Rafa said this about Mitro at a charity do at Tyneside Cinema last month. Apologies if this has already been posted as it's not brand new, but Rafa seems to state he does rate Mitro and is willing to play him as a sub when we need a goal, but he suits playing in a good team and not a shite one like we have now.
“Mitro – I have had a lot of conversations with him. He needed to play and I couldn’t guarantee he would play.
“Some people say ‘Oh Rafa is stubborn and he doesn’t want to recognise he made a mistake’. No, it’s not like this. Because if it was like this I wouldn’t play Mitro at all. But I was playing him, sometimes for 20 minutes. Why? Because I wanted him to score the winning goal.
“People forget one thing: the players who play or are on the bench or on the stands but the manager is involved in every single game and I want to win every single game. For me, it’s about picking the right team to ensure we can win.
“Mitro needed to play. I couldn’t guarantee the way that we wanted to play (he would play). If you know Mitro really well – if you attack and you create a lot of chances and crosses he will score goals, no doubt that. But a team that has 40-45 or even 35% possession in some games, you have to defend in some games, you have to play counter-attack. If you don’t have all these players who can do that and you have to sacrifice something.
“We were talking about the main thing of this team – it is the team, the organisation of the team. If we don’t do that, we will be exposed. When we went 1-0 up against Man United (in the Old Trafford game) or Chelsea, we were a little bit open and we conceded.
“In the FA Cup against Chelsea we had to attack in the second half so we were open and we conceded. We couldn’t manage it. The team is the key and the characteristic of the players are crucial. For me, I have to do the best for both.”