Off Topic mitrovic

Once Heed makes it up the hill in less than 15 minutes.

 

I’ll carry him.

 

No artificial aids allowed.

 

Thanks that very nice

 

We won 4 games in a row so Rafa made right decision etc not really Gayle couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo and proved it Saturday again,Joselu wouldn't recognize a cow's arse,who's to say if different had Mitro be more involved, don't care anymore.I have my flip-flops on and can see us beating Arsenal,w Brom and Chelsea which won't matter to the team much only put more money into Mike's pocket on league placing.

 

Well it's looking like Mitro may well have secured Fulhams promotion if their current form continues. Playing out of his skin and his goals have won quite a fe points. Look forward to him coming to the Toon next season if Fulham can afford him. He'll get a good reception.

 

Sir Bobby had a right go at Lua-Lua in the dressing room after scoring a hat-trick in pre-season, in Holland I believe, so it's nothing new and seems less about style of management to me.
If Nitro is as mentally weak as Lomano, he's never going to be happy here. Do I think, regardless of management, Miteo will show up when the chips are down? The only time that happened was with us and he didn't.

Hopefully we get the funding and in theory do build something around him, or at least give him a crack, but I'm not blind to his flaws.

Grabban scored with a similar regularity for Sunderland, no reason to see this as proof that Mitro is a prem striker until he actually proves it.

 

In my memory I thought Mitro was turning up when the chips were down (Norwich, Sunderland, etc.) but was just young and inconsistent. Compared to the likes of Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Cisse and Shelvey I reckon the young Serb was doing his bit. Not convinced it's fair to use that as evidence of a weak mentality.

 

Only to juxtapose the way it's consistently painted as management's fault with regards to him. It's great saying an arm round the shoulder works, but what moron scores a goal, celebrates smarmily, comments later about his annoyance at not being trusted, then gets slapped with a retrospective ban because of some thick **** he did later the same match. That alone looks like mental weakness in my book.
To use these couple of games as evidence to the contrary is also unfair then surely? It's like picking out Gini's fourgoals or sumat. You only have to look back at this forum to see how people felt about Nitro during our relegation year, for the smattering of goals there is a litany of misses and fair enough if the inconsistency is due to youth, just odd he hasn't displayed it anywhere else. I actually defended him through that season like, but in context the Wham game just summed it all up for me in the end.
Just because he kisses the badge and scythes down defenders pointlessly doesn't mean he's trying anymore than the rest, as much as I'd believed different. Mental strength would be showing self-restraint for the sake of your team. How's his disciplinary record at Fulham? Genuine question, I'm just assuming it's better.

To me though, every interview he's given since he got the treatment he didn't want has made him sound like a petulant child and,to be honest, you get paid that much you shouldn't need an arm round the shoulder to stop cutting up the oppo when it's not ya job to do so. Nor should you feel aggrieved when you keep doing the same idiotic thing again and again and lost the faith of the manager. Age or not he was one of the top 4 earners when he arrived, easily.

For parity, I still think Shelvey is a prick and is always steps away from ****ing us up allover again. I equally won't be harping on about management styles when he leaves and invariably performs for half a season.

 

I don’t think Mitrovic or Rafa is to blame. It is quite clearly a bit of both for me in terms of their relationship.

However the crux of the matter is quite simple. Rafa simply doesn’t see Mitrovic fitting into his style of play. As such he gives him the cold shoulder. People can talk about trust and an arm round the shoulder till the cows come home. If Rafa wanted him and saw him as useful he’d do that. He doesn’t want him so he has never bothered his arse.

Shelvey is a complete prick. Every big a prick as Mitro is in terms of temperament. Rafa likes him so he picks him and gives any amount of chances. He defends him and works with him to help him. He sees something that fits so he makes the effort. He doesn’t see that with Mitrovic in my opinion and it’s probably just a stylistic. Let’s remember too Jokanovic plays a much more expansive free flowing attacking style. Horses for courses.

 

If the side could have carried a slow striker who can't contribute defensively and they could have got the ball regularly to his feet in middle of the penalty area (which is where the majority of his Fulham goals have come from) then Rafa would probably have played Mitrovic more this season. Rafa understands our team isn't good enough for that so we are where we are. I think the penny has been dropping in the last few weeks for those slow to catch up that Rafa is about maximising a team and a system in order for us to win games rather than about individuals.

 

Many ways to skin a cat. You can play any way you want in any level of football and be successful. I’m sure our team could do well with Mitrovic in it. I don’t think speed or defensive work is an an issue for him. Certainly hasn’t been at Fulham. His defensive work has been stellar for them and his work rate has been fantastic. It’s not even about the personnel we have. Rafa has bought players to fit his style of play. He plays the way he always has. Look at Real Madrid. He had the most money and best players at his disposal - he still played his defensive stop the oppo way. It was his downfall.

