Preston North End's Milos Lukovicplaceholder image
Preston North End's Milos Lukovic | CameraSport - Rich Linley
PNE signed the striker on loan from Strasbourg in the January transfer window
Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom says Milos Lukovic needs to build up his Championship fitness.
After making his debut from the start against Portsmouth in PNE’s second most recent game, the Serbian was left out of last weekend’s squad against Watford. North End made Lukovic their first signing of the January transfer window, on loan from French top flight outfit Strasbourg.
The 20-year-old - who was bought for a reported €5million by Strasbourg - had been out on loan in the Segunda Division with Las Palmas. Lukovic’s parent club share the same owners at Chelsea; Heckingbottom has referenced the Premier League giants being involved in the talks over his loan to Deepdale.
North End’s front line needed bolstering in January and Lukovic represented a boost to Heckingbottom’s striker department. However, the Serbian youth international will need to build himself up to the level required over the next few weeks. As far as the BlueCo owned clubs are concerned, it’s all part of a valuable loan experience.
“Yes, they know how hard the league is and the challenge,” said Heckingbottom to the Lancashire Post. “We spoke to Milos about it, showed how we play, where we see him, what we think he brings to the squad, what we think we can help him improve on.
“Yes, that's it, but there's no guarantees. I wouldn't take a loan with any sort of guarantee (of game time). At the minute now, we're just working on the fitness with Milos - he's not had a lot of minutes.
“That's shown in his fitness in and around how we play. Compare then the intensity of the second division in Spain, to the intensity of the Championship and that's the little difference that we're working on with him.
“So that, next time he gets his chance, he's a bit more accustomed to the amount of transitions in the game, the speed of the turnovers, the contact to the centre-backs, the way the games are refereed. There's a lot of things that he will benefit from by the end of the season.”
Continue Reading