Mitrovic last season in the Premier league with a mere 3 goals was very much a disappointment for FPL managers and much like this coming season it happened on the back of a strong showing in the Championship the season before, which last time around built up a band wagon before the season had even started. Its easy to let recency bias of previous seasons effect our judgment of a players abilities, so this article will look at his appearances in the Premier league on a whole to allow managers to have a wider view of his ability to perform in the top flight.
Mitrovic first appearance in the Premier League was at Newcastle aged just 21 in the 15/16 season. In the opening two games of the season he played a combined 23 mins across both games and managed a yellow card in both before he was sent off at 16 mins in the fourth game in a 1-0 loss at Arsenal. He went on to play over 2,100 minutes appearing in a total of 34 games, staring 22, scoring 9 goals and making 4 assists. Newcastle finished the season in 18th and 2 points behind close rivals Sunderland.
His next appearance in the Premier League was in the 17/18 season however hampered by a 3 match ban for violent conduct and a back injury he featured in just 6 games contributing a single goal in 152 minutes before being sold to Fulham in the January transfer window. He went on to scored12 goals and one assist in 17 games to help Fulham secure promotion from the Championship and back into the Premier league.
The 18/19 Season saw Mitrovic hit the ground running with 5 goals in the opening 6 games. In total he started 37 games and was only subbed off on two occasions finishing the season with 11 goals in 3,281 minutes along with 3 assists. However that was not enough to maintain Fulham's Premier League status who where relegated after finishing in19th.
The 19/20 season, at the time was Mitrovic's best season in English football to date, finishing with a goal tally of 26 with 2 assists helping Fulham return back to the top flight at the first time of asking. Many FPL managers where keen to bring him in, remembering his explosive start the last time Fulham where in the Premier league. Benched for the season opener at Arsenal he quickly made up for it with a brace at Leeds however it was disappointment from there on out with his season hampered by muscle tissue injuries, Achilles tendon problems and catching Covid-19 along with falling outs with then manager Scott parker. All this meant his minuets on the pitch where down considerably across the season. Between his brace in GW2 and his 3rd and last goal of the season in GW30 at Aston Vila he made just ten starts. Fulham where yet again relegated back to the 2nd tier and poor season for the Club cost Scott Parker his job as Head Coach.
July 21 and Fulham appoint Marco Silva as head coach for the 21/22 campaign with a goal of securing promotion back into the Premier League. Silva came with a reputation for high intensity attacking football with a philosophy for positional play which has allowed Fulham to dominate possession and this led them to score 106 goals with Mitrovic involved in 50 of them scoring 43 himself and assisting 7 others eclipsing his 19/20 season performance.
With Fulham securing their position back in the top flight FPL managers now once again find themselves asking, is Mitrovic a good pick?
With 104 Premier League appearances to his name over 4 seasons he certainly isn't unfamiliar to the competition and its standards. Over that time on average he has been involved in a goal on average every 3 games having amassed a total of 24 goals and 3 assists to date in his time in the top flight. He has certainly shown he has the credentials to at times perform at this level but equally he has shown poor discipline and injuries can just as easily derail his season. Under Silva with his style of football and the sense of identity he has built at Fulham we can expect him to at lest have every opportunity to show that he can do it.
Looking at his past data it’s fair to expect him to score somewhere between 10 - 15 goals next season. Assuming he keeps his nose clean and doesn’t pick up any major injuries. That’s a similar sort of return rate we have seen regularly from players like Woods during his time at Burnley so it’s likely he will priced in the 6.5 m- 7m bracket which would certainly offer value to FPL managers.
