It's inevitable, the tell tale sign was when he didn't start against Sheffield Wednesday and played Diame further forward to accommodate Hayden and Colback.
Yeah it looks like he will be going. I think its a mistake but if Rafa doesn't rate him then you might as well move him on, getting someone he does want. He's a young lad too, we are stagnating his career.
Rafa's is a top manager, wouldn't swap him for anyone in the world atm, but he's made a few mistakes recently. yesterday playing two DM's away to a bottom team was stupid and then not making any subs until its too late! I think there's been a couple of games where were up against two big CB's pushing gayle about and we need a goal, why not get Mitro on and get crosses in the box for the last 25 mins? Also to not try Gayle and Mitro up front together is a joke, if Mitro goes before we get a chance to see these two play together, its a fooking travesty! 1 up front away from home, fine but at home we should be banging the door down, not giving teams a chance, opponents are always gonna try and contain us especially at SJP! I don't care how many goals gayle has, Mitro is better. We will really regret it if we let him leave.
Rafa is making a massive mistake letting Mitrovic go if that is the case. Gayle and Mitro would rip this division apart. Look at the difference they made against Norwich earlier in the season ffs. His arrogance in persisting with his negative defensive football is costing us.
It is weird, isn't it. Essentially preferring Jack Colback or Mo Diame to Alexander Mitrovic. Clearly a few top flight teams are offering around £15m for Mitro, we'd have to offer Colback PLUS £15m for someone to take that useless fecker off the books. I love Rafa, and all he stood for in revamping this club, but the fact he will not/cannot waver from 4-2-3-1 is hugely worrying. It wouldn't be quite so bad if these dreadful performances ended 0-0, but we're constantly conceding stupid goals. Teams turn up sitting deep knowing we're not very quick and can't pull them apart. They break every so often - even the worst teams will get at least one chance - and end up scoring. Subsequently they sit even deeper! It's the lethargy of the play the frustrates me. Diame, Colback, Hayden, Dummett, Ritchie are all guilty of slowing play down. We have no outlet for a pass to hold the ball up either, so we HAVE to play out, but when we play out at such a pedestrian pace it's really easy to regroup. The worrying signs for me is that it's getting harder as the season has gone on. We're getting worse and worse results, teams are lining up in a very similar pattern and there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it. I look at Leeds, Reading, Brighton, Huddersfield, Sheff Wed and they're all playing with a mix of aggression, passion, dynamism and speed - there's a joy to their football we can't match, for all those "better players" we're supposed to have. I can't work out what the problem is, why we look so fragile, so slow.
We don't know what goes on behind the scenes chaps. I love Mitro for his passion.... but I did with Ketsbaia and Saylor... but ultimately those last two were limited in all round ability as I suspect Mitro may be in the eyes of Rafa. He's the best manager we've had for ages so we have to trust that he'll get the job done. He said at the end of last season that he will make mistakes.For me it's how he learns from them and I honestly think he's the man to learn and adapt. Lots of fans on Twitter are in meltdown right now about the amount of losses we have..... but they forget that not one team in this division has won more than us.
Don't get me wrong - I love Rafa and everything he has done. I don't view Mitro as limited myself. The one thing he lacks is pace. Everything else about his game though shows massive potential.
Mitro lacks pace, but that didn't stop him scoring that home goal against Norwich last year, or get on the end of that through ball from Shelvey against WBA. The guy is more than a battering ram the goal against PNE where he ran it round players and the keeper. The key is to get him fit and get him in the right state of mind and I believe we will bag loads of goals
I agree on the lack of pace. I'd also say his first touch is quite poor too. In a 4-4-2 system with a little man big man set up he would probably do well but that ain't gonna be our style whilst Rafa is here. It's the same way in which Gayle struggled to fit in at Palace and play regularly but in our system he is flourishing and has admitted this in a recent interview.
I got that impression when he wasn't on the bench. But even sent off he'd contribute more than most of what passes for the midfield at present
I do really like Gayle and his record is immense in this league, but are defenders working him out a bit more? I think both Sheff Wednesday and Blackburn found out that if you contain and stop any balls coming into him or follow and push him about when he does have the ball, he starts to become less effective. Sheff Wednesday especially appeared to be all over him. It's not a bad tactic to be fair. It's also quite easy the one player in the box.
But the counter to that is if we have pacey men in the midfield... whilst Gayle is getting 'looked after'..... there's space created for them to exploit. This is why someone like Alan Judge would be ideal... or an 'on form' Diame.
This would be my idea of a line up if we signed him. A 3-5-2 formation with Mbemba/ Dummet, Lascelles and Clarke as CB's, Yedlin/ Ritchie, Lazaar/ Atsu wingbacks. Shelvey would be CM with Sigurdsson in front as the advanced DM. Gayle and Mitro two strikers. That side would rip the Championship to pieces. It won't happen though. Darlow Mbemba/ Dummett Lascelles Clarke Hayden Yedlin/Ritchie Lazaar/ Atsu Shelvey Sigurdsson Gayle Mitrovic
Playing him for more than 2 minutes at a time when games are over would be a good start. And you are right that it's ridiculous that Gayle and Mitrovic haven't been given at least a few games together, but it's not going to happen in Rafa's system by the looks of it.
It's true. There could have been an altercation in training or Mitro turned up late or hungover on the 1st or something which is why he's been left out of the side. I did see him in Kingston Park Tesco on NYE looking at rose wines with his missus so maybe he got smashed and it's pissed Rafa off.