Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has responded to the comments made by striker Aleksandar Mitrovic regarding the Magpies' style of play following an impressive start to his life at Fulham.
The 23-year-old arrived at St James' Park from Anderlecht in the summer of 2015. He signed a five-year deal with the English club and also played a role in helping the club achieve promotion to the Premier League under the Spaniard's guidance.
Mitrovic struggled to impress in England's top flight club competition. This saw the former Liverpool manager sanction the Serbian international's loan move to Fulham in the January transfer window. He hit the ground running for the Cottagers, scoring five goals in their last four matches.
The striker stressed that Fulham's attacking style of play suits him more than Newcastle's system, which according to Mitrovic is "too tactical." Benitez has hit back at comments made by the Fulham attacker and even aimed a dig at him by suggesting "even Daryl Murphy scored six goals."
Benitez was quoted by the Chronicle Live as saying: "As I've said before, I hope he scores 20 goals. That will be much better for him and for us. But it's a question that we have to ask in May.
"The other thing, we were the best team in the Championship, so I don't want people to have the wrong idea. We were the best in the Championship. We scored more goals than anyone - 85, like Fulham and Norwich. We conceded fewer goals than anyone - 40 like Brighton - so we were the best team.
"We won the title, we had more shots on target than anyone, so we were attacking, we were second for crosses, so we were attacking and crossing.
"Our style of football was very offensive and we had one key player - and that was Dwight Gayle. He scored 23 goals even when he was two months without playing. Even Daryl Murphy scored six goals."
