Finally back in the right direction, not just for him, but for the team as well?
That’s the scenario that Fulham forward Aleksander Mitrovic finds himself in right now. Having not got off to the greatest of starts this season in the league, we just weren’t seeing the Mitrovic that we have been the previous couple of seasons when he has been banging in goals for fun.
It was a point that was raised in a recent episode of the Fulham Focus podcast, in that perhaps there is a lack of confidence from the Serbian so far this season and that rather than trying to get back into the swing of things by just looking to score, he can get that back by helping the team win and setting goals up instead. Lo and behold, take a look at what happened on Monday night, two goals for Fulham, with both of them being assisted by our number nine.
Raised in the Focus review of the game, Don Love pointed out that it was a little bit of a change of pace from him in that usually he tends to be quite selfish with those chances (hence his goal tally in recent years), but that fact he was able to look around and see he had other options in Bobby Decordova-Reid and lay it off for him shows he might start looking at a more team-first approach in the future.
Is Aleksandar Mitrovic our most important player?
Yes
No
And that’s something that can only help us going forward.
Given we tend to play with two deep midfielders, and the wingers tend to stay out wide for the most part, Mitrovic does tend to be isolated up there, so perhaps that’s why he’s always felt the responsibility to take chances. But if we can get players around him to give him options, then we start opening up the possibility of more goals for the rest of the team.
And once he’s happy with winning, hopefully his confidence will be up enough so he doesn’t miss chances like the one he did against Crystal Palace.
What about you? What do you make of Mitrovic’s form so far this season?