Aleksandar Mitrović

[Paully]

His attitude was a disgrace in training and that is from Rafa's mouth............

[Guest]

That video when he's dragging Lejeune around like a ragdoll.

[TRon]

Nearly all those accusations for Mitro here are proven wrong and what's left is only "he doesn't suit Rafa system". Who knows why Joselu can fit in then?

 

As I said, admit Rafa has fucked it up doesn't mean saying Rafa out, how about just stop defending Rafa at all cost?

 

Joselu does what he's told. Mitrovic himself has said that Rafa's system doesn't suit him, he needs more support up front. Mitro is showing he can score goals at that level given that support, but he won't get it at Newcastle unless we have a more attacking manager. He didn't thrive under McClaren either because he played a very defensive formation as well.

[Guest]

Still joint top scorer in the Premier League for us under Rafa.

[TRon]

What we are seeing is that Mitrovic could possibly be the highly rated striker that we hoped he would be when we signed him. He'd still need to confirm that by playing in the top division under a manager who could get the best out of him, but it's encouraging.

[Big Geordie]

So people, Rafa or Mitrovic? In who do you trust?

 

Rafa for me everytime - no question.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Sure, but that’s not really the question.

 

I trust Rafa implicitly but I can’t help thinking the club would have benefited from giving Mitro more of a chance. Guess it’s a moot point, given that Rafa sees him every day and has made the call he has.

 

It’s just hard to fully accept given how bad our striking options are.

[Darth Crooks]

It's a shame like. I'm not immediately dismissive of him like some.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Sure, but that’s not really the question.

 

I trust Rafa implicitly but I can’t help thinking the club would have benefited from giving Mitro more of a chance. Guess it’s a moot point, given that Rafa sees him every day and has made the call he has.

 

It’s just hard to fully accept given how bad our striking options are.

[Dave]

Aye that's fair enough. I'm not immediately defensive of him like some.

[Yorkie]

Rafa's not a disciplinarian in the typical sense, but his values are so ingrained that you might as well immediately pack your bags if you ever defy him. That's clearly what happened and Mitro will never get another chance for us, so I'm relieved to see him (and Colback, if Forest fans are to be believed) adding some pence to their price tags. Good luck to him, looks a great fit for Fulham and it's clearly been a good move for all parties.

 

Colback and Mitro were made examples of by the looks of things, defining the culture of the dressing room. The squad's general discipline, rigidity and determination has won us most of our points so far imo... but by the same token, the pish strikers have ultimately cost us points. So it's swings and roundabouts in terms of the result, imo, but I'll always trust Rafa in the long run.

[Ketsbaia]

It frustrates me seeing him at Fulham because I've always been a fan of his and think a sustained run in our team would have us several points better off now. Ah well, life happens!

[Kaizero]

It frustrates me seeing him at Fulham because I've always been a fan of his and think a sustained run in our team would have us several points better off now. Ah well, life happens!

 

And then we die.

[Ketsbaia]

It frustrates me seeing him at Fulham because I've always been a fan of his and think a sustained run in our team would have us several points better off now. Ah well, life happens!

 

And then we die.

 

Sometimes.

[Kaizero]

It frustrates me seeing him at Fulham because I've always been a fan of his and think a sustained run in our team would have us several points better off now. Ah well, life happens!

 

And then we die.

 

Sometimes.

 

Death comes for all of us, rich and poor alike.

[samptime29]

I'm certain we'd have at least 3-4 more points if Mitro was playing instead of Joselu. I think Rafa has got this one wrong,

but he's the boss, and we have to accept his decisions.

 

 

[TRon]

Rafa's not a disciplinarian in the typical sense, but his values are so ingrained that you might as well immediately pack your bags if you ever defy him. That's clearly what happened and Mitro will never get another chance for us, so I'm relieved to see him (and Colback, if Forest fans are to be believed) adding some pence to their price tags. Good luck to him, looks a great fit for Fulham and it's clearly been a good move for all parties.

 

Colback and Mitro were made examples of by the looks of things, defining the culture of the dressing room. The squad's general discipline, rigidity and determination has won us most of our points so far imo... but by the same token, the pish strikers have ultimately cost us points. So it's swings and roundabouts in terms of the result, imo, but I'll always trust Rafa in the long run.

 

This basically. It's hard to stomach seeing Mitro scoring goals somewhere else, but the way I see it, we could set up in a way that would see him scoring more goals, but long term we might still end up getting nowhere because we had no discipline or team shape in other areas. With Rafa you know that given the right calibre of players, he will get results, he's a proven top level manager.

