Aleksandr Mitrovic feels Fulham are a better footballing side than the Newcastle team that he helped win the Championship title last season.
The Serbian striker, aiming for a second successive promotion to the Premier League now he is on loan at Craven Cottage, claims that Slavisa Jokanovic’s side are more adventurous and attacking than the outfit that Rafa Benitez led out of the English second tier last term. Mitrovic, who scored his third goal in as many games as the Whites won at Pride Park yesterday to move above opponents Derby County into fourth place, told the Daily Mail:
"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 – that’s it.
"This season, this team, 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.
"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. 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. I want to help my team-mates get promoted this season. 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."
Mitrovic also added his voice to the growing clamour for Gareth Southgate to include Fulham teenager Ryan Sessegnon in his England plans. The 17 year-old scored his fourteenth goal of the season to double the Londoners’ lead at Derby and Mitrovic, who is hoping to led Serbia’s attack at the World Cup, hopes his Fulham team-mate can join him in Russia this summer:
"He deserves to be there. There are not so many players on the left wing who score goals like him. I can’t think now who is in better form than him."