Vojin Serafimovic (2005): A Deep Dive into a promising Serbian Central Defender
To celebrate the social relaunch, we have this bonus post for all subscribers. Two match reports, data analysis & video scouting analysis on Cukaricki's 19-year-old left-footer
Welcome to our mega post on Vojin Serafimovic.
This is a young left-sided central defender who has played for Serbia at U21 level and has become first choice for Cukaricki this season.
watched him first, and really liked Serafimovic, so we decided to use him as a test case for a series of work which we display here.There are two separate match reports, a data deep dive, and a special video analysis between myself and James Doolan.
Any feedback on this set of work would be greatly received.
Biographical Details
Name: VOJIN SERAFIMOVIC
Age/D.o.B: 19 (14.10.2005)
Citizenship: SERBIA
Position(s): CB
Club: CUKARICKI
Height: 192cm
Preferred foot: LEFT
TM Market Value: €400K
Contract: Expiry: 30.06.2028
Current wage (FM24 estimate): N/A
GBE Status: FAIL
ESC Status: PASS (playing in Band 5 and also U21s for Serbia)
Match Info
Observed: 7th February 2025 (A) vs FK Tekstilac Odzaci (Super Liga) - low difficulty
Final score: 0-1
Shape: 4-4-2 (vs 4-2-3-1)
Brief match report: FK Tekstilac Odzaki trailed early to Cukaricki with Slobodan Tedic giving the away side a 12th minute lead with a slide-rule finish after being played through one-on-one.
The early goal allowed Cukaricki to play in a reserved manner, giving up possession to FK Tekstilac Odzaki. Despite seeing plenty of the ball the home team were unable to create any clear cut chances in the first half and went into half-time one down
FK Tekstilac Odzaki made a double half-time substitution and tweaked their setup to a 4-3-1-2 as they chased the game in the second half but the only difference it made was to present Cukaricki more opportunities to double their lead on the counter attack. Tedic hit the crossbar with a floated header which was the best opportunity for the second goal as the game played out into a routine 1-0 Cukaricki win.
Match report
Effectiveness of role
Serafimovic played as the left sided central defender in a 4-4-2. The role suited him perfectly.
Serafimovic marshalled the defensive line expertly. He was composed in possession and played the game with a maturity above his years and experience.
Physical attributes
Serafimovic is approximately 6’3. He showcased superb jumping ability and was undefeated in his aerial duels. Serafimovic routinely dealt with balls directly played into the striker and his aerial strength was key when Cukaricki were defending set-pieces.
Serafimovic didn’t evidence explosive pace but his long stride pattern was enough for him to not be outsprinted by any opponent. For a player of such a big strong frame he displayed good mobility and agility.
Serafimovic is naturally left footed but showed a capability with his right foot when having to clear play on his weaker side.
Technical skill
Serafimovic displayed great heading technical ability and was equally as able to cushion headers so that his team could maintain possession as he was able to get distance and power on his clearances.
With the ball at his feet Serafimovic would look to play out from the back whenever possible and was quick to offer an angle if play needed to be recycled.
Serafimovic’s passing was safe and secure. He didn’t attempt any line breaking, progressive balls that took the opponent out of the game.
Decision making under pressure
Serafimovic was coolness personified under pressure and never looked rushed. He was very willing to come back inside when under pressure as opposed to playing a rudimental channel ball as a clearance.
Serafimovic displayed great awareness and understanding on more than one occasion. His scanning was superb and often led to him giving himself just enough of a headstart to maintain speed with his opponent.
Psychological & Social
Serafimovic evidenced a nose for sniffing out danger. He made one goal preventing clearance by taking a position behind that of his goalkeeper and performing a crucial block.
Serafimovic was the line-leader of the defence and looked like a senior-pro rather than a teenager.
Any other business
Serafimovic has represented his country at Under 16,17,18,19 and 21 level. He has already gained some experience in the Conference and Europa League’s.
Based on this performance where he showed such defensive assurance you would never guess that he’s played less than 2,000 minutes of senior football and looks to have the raw ingredients to play at the highest level of the senior game.
Verdict
Key strengths
Aerial dominance
Match reading
Cool persona
Strength
Risks to mitigate
Needs to evidence a wider passing range
Needs to be tested against superior opposition
Could be vulnerable to top level pace
Current level recommendation
CH- - Bottom range of Championship
Potential level recommendation
PL- - Bottom range of Premier League
Data Deep Dive
We will use a couple of different sources to demonstrate what the data tells us about Serafimovic.
First of all, we will use our own data-based role scouting system, the AWRSS2.0, to give us an indication as to what kind of role he has demonstrated success in, and perhaps what other roles his play suggests that he can play in.
This season, Serafimovic has mainly played on the left of the central defence, which is probably to be expected given that he is left-footed. Looking at his heat map (from Sofascore) he is clearly happy playing football high up the pitch, and he is a key presence in both boxes.
AWRSS Role Analysis
We have produced a scatter graph comparing all of the central defenders in the Serbian Super Liga across two AWRSS roles, Stopper and Ball-Playing CB.
Serafimovic actually ranks as the second highest ball-playing CB in the league for CBs that have played over 800 minutes.
Whilst he doesn’t rank as an elite stopper, he is still way above the median ranking in this role too.
AWRSS Best Characteristics
Given his main role as a ball-playing CB it was interesting to run a more in-depth characteristics visual comparing Serafimovic against his peers in the key characteristics for the role.
