Benitez fires back at Aleksandar Mitrovic’s comments after making it 7 goals in 5 games for Fulham

Rafa Benitez has hit back at Aleksandar Mitrovic’s suggestion that Newcastle’s ‘tactical’ style of play in our Championship campaign didn’t suit him, politely explaining why he does not buy this – also revealing that his future with NUFC will be discussed in May.

‘Mitro’s on fire’ is a phrase that’s often been unjustified, but he really has been since arriving on loan at Fulham in January. Not only did he score two in Fulham’s their midweek win over Sheffield United, he backed that up with another brace in their 2-1 win over Preston on Saturday.

The Serbian has been full of praise for Fulham’s attacking football, suggesting they play to his strengths more than Benitez’s ‘tactical’ NUFC did in the 2016/17 season.

Rafa has responded to this in emphatic fashion, having the following to say about the striker’s recent comments:

“It’s not about style. We were the best team in the Championship and had an offensive style.

“We scored 85 and conceded 40. We were the best team bar none.

“We had more shots on target than anyone and we were second on crosses.

“So everything was there in place.

“We were an attacking team. We had one key player – and that Dwight Gayle. He got 23 goals even with two months out injured. Even Daryl Murphy scored six goals.

“Nobody can complain about our attacking style as we had Gayle, Ritchie and Atsu. You can see the numbers.”

Hard to argue with that. Fulham may play the best football, but in terms of crosses into the box and goals scored, we were the top dogs – suggesting Mitrovic should have thrived far more than he did.

The argument will be that he wasn’t given enough games, but, as Rafa points out in a subtle dig at the Serbian, Gayle was our ‘key player’. Why would he start Mitro over a striker who was scoring for fun every week?

Rafa then moved onto Mitrovic’s future, stating that it’s a good thing for him and NUFC that he is scoring goals, with discussions set to take place in May when he returns to Tyneside:

 “There are two ways to analyse this.

“One is Mitrovic is scoring goals in the Championship (not the Premier League). But it’s good news for him and us.

“Two, he is playing before the World Cup and he is our player.

“We then have to discuss his future in May.

“In May we will see and if he is doing well, fine no problem.”

What would you do with him in the summer folks?

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

3 thoughts on “Benitez fires back at Aleksandar Mitrovic’s comments after making it 7 goals in 5 games for Fulham

  1. Don’t think anything he says will make that decision right but it’s done Already, time to move on. Always been a Mitro fan,hope he scores a lot of goals and has a good world cup (that would be good for everyone. I’d love him to play for us again but can’t see Rafa giving him a chance, maybe we could get 30m plus for him.

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  2. It did occur to me that Rafa tried without success to change Mitro’s style of play. Not following orders was quoted a number times. I hope that Mitro will not be used as a pawn when we attempt to buy our present loanees.

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  3. It did occur to me that Rafa tried without success to change Mitro’s style of play. Not following orders was quoted a number times. I hope that Mitro will not be used as a pawn when we attempt to buy our present loanees. 😀

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