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Tyne Talk

‘Never’ is a long time for Aleksandar Mitrovic

8 years ago
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Aleksandar Mitrovic has made a promise that he can never keep.

The Newcastle number 45 has pledged that he will ‘never’ repeat his red card against Arsenal.

The striker says that he found it ‘very difficult to watch’ the matches whilst he was suspended, which I think is a sentiment the rest of us can all share.

Defeats by West Ham, Watford and Sheffield Wednesday Reserves, saw Newcastle sink lower and lower with each defeat.

However, for a player who gathered 47 yellow and 6 red cards before he turned 21, it is all a bit unrealistic to suggest that he has suddenly seen the light and will be a totally different type of character/striker.

What I think it is realistic to expect as supporters, is that Mitrovic keeps his play within certain guidelines, which attempt to rule out stupidity.

His game is built largely on physical play and challenging for the ball but he has to be clever about it, yellow cards will still definitely come and no doubt the very odd red will happen, that comes with the territory.

With Newcastle looking clueless without Mitrovic and Steve McClaren and his staff happy to say that the Serbian striker is essential to the way they want to play, let’s hope Mitrovic doesn’t let the Premier League cheats and wind-up merchants get to him.

The centre-forward looks set to be joined at the Etihad by somebody else with a little experience of referees, Cheick Tiote set to replace the injured Jack Colback if as expected, he doesn’t make it after not training all week.

Aleksandar Mitrovic:

“Very difficult to watch the game and not play – very difficult.

“But now I’m back and I learned a lot from the last weeks and I will never do the same again….”

These are the rules:

“We showed (against Chelsea) that we can play against big teams, we have another difficult game but we need to go there (Etihad) to try to play football and win the game.

“I am not the first, nor the last, who will get a red card but these are the rules here and we have to respect them.”

An ok game:

 “I was very controlled (v Chelsea), I got a red card (v Arsenal) because I wanted to take the ball, I didn’t want to kick anybody.

“I don’t want to get red carded and I think I was controlled and I stayed on the ground all game. I tried to play a good performance, an ok game but I didn’t score a goal – that is my job but I will still keep working and I hope in the next game I will score.”

Aggression v control:

“Of course (need aggression), it is very difficult when you get a lot of kicks from defenders and it’s hard to think how to score goals.

“They kick you all game but that is my position and I need to keep working on that, also on my mental training, I think I showed I can be controlled.”

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