He scores consistently well in the aerial and duel characteristics, and is perfectly fine in the ball playing aspects of the role. This is reflected quite accurately in his scout reports.
Ben Griffis’ Player Radar Charts
Ben’s excellent work on his Streamlit app also helps us to understand the player. Again, this chart uses Wyscout data and compares the subject to their league peers ie. Serafimovic to the other central defenders in the Serbian Super Liga.
However, we can see how dominant Serafimovic is in terms of his aerial duels, and there is some indication here of his usefulness in the final third as well.
As part of our service, we are looking to improve our output and as such we are creating a technical one-pager for players which combines this data with some of the information from the scout reports.
This is the first view of the technical report:
2nd Match Report
Completed by
Observed: 21st December 2024 (A) vs Crvena zvzeda (Super Liga) - high difficulty
Final score: 5-2
Shape: 4-2-3-1
Brief match report:
This was Serafimovic’s first senior match against the giants of the Serbian league.
The match was generally cut up by several fouls, first half injuries, and various stoppages which didn’t help the flow of the game. However, the first half in particular was quite evenly balanced with Red Star holding more possession and looking to build slowly, whilst Cukaricki used a mid-block line quite effectively, and looked to break quickly using direct running and passing to threaten Red Star.
Cukaricki took the lead in the first half with a well-timed run (VAR had to check) from the lively Cvetkovic, however, a goal on the stroke of HT by Cherif Ndiaye made it level going into the break.
The pattern continued into the second half and Cukaricki scored another fine goal, before Serafimovic was found guilty of hauling down Ndiaye, and the Senegalese stepped up himself to score. Red Star established a bit more control then and wrapped up the points with three goals in 15 minutes.
Match report
Effectiveness of role
Serafimovic played as the left sided central defender in a 4-2-3-1. This did often become the LCB in a back five as Sambou Sissoko regularly dropped in-between Serafimovic and Jovanovic when out of possession.
The 19-year-old took a little time to become accilmatised to the match, but generally looked very comfortable in this position. He was definitely playing within himself on the ball, so his role looked more of a traditional central defender, physical and aerial defending of his box, which he performed moderately.
Physical attributes
Serafimovic is approximately 6’3. Up against a good physical striker in Ndiaye, he didn’t have things all his own way though, and he didn’t win every aerial duel in this match.
His strength was lacking in physical duels with Ndiaye, though he was able to overpower other opponents. It appeared to me as though he is still developing that core strength and that would be something that a good strength and conditioning regime would bring out in him.
Serafimovic did display a good turn of speed though and was never outpaced in this match.
Technical skill
Serafimovic made no technical errors on the ball in this match, however, most of his passes were the obvious ones to make. He generally played safe in possession in this match, and also Cukaricki did find themselves playing very direct at times as Red Star deployed a good containing press to Cukaricki’s short goal kicks and defensive free kicks.
However, there were occasions in the second half where Serafimovic showed glimpses of his ability to play the ball into midfield and through midfield. The talent is there to play forwards, perhaps more belief or tactical instruction is required for this to form a regular feature of his play.
His defensive technique lacked in some areas, but was superb in others. His constant scanning of his position, and then clear adjustment in body position meant that his positioning was excellent, he was rarely caught out of position.
However, he does have the tendency to get physical with his opponent in the penalty area. This is a key part of defending, but he needs to learn how to do it appropriately. The penalty he gave away was unfortunate as Ndiaye was also holding him, but in a much cuter way, and the slip from Serafimovic made the tug look worse than it was.
Decision making under pressure
He was safe with his work under pressure. He displayed good footwork to extricate himself from a couple of strong presses, but didn’t panic.
As mentioned above, he needs to improve his decision making in the box as regards physical contact, but his positional sense and movement is already excellent.
Psychological & Social
Serafimovic displayed a very positive demeanor. He was always leading the line forwards at pace and would usually be the first one to the desired point of holding the line following a clearance.
He was calm at the outcome of giving away a penalty, allowing his captain to do the remonstrating.
Any other business
Serafimovic has represented his country at Under 16,17,18,19 and 21 level. He has already gained some experience in the Conference and Europa Leagues. He has played 9 consecutive full 90s for his club side now, so has firmly established himself as first choice.
He can definitely play in a back 4 or a back 5. He moves freely, like a classy individual, and whilst there are elements of rawness in his play, the potential for an international career is ahead of Serafimovic. Clients are advised to move quickly on this player.
Verdict
Key strengths
Match reading
Smooth movement on and off the ball
Positioning
Scanning for danger
Risks to mitigate
Needs to evidence a wider passing range
Top level strength needs to be developed for personal duels
Decision making on physical actions in the box
Current level recommendation
CH- - Bottom range of Championship
SPL - Mid-range of Scottish Premier League
Potential level recommendation
PL- - Bottom range of Premier League
SPL+ - Potential starter for the Old Firm
Video Analysis
James Doolan and
took some clips from the match against Red Star Belgrade and analysed some of Serafimovic’s play to gauge his strengths, and some areas in which he will need to improve to fulfil his potential.Conclusions
In all likelihood, given the nature and the trends of the global market, the chances are that Serafimovic has already shown enough, as a 19-year-old, to be a genuine target for many clubs around Europe come this summer.
As a result, the chances of him being landed by a British club are fairly remote, as this is not currently an established pathway that young Serbians are used to taking.
However, we believe that Serafimovic would be a really interesting option for many top Championship clubs to use as a long-term project.