Quote:
Originally Posted by royalblue
Björn's been claiming it's because Mitrovic doesn't have pace and Benitez doesn't know what to do with him on twitter just now.
No stats in this world will convince me that Joselu is any good
Yeah and I don't think it's just (over) relying on counter-attacking from those shut down central spaces Benitez (almost late 90s hockey trap like) obsess over but also how mobile front players need to cover those making things as tight as possible.
It is what it is and used to rule football I guess and has a place still. It's just frustrating when it hurts actual good talent that he has to work with. That probably could make the team better.
Hamsik when Benitez was Napoli coach the prime example (as a front player he couldn't cover defensively those spaces tightly enough or be off ball threat attacking from relative deep compared to up high now under Sarri and Benitez didn't really trust him in central midfield either).
Based on early talent shown and what Mitrovic still does for his national team, I think there is a more than good chance that Mitrovic could make Newcastle better but yeah, for it to really happen it would require something of an overhaul setup wise.
Of course plenty of PL or Championship managers would just use him as a target-man within the 2nd-ball style of play. That would be better than the current nothing of course but I suspect he has more to offer than that also.