Marcel Ratnik is a Slovenian center back who plays in his home country for Olimpija Ljubljana. He’s 20 years old (23/11/2003) 186 centimeters tall. The youth product of Olimpija mostly plays as the right center back. His right foot is the best, and that is clearly visible as he rarely uses his left foot. The 20-year-old was already selected for the Slovenian national team, but before that he played 9 games in the Slovenian U21 team. In total he played over 90 games for team from the capital of Slovenia and was on multiple occasions the captain of the team.
Ratnik has an ectomorph body build, but he performs well in duels. Showing decent strength, pushing opponents off with his shoulder and chest and winning most of his duels. His jumping reach is well, but he doesn’t go often in aerial duels. He isn’t really quick, but his acceleration and pace are good enough to do the job well. Ratnik shows pretty good leadership by being talkative on the field and helping his teammates. His stamina and balance are pretty good as well.
Ratnik looks very mature and great defensively. He has a very high defending IQ and reads the game really well. While defending 1v1s, which he’s very good at, he positions himself in the way that he blocks the goal. This way the opposing attacker has trouble with making a good shot on target. The timing of his sliding is very well as well, he can make a difficult and dangerous sliding without fouls. Speaking about fouling, he doesn’t foul very often and rarely receives yellow cards. He is often the last man in the defense during attacks, stays deep in the defense. If the ball comes to an attacker near the halfway line, Ratnik rushes a bit forward to press the attacker and tries to intercept the ball off him. He isn’t always perfect in the defense though. On some occasions he gives too much space to the opposition. Most times nothing happens from it, but it could be dangerous. His marking is also sometimes a bit off, but it’s not on a bad level. He still moves his head around to find an open attacker from the other team.
Offensively, Ratnik isn’t really active. Almost all his attempts on target come from headers during set pieces. He scored four goals this season, with only one being scored with his foot. But his heading abilities are good, not only as a shot but as a pass too. Ratnik’s short passes are really accurate but most of them are just played between the defenders, so without a lot of pressure. If he has the ball he’s very calm with it as well. But overall, during his matches he’s really calm, offensively and defensively. He doesn’t move a lot without the ball, as he is mostly open. He doesn’t go deep often in the attack either. During attacks he stays on the halfway line of the pitch and just goes forward for corners or crosses from set pieces.
In my opinion, Ratnik is really good. He is definitely the best defender on his team. I would be surprised if he doesn’t make a move during the summer transfer window. He could perform well in the better teams in Belgium or the Netherlands. Or even at some teams in the top 5 leagues that are placed a bit lower. He has good experience, also with playing European football. I think that he will end up in a good top 5 league team, he definitely has the potential for it.
Target Scouting 