[mrmojorisin75]

I was speaking to a sensible Liverpool fan and it's hilarious how well they know him still, everything you mention to him about Rafa's quirks (such totally disregarding Mitro) he'll just throw in an example of when he did the exact same at Liverpool. Playing Kuyt all the time was his Joselu equivalent I seem to recall.

[Papavasiliou]

The hyperbole around Mitro on various social media platforms is getting infuriating on both sides of the argument.

 

You've got half pointing at the elbow at the start of the season and implying he'll literally get sent off every game he plays. The other half pointing out how long since he's had a red and claiming he's reformed.

 

People reading the story about him running less in training than Joselu and Gayle and somehow twisting that to mean he's obviously the laziest cunt ever to put on a toon shirt and that he must be sitting on the floor and refusing to move every session.

 

People seeing his recent form/goal record and chucking out random numbers claiming he'd have scored that many this season if only Rafa gave him a chance.

 

Can there not be any middle ground in discussions any more? Obviously Rafa fancies the other strikers we have more than Mitro but does that have to mean Rafa thinks he's shit, lazy, can't be trusted, ect. Is it not possible for a player to play better or worse in different teams/systems? It's depressing watching all these stupid arguments play out day after day.

 

 

[Hhtoon]

If Rafa was backed then i'd always back him over any player. If Rafa were to leave, then I'd happily give Mitro a chance over any other permanent forwards we currently have on our books.

[Darth Crooks]

Aye that's fair enough. I'm not immediately defensive of him like some.

 

Quite.

[Darth Crooks]

Rafa's not a disciplinarian in the typical sense, but his values are so ingrained that you might as well immediately pack your bags if you ever defy him. That's clearly what happened and Mitro will never get another chance for us, so I'm relieved to see him (and Colback, if Forest fans are to be believed) adding some pence to their price tags. Good luck to him, looks a great fit for Fulham and it's clearly been a good move for all parties.

 

Colback and Mitro were made examples of by the looks of things, defining the culture of the dressing room. The squad's general discipline, rigidity and determination has won us most of our points so far imo... but by the same token, the pish strikers have ultimately cost us points. So it's swings and roundabouts in terms of the result, imo, but I'll always trust Rafa in the long run.

 

This basically. It's hard to stomach seeing Mitro scoring goals somewhere else, but the way I see it, we could set up in a way that would see him scoring more goals, but long term we might still end up getting nowhere because we had no discipline or team shape in other areas. With Rafa you know that given the right calibre of players, he will get results, he's a proven top level manager.

 

Ah finally some middle ground

[xLiaaamx]

I'm not really sure what Joselu does that's so great for our shape. He wins headers but usually doesn't control them. Don't think he's took it down on his chest once. Doesn't appear to be a massively hard worker out of possession.

[ohmelads]

I don't really buy the 'following instructions' angle which I think started off as speculation by one of the Chronicle hacks who passed it off as fact. In the last 10 minutes when you're chasing a game and players are tired and playing off instinct more, a lot of teams bring on a wild card. Either an inconsistent flair player or more often a big bastard to create chaos. They know the defending team will sit deep, and it offers a chance to launch balls into the box. We should know - we've conceded a few of these ourselves this season. We simply have no option like that to bring on without Mitro. Instead we bring on Joselu.

 

Joselu was in the starting lineup every week for ages - what instructions was he following? I certainly hope all those sh*te performances weren't what Rafa was asking him to do! Gayle too has had his fair share of awful games where he's offered absolutely nothing on and off the ball. Are we supposed to believe Rafa has looked at that and thought "well done, Mitro wouldn't have done that"? At least with Perez you can make a case for his workrate.

 

If we had any half decent striker then I might believe he's been left out the squad and farmed off on loan for tactical reasons. There's clearly more to this than meets the eye.

[Conjo]

His attitude was a disgrace not optimal in training and that is from Rafa's mouth............

 

Fixed your post, but point still stands.

 

The "doesn't suit the system" argument is something Mitrovic have said.

 

For the greater good and team atmosphere I 100% support Benitez that he does not select people that are not performing in training simply based on ability. Imagine if all our most talented players stopped giving a fuck in training because they know they will get picked anyway. We've seen this before, and we'd already be down this season.

 

I am very frustrated with Mitro because I like him as a player and person (based on what I know at least) and want to see him do great here. Suck it up and bust a gut in training, engage with Benitez to discuss how he wants to use him and try and follow his advices. Im sure Benitez is contacting Mitro after each match to give him some feedback on how his positioning would be even more optimal if he ran in 1cm longer leaps etc, while also congratulating him on his performance.