Rafa just doesn’t see him fitting in and quite rightly isn’t willing to change his defensive tactics to adapt to Mitrovic. Clearly Mitrovic struggles to adapt to such a defensive style. He doesn’t like having his head filled with thoughts which are centred around stopping the opposition from doing what they want. Rafa will never change now after so many years playing his way. Mitrovic just has to lump that. It isn’t for Rafa to change, and if Mitrovic doesn’t want to play that way then he needs to go somewhere he’s happy. As Shearer said, if Gullit had stayed he was leaving because he wasn’t interested in his way of playing. He wasn’t interested in doing what Gullit wanted. Bobby came in and decided to base his tactics around getting the best out of Shearer. Some managers and players are flexible, some aren’t.

 

This.

I'll add that the 'Mitrovic has found his level' comments are off the mark. He has scored more PL goals for us than Gayle and Joselu combined. Fulham will come up and Mitrovic will bang them in. Those that wrote him off will look rather silly.

 

I agree. Just to be clear though Rafa being a defensive coach isn't a criticism of him. He just is. So is Jose Mourinho. Those that don't like the term see it as a criticism and prefer 'tactical' as they, funnily enough, get all defensive about it. This includes the coaches themselves. Defending is such a dirty word in football. Ever since the Dutch team and total football, there is this notion that every team should try to play beautiful attacking football. The Ballon D'or and awards are dominated by attacking players. Its all a load of bullshit to me. Football has many different facets. Attacking play is only one of them. The greatest football brain I ever saw was Franco Baresi, not Maradona or Messi. His impact on a game could be just as great, just in a different way.

I understand football is about entertainment, and I prefer football is played what I see is the right way in terms of on the deck and attacking. Its just a preference though, and I can respect any other kind of football too. I prefer it that way but that is only natural because I view it as a fan. I see it as a game and entertainment. When I managed Saturday and Sunday teams, I saw it differently. I wanted a very solid defence and based my system on George Graham's way of playing. A holding midfield and the notion that all the defence were combined by a rope. Meaning you'd never have both full backs up the field at once. Can you imagine telling someone like Dani Alves to play like that?

There are no two ways about it for me, Rafa and Jose are defence first coaches. Both would quite rightly point to their trophy listings as to why they play the way they do. So Mitrovic might not like it, and certain fans may not, but its a valid way of playing.

There is also a comment from those got defensive about criticism of Rafa in our bad run. I understand criticism of those wanting him sacked, that was daft from fickle people. However the criticism of him was perfectly valid. In fact our recent home after becoming better drilled, and him making changes probably validates that criticism more if anything. I don't know why people are so touchy and feel the need to blame one person or another, or get upset when someone is criticised. There is a lack of objectivity but I suppose that is the nature of support and passion.

 

I don't think the comparison is purely to be made with Joselu/Gayle. If you think that's what the argument is you're missing the point because none of them are PL strikers.
Also if you're saying Nitro would have contributed to play the way Gayle has in the last few matches you're again missing the point.
There's more than one way to skin a cat, there's also more than one player that can score in a team.
I hope Mitro does come good, hopefully for us if we can be comfortable enough to make a system for him. However, if you think Nitro's going to be banging em in the same way he has in the champ, if Fulham go up, I want whatever you're smoking! There's already at least 6 teams in this league where he won't be able to just hog the penalty box.

 

I see that a little differently, perhaps those defenders of Mitro need to stop getting upset when it's pointed out he hasn't shown it in a big league or at a **** team in a big league.
Rafa only comes into play because Nitro has been the stick used to beat him with in ****ter times, can't just pretend that's not the case.

 

Hes only had 22 pl starts. Nearly all of them under a different manager so I’m not sure that stacks up bit each to their own.

This kind of sums up the defenders of one or the other for me.

As I say I don’t fall in one camp or the other. I don’t see why it has to be either or. Newcastle could do well with Mitro. It’s just unlikely to be for Rafa. They can do well without him and with Rafa too. Just one of those things for me.

 

I like the lad and think he will have a great career. I also like Rafa and think he's a great manager. At the end of the day, we probably need Rafa more than we need Mitro. I doubt we can have both.

 

Think this pretty much sums it up really...

 

If it comes down to one man, a manager will always be more important if he’s a good one. There is one manager. There are 25 members of a squad and a lot more players to transfer in and choose from. If that manager has a way of playing that he doesn’t really adapt then he becomes even more important than said player. Some managers play a lot of different ways, some play one way. Some like Rafa play one way with subtle tweaks. He’d argue his track record suggests he doesn’t need to change that to accommodate one player. All due to respect to Mitro he’s hardly Shearer. I’d prefer Rafa adapted to include him but not if that is going to be at the cost of the team. I think under Rafa it would be.