Slavisa Jokanovic "unhappy" with Serbia for treatment of Aleksandar Mitrovic

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 30 March 2018

Slavisa Jokanovic is "unhappy" with Serbia boss Mladen Krstajic after on-loan striker Aleksandar Mitrovic was used for all 180 minutes of their recently friendlies.

Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic has hit out at Serbia for using Aleksandar Mitrovic in both of their recent international friendlies.

The 23-year-old played the full 90 minutes of last Friday's 2-0 loss to Morocco and likewise in the 2-0 win over Nigeria four days later.

Mitrovic, who has seven goals in nine Championship outings for Fulham since arriving on loan from Newcastle United, maintained his impressive form with two more strikes over the international break.

Jokanovic has thanked the managers of Scotland and England Under-21s for being smart with their selection process, but the Serb could not hide his disappointment with Eagles boss Mladen Krstajic for breaking a promise.

"I am happy with [Mitrovic], he played a very good game," he told reporters ahead of Friday afternoon's meeting with Norwich City. "I am happy with the respect from Alex McLeish, for bringing my players and using them and giving them a rest. I am really happy with coach of the U21s, Aidy Boothroyd, who used Ryan Sessegnon and understood that this guy had been charged with many games by us.

"For another side, I don't have any comment about the respect that the Serbia national team showed to myself and my players. I am very happy for [Mitrovic] that he scored the goals and I am very happy for the national team who won the games. It's very important to have words, and my word has value and when you promise me something and you are a liar, I am sometimes really unsatisfied.

"I am unhappy because Mitrovic played two games and I expect he will be really good player for the national team and expect he will score in all the games in front of him for Serbia but in this moment, the only player that played 90 minutes in the two games was him.

"I am not satisfied, this is my personal feeling. I am not coach there, but I ask something, they answer me something, but the words are not important with these people."

Jokanovic was in attendance at Barnet's Hive Stadium for Serbia's victory over Nigeria on Tuesday evening.