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Aleksandar Mitrovic takes up anger management

8 years ago
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Aleksandar Mitrovic has turned to anger management to get his Newcastle career up and running again.

The Serbian striker says that he was angry at being left on the bench in recent matches but has chanelled that in a positive way, saying that he respects both Steve McClaren and Papiss Cisse who took his place, and just waited for his moment to prove himself again.

Before arriving onto the pitch with 16 minutes to go and helping to neat Tottenham, Mitrovic’s last contribution had been as a starter against Leicester.

On the back of an international break which had been nothing but bad news for the number 45, Mitrovic had a shocked against Leicester (along with many others) and was subbed after an hour for Papiss Cisse.

The 21 year old was then left on the bench against both Palace and Liverpool, before his late show at Tottenham.

Looking a bit fitter than he has done previously, though still with a way to go judging by the way he was blowing after a few runs on Sunday…,Mitrovic made a huge difference along with Ayoze Perez.

As well as his hold-up play and involvement in both goals, Mitrovic also added a certain something to the team when he squared up to Delle Alli (see above) and put him in his place. The young England player certainly appearing to have a bit of an attitude as well as talent, with him taking the odd liberty with certain Newcastle players until Mitrovic arrived on the pitch.

The centre forward has talked a lot about mentality and for most strikers, including him for sure, a lot of the game appears to be in his head. As a player who has scored the majority of goals with his head in the past, adapting to Newcastle playing with little width and no wingers to put in crosses appeared to drain his enthusiasm before he was dropped.

However, now there appears to be clear signs of that enthusiasm reappearing and like the rest of us he sees the way forward being for Newcastle to press the opposition and ‘play football’, which they did against Liverpool and in the second half at White Hart Lane, whereas previous matches and that first half against Spurs have seen Steve McClaren and his players handing the initiative and easy possession to the opposition.

Aleksandar Mitrovic:

“I was angry because I spent two games on the bench and I wanted to show that I deserved to play

“I didn’t say anything because I respect Papiss Cisse and he played really well in the previous two weeks and he scored against Crystal Palace.

 “I respect the coach, so I didn’t say anything and waited for my moment, and it came. It is hard for anybody to be on the bench but I worked hard and waited for my moment.

 “We were under a lot of pressure after two bad results and disappointed because we know that we have the quality to play good football and be in the top ten…we don’t know why we lost those games in that way.

“We changed our mentality, the gaffer spoke a lot with the players and we showed that we’ve got the ability to play against big teams and change the game. Against Leicester we were 1-0 down and we didn’t do anything to change it but at Tottenham we showed we could change the game.

“We need to press and to play football because we have very good players who know how to play, we need to use that and play every game like this.

“We have had two wins in a row and we have to continue this form. It’s a long season and we need to work hard and prepare for every game like we did this one.

 “Every game I want to prove myself and I was concentrating on trying to score goals, I scored against Man City and Norwich – it is the best feeling when you score and when you win in the last minute.”

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