutions and get the best from Karczewska even when she is not being positioned in suitable goalscoring spots.
Conclusion
Overall, Nikola Karczewska promises to be a very useful attacking signing for Milan.
She has all that is needed to excel with the Rossonere.
Under the management of someone like Suzanne Bakker, Karczewska is more likely to become an even more clinical and all-around striker.
The Dutch head coach is known for improving the abilities of her players and making them perform better.
That said, underestimating Serie A is a trap that Karczewska should avoid since the league is no less competitive than the German or English leagues.
Therefore, it will be fundamental for her to give her best from day one so that she can adapt to the new playing style and quickly understand what is needed of her.
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