Rafa not missing Mitrovic just yet
RAFA BENITEZ says Newcastle were right to sell striker Aleksander Mitrovic.
Benitez will be reunited with Mitrovic today when Newcastle take on Fulham and the Toon manager said: “He is doing well for Fulham so has nothing to prove. But for us, we needed something different. We needed more mobility.
“Were we right or wrong to let him go? We got promoted, we were right. Then we finished 10th, so we were right again. Now we are ahead of Fulham so at the moment, we are still right. We are doing well without him.”
Benitez also revealed his love for British sitcoms, saying: “When I first came over I enjoyed watching Father Ted and Fawlty Towers with the waiter who was supposed to be Spanish but sounded more Italian.
“Only Fools And Horses is a big favourite and I also liked My Family, Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley. And I love the “Don’t Panic, don’t panic” in Dad’s Army. I watched them all – they’re great fun.
“My English was poor when I arrived but I used to listen to the Beatles to improve it and then I watched these programmes to relax, though I couldn’t always understand the Peckham accent.”
Fulham boss Claudio Ranieri wants his players to forget that their league position and play with confidence.
He knows it will be hard to ignore the fact that they are bottom of the Premier League but he insists that could be a blessing in
NEWCASTLE FULHAM
Vdisguise because the only way is up. “I don’t want them to think, ‘We are bottom’ although everybody knows,” said Ranieri.
“If you think, ‘We are bottom’ it’s not good. It’s important to think, ‘What can we do more?’”
Cutting out the errors that cost goals in the 2-0 home defeat by West Ham a week ago will be a start. And positive thinking.
“We play well, yes, but we make mistakes,” said Ranieri. “We have to improve the little details. I tell the players, ‘We made two mistakes, West Ham shot four times and scored two goals. We shot 16 times and didn’t score a goal’.
“But if you watch all the matches in the Premier League or in every country you see, in a defensive way, all the teams make mistakes.
“In this moment when we make one mistake it’s a goal. But maybe there will arrive the moment when our opponents miss a chance, an easy chance, and we win the match. But you must continue to believe. You must be positive.
“If you are negative that is a problem for the manager, for the players, for the team, everybody. For the man. Then the negative arrives.
“If you are positive, the negative can still arrive but you are strong and you try to get over it. That is my idea, not just about football but about life.”