Marco Silva has no doubts about Aleksandar Mitrovic’s commitment to Fulham as he prepares to include the Serbian in his matchday squad for Saturday’s Premier League opener at Everton.
The Fulham head coach dispelled a number of inaccurate stories during his pre-match press conference at Motspur Park this afternoon – confirming that the talismanic number nine will be making the trip to Merseyside. Silva said:
“He is ready to play and I’m one hundred per cent sure he is committed to us. We had a moment where I spoke with him. I know him very, very well. I will not hide from you that one offer that he received made him think, made him probably take some type of decisions.
About not playing one more minute for Fulham, he never said [that] to anyone inside this football club. If this is what the press said or what his relatives said, I’m not sure. For me and for the club, he never mentioned that. Never. But okay, people can say what they want. It was a situation where he had a clear offer from a club, a very good offer for him, and sometimes it’s not easy for them to keep the focus, even if you want them to keep the focus. Since he started to work with his teammates again, on the pitch again, he’s been the Mitrovi? that I know.”
Silva also reiterated that, as well as his substitute appearance in last weekend’s pre-season friendly against Hoffenheim, Mitrovic came through an hour of a behind-closed-doors game against the same opposition the previous day.
“Mitro was able to play two games last week. He played behind closed doors 60 minutes against Hoffenheim. We played two games against Hoffenheim last week. And, after, he played 30 minutes against Hoffenheim again at the Cottage. We wanted to give him at least 90 minutes in two days and we did it, like we did with Andreas Pereira, like we did with Tim Ream. This week again he was working every single day with his teammates. And that’s it. He’s ready to play, if I’m going to decide to start with him or not.”
