On-Loan Fulham Ace Mitrovic Takes Swipe at Rafa Benitez Over Newcastle Tactical Approach

Aleksandar Mitrovic appears to have burnt his Newcastle United bridges after he admitted that he is 'enjoying' his football more while on loan at Fulham.

The Magpies loanee has bagged three goals in as many matches for the Championship promotion hopefuls, after he fell out of favour at St. James' Park under Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez.

Speaking in quotes published by the Northern Echo, Mitrovic explained how Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic had got his side playing better football than that on show in the north east, as he threw shade at Benitez for the tactics he employs.

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The Serbia international remarked: “It’s a different style we play here. The players enjoy the football more than last season with Newcastle, where we knew how we wanted to play.

“We always played on the results [at Newcastle] – that’s it. [At Fulham], we always try to score more goals than the opponent – Newcastle was more tactically [set up].

“We didn’t play as much attacking football as we play now. Obviously, it worked because Newcastle were promoted last season. I hope we are promoted again with Fulham.”

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The 23-year-old joined the Cottagers on transfer deadline day in January, after a move to Anderlecht fell through due to Newcastle's monetary demands, and he had seemed certain to join north east rivals Middlesbrough on a six-month loan until Fulham came calling.

It proved to be a last-minute decision that has paid dividends for Mitrovic due to his recent goalscoring form. He has revealed why he had opted to choose playing at Craven Cottage over the Riverside Stadium:

He added: “Last season, I really followed Fulham. They were the best team to watch in the Championship – we are continuing like this. I really enjoy it, and I want to help my team-mates get promoted this season.

“That’s the reason why I came here – the style, the players, always attacking, always trying to score one more than your opponents, always with a lot of possession

"This is the reason at the moment we are doing well. We know what to do, we know how to play, we know where we want to be.

"It’s not too much pressure - we want to go game by game. We know we have 11 games, we will do everything we can and we want to be there come the last game."