Dear Premier League defenders, Aleksandar Mitrovic is back…

It was probably the Cruyff turn on Virgil van Dijk that really underlined that Aleksandar Mitrovic had returned to the Premier League with the bit between his teeth and a narrative to quash.

It was a moment that confounded the stereotypes of Serbia’s greatest marksman, a player known mainly for his brute force rather than his grace in possession.

But here he was, at a vibrant Craven Cottage basking in sunlight and unexpected optimism, driving at arguably the world’s best defender and about to send him searching for answers as the ball vanished from sight. Mitrovic had already shrugged off Jordan Henderson, sending him flying after collecting the ball on the edge of his own penalty area. Next, though, was Van Dijk, and a twist of the unexpected.

This was Mitrovic’s day and that meant it would be Fulham’s day, too. Marco Silva has long realised that to separate Mitrovic from Fulham’s on-field fortunes would be to take the spirit from the club’s soul. So instead, he has opted to build a team around his front man while adding more to his all-round game. It is becoming one of Silva’s finest achievements. That, and introducing a style of play that has brought a fearlessness to west London, so much so that Fulham left their first game back in the Premier League feeling short-changed despite securing a point against one of the world’s best teams.

Mitrovic and Fulham have their naysayers but with one performance, both at least challenged some preconceptions. Most had written off Fulham’s survival hopes before a ball had been kicked, perhaps not without reason. Silva had said the squad was “not ready” for the new season last week, and history does not exactly suggest that Fulham are a bastion of top-flight stability.

But the convincing nature of their performance, the well-defined playing identity nurtured across a season in the Championship, may just check a few of those predictions. Fulham were impressive and so too was the striker with a point to prove.

In truth, no one should be too surprised that Mitrovic scored twice against Liverpool. Since the start of last season, Mitrovic has scored 45 goals in English league football, 16 more than any other player. It is not like he stopped finding the back of the net over summer, either — he scored in each of Fulham’s three public pre-season friendlies that he started (four goals in total). 

His skill set is obvious and it is only now, under Silva, that those talents are being amplified while his game is refined. We saw the classic Mitrovic on Saturday, the physical force that can strike fear into defenders, but also a player who contributes more than just goals.

The first goal was a trademark. If Mitrovic could design a goal that would define his career then maybe this would be it. He stalks the penalty area at first, a predator biding his time before the opportune moment — namely, a delightful, looping cross from Kenny Tete.

Mitrovic targets the weakest of the opposition pack before overwhelming them with sheer force. This time, it was Trent Alexander-Arnold, and no image summarises exactly what happened for the first goal better than this…

His aerial work adds more than just goals and he was proactive defensively, and then essential in the final third. Mitrovic won 11 of his 14 aerial duels, far more than any other Premier League player on Saturday (the next best was Chris Mepham and Kai Havertz, who won five of their seven for Bournemouth and Chelsea). He also managed two successful dribbles, both against a player who has never previously lost a take-on and given away a penalty in the same game. Part two of when Virgil met Mitro.

The way Mitrovic dispatched the penalty spoke of a player with renewed belief, something that left him two years ago in his last Premier League campaign. Back then, The Athletic wrote why Mitrovic should not take penalties but now there is no doubt when he steps up to the ball. This is a player fully convinced of his abilities, full of the confidence instilled by his coach and his team-mates. It is the kind of belief that means you can hold possession in stoppage time by skipping past Joel Matip like a 5ft 5in winger…

But Silva was keen to point to something else at full-time — Mitrovic’s work rate. “Mitro is not just a goalscorer for us,” he said. “He did an unbelievable job this afternoon without the ball. Unbelievable. The way he pressed, the way he helped the midfielders, the back line as well…”

There is an assumption about Mitrovic that he does not work off the ball. True, he is not the kind of avid presser that Silva’s counterpart Jurgen Klopp would desire. In fact, in training, he is the type of player that team-mates probably do not want on their team for small-sided games. But he is fiercely respected — and loved — in the Fulham dressing room. Loved for his personality and his goalscoring, respected because he works hard, putting in the hours doing gym work and little extras to maintain those elite advantages. It just requires a coach to get the most out of him.

In a recent interview with The Times, Fulham chairman Shahid Khan said after pre-season that Mitrovic “would come back and be so heavy”. “Marco told him: ‘You’ve got to stay fit, you’ve got to lose weight, you’ve got to build muscle’, but he didn’t have any paunch on him or anything.” Khan’s visit followed a summer when Mitrovic was clipped on Instagram running up hills in Serbia, and he is known to take care of his diet. A full pre-season working under Bruno Mendes, the club’s head of physical performance, Goncalo Pedro, first-team fitness coach, and the rest of Silva’s team then followed.

“Mitro has his own profile,” said Silva on Saturday. “It is up to us to deliver for him and to take the best from him. In some games, he’ll score and in others, he will probably not score. So he has to do the other part of the game as well.”

That was evident on Saturday as Mitrovic formed a key part of a tactical set-up designed to stop Liverpool from breaking the Fulham lines. Mitrovic and Andreas Pereira, whose tireless running aided the Fulham striker, were the front edge of a well-choreographed 4-4-2 shape out of possession (see below). Mitrovic screened Fabinho and Thiago or whoever dared drift away from Joao Palhinha and his partner-in-chief Harrison Reed, while triggering the press when the ball went into wide areas.

This was a crucial part of a performance that set the tone for Fulham’s season, in a positive way. The last time they were promoted, they were humbled 3-0 by Arsenal in their opening game and looked a class apart for the wrong reasons.

This time, the first game brought hope. There is so much more football to play, and a squad that still needs recruits.

But a marker has been laid down. And for Mitrovic, a statement of intent.

(Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)