Aleksandar Mitrovic has gone backwards since joining Newcastle United, says Malcolm Macdonald
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Former Newcastle United striker Malcolm Macdonald has claimed that Aleksandar Mitrovic should be sold and stated that the Serbian “hasn’t got a clue”.
Mitrovic mustered just four goals in 25 appearances as Newcastle were promoted from the Championship. Macdonald was left unimpressed by Mitrovic, despite the fact that the 22-year-old is a fan favourite and is a key player for his country having scored nine goals in 28 appearances at international level.
Macdonald is one of Newcastle’s greatest ever strikers having found the net on 95 occasions for the club and, when asked whether he felt Mitrovic should have a future at St James’ Park, his response was clear.
He told Chronicle Live: “In a word, no to everything. I’d get him out as quickly as possible. He hasn’t got a clue the fella. He really hasn’t got a clue.
“Quite simply, when somebody’s knocking a ball up to him he doesn’t know how to plant his feet, put pressure on the centre-half marking him behind and be able to control the situation with his back, shoulders and arms.
“It’s not a foul, you can do that and just simply take it on the chest or come off and get your header.
“I don’t see Mitrovic heading the ball, I don’t see Mitrovic ever jumping. In the last game of the season he jumped twice and once headed the ball. I haven’t seen him jump any other time.
“He just doesn’t get it. He hasn’t got it in there (his brain) to be able to go and do it. He hasn’t improved in time he has been at Newcastle.
“You should be seeing rapid improvement. Usually over a season a player should improve leaps and bounds. Mitrovic, if anything, he’s gone backwards.
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“Whatever he’s done at international level is of no consequence to me or Newcastle, it’s what he does for Newcastle. Why he’s in the international side I don’t know, because it’s certainly not on the form he’s had with Newcastle. It’s got to be for something else. Past memories, whatever, I don’t know. Or a complete shortage of forwards.”
‘I would have been embarrassed to have been out there’
Macdonald feels that Mitrovic would be ill-equipped to cope in the Premier League despite the fact that the striker scored nine times in the top flight in the 2015/16 campaign.
“On what he’s done this past season I wouldn’t have him in the club, he’s just taking up room. Mitrovic in the Premier League, oh my word.
“He wasn’t able to do it at Championship level, he’s not going to do it at Premier League level. The quality of centre-halves, they’re too smart for him. They’ll just make him look a real fool, they really will.
“If he’s still at the club, what is the direction of the club? Where is it actually looking to go? Is Rafa keeping him there simply because he knows he can’t buy somebody else who’s better, who’s much better, who will go and do the job properly.
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“The crowd love him – quite for what I don’t know – whether they seem charging about, something will happen and he’ll interact with the crowd. That’s probably all he’s actually doing on the field, interacting with the crowd.
“Why not interact with his team-mates and interact with the opposing defenders and shock the life out of them. He’s not doing it.
“To finish with a tally of four goals, and I watched at the end of the season and you would have thought that he had finished the season with 25 goals, watching him strutting around. He’d had a nightmare.
In his position I would have been embarrassed to have been out there. I would have slunk away into the dressing room saying ‘leave it to the fellas who have actually played and done a bit.'”
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The arrival of Dwight Gayle certainly limited Mitrovic’s game time last season and it will be intriguing to see whether he will remain part of Rafael Benitez’s plans for the upcoming campaign.
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