Aleksandar Mitrovic believes he can flourish in the top flight with Fulham – but has not set himself a goals target as he looks to prove his critics wrong.
The Serbian striker is loving life in London after being frozen out at Newcastle by Rafa Benitez – with his love for the game rekindled by his compatriot Slavisa Jokanovic at Craven Cottage.
“I never say I want to score 15 or 20 goals. Of course a striker wants to score as much as possible, it’s nice scoring goals, goals are like an addiction; when you score you want to keep doing more and more,” he adds. “But my target is to play and to help the team, to do my job as best as I can. I say that if the team play well and use me in the right way… the goals will come.”
Mitrovic admits he is enjoying playing for Jokanovic and Fulham, who seem to be set up to feed his strengths.
“To be honest the answer is yes. I had that time in Belgium with Anderlecht, but this is the first time in England that I feel really comfortable in the system and in the way we play. I think the manager and my team-mates … they all know my strengths and try to use them in the best way that they can. They play high with a lot of crosses, a lot of players around me, always around the box. I feel really comfortable in this combination and I think this is the reason I had a really good time last season.”
The striker feels there is plenty of improvement to come – even at the highest level – after his outstanding loan spell sparked Fulham’s 23-match unbeaten run that took them to the cusp of automatic promotion last season.
“I’m always looking forward and I try to continue to push myself and to do the best that I can. I had an amazing four months last year in the Championship and of course I want to continue this in the Premier League. I know it’s going to be hard, it’s a better league with much more quality but I know I have abilities, I have quality and of course I want to show everybody that I can play in the best league in the world, that’s normal. I say again: I want to score goals, I want to play, but the first thing is that this team is winning games and making good results. If the team plays well, the goals will come for sure.”
