After a debut season where he flashed potential, scoring nine goals in 34 Premier League games, Aleksandar Mitrovic was expected to be Newcastle’s leading marksman this season in firing them back to the Premier League.
Well, Newcastle are on course to achieve their target of promotion, sitting 11 points clear of third-placed Huddersfield, but Mitrovic has woefully underperformed with just four goals in 19 Championship games, of only eight of which have been starts.
Rafa Benitez has not held back with his criticism of Mitrovic at points this season and has (rightly) dropped him from the team when Dwight Gayle is finding the net with regularity.
Now, the 22-year-old has even fallen behind Daryl Murphy in the pecking order who was brought in to be a stand-in for the Serbian if need be, which has led some to believe Mitrovic’s days on Tyneside are numbered.
The £15.7m signing from Anderlecht in July 2015 didn’t feature in either of Newcastle’s wins over Brighton or Huddersfield, branded the club’s biggest games of the season, and Benitez has explained his rationale behind it.
Speaking ahead of Newcastle’s match with another promotion chaser, Reading, Benitez confirms that, again, Mitrovic won’t travel with the squad, claiming that Murphy’s form is keeping him out of the reckoning.
“No (he won’t be travelling), because we have to decide about the number of players and the strikers (who travel).
“Murphy has done really well and it’s a pity…because when Mitrovic was playing he was trying to do his best.
“But Murphy has done very well and we don’t have too many places for strikers so we have to leave Mitro out.”
It’s clear that Mitrovic has not lived up to his own price-tag or the expectations set of him by Benitez and it wouldn’t shock anyone to see him on the move in the summer.
