Stefan Mitrovic

[El Hombre]

13 minutes ago, Obinna said:

If we take the cynical view and say that's what he's doing, Serbia would still need to bite. Will they bother to cap him this close to world cup just over this little bit of pressure? I don't know the Serbian team enough to say, but I imagine that calling him, in when they otherwise wouldn't, takes the spot from another player who would otherwise be included. That makes it iffy that Serbia bothers to calls him, at least in my mind. There is no shortage of young attacking midfielders in their youth ranks.

But couldn't you say the same about Canada?

I think it's in the eye of the beholder: I rate him much less than many around here so that's probably why I read it the way I do.

[jordan]

Was anyone expecting him to come out and commit to anything after getting asked that on camera? 

[MauditYvon]

26 minutes ago, jordan said:

Was anyone expecting him to come out and commit to anything after getting asked that on camera? 

No..?

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, El Hombre said:

But couldn't you say the same about Canada?

I think it's in the eye of the beholder: I rate him much less than many around here so that's probably why I read it the way I do.

Somewhat, but not entirely

Mitrovic has started the season brightly for a Europa League team. The biggest side in Europe Serbia (lol what a typo), where our starting keeper also plays. He's scored 2 goals in 5 games, mostly from the bench. I haven't watched any of his games, but statistically that warrants a call to a side like Canada. It doesn't warrant a call to Serbia however, so that's where it's different and why I wouldn't say it's the same thing.

For Canada, Mitrovic hypothetically takes the place of another player by merit, but for Serbia he wouldn't, since the call would be the result of Serbia's hand being forced, not his play on the pitch. Does that make sense?

I think there's a valid argument that between Millar, Corbeanu and Mitrovic, it's Stef that edges it out for the most impressive start to the season. Champions League qualifiers trump Conference League qualifiers, and Red Star has impressed domestically, whereas Basel has struggled. Corbeanu is playing in a better league, but without the European competition (FWIW). 

To be fair to your point, I would personally pick Mitrovic if I had to choose one, but that would be for a cynical cap tie (which seems to be your argument).

But counter-argument to that: We'd have to "slightly lean" Mitrovic for the cap-tie, but for Serbia to prioritize him for the cap-tie they'd have to leapfrog him over a ton of players, and that would be outrageous by comparison  Or put another way, putting the cap-tie aside, I can convince myself there's a real argument to call Mitrovic to Canada, but I cannot do it for Serbia. There are just so many other deserving players ahead of him. That makes it different, for me at least. 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Obinna

[DeRo_Is_King]

1 hour ago, frmr said:

...how would you prefer they talked?

Probably that they are humbled any senior national team is interested, but honestly, I think Stefan is playing at a decent enough level to be considering his options. He's done well. 

[jordan]

29 minutes ago, MauditYvon said:

No..?

That’s what I would have thought, but there seems to be questions around the 20 words he said.

[frmr]

1 hour ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

Probably that they are humbled any senior national team is interested, but honestly, I think Stefan is playing at a decent enough level to be considering his options. He's done well. 

He seemed pretty matter-of-fact in his statement.

[TOcanadafan]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

 

Mitrovic has started the season brightly for a Europa League team. The biggest side in Europe Serbia (lol what a typo), where our starting keeper also plays. He's scored 2 goals in 5 games, mostly from the bench. I haven't watched any of his games, but statistically that warrants a call to a side like Canada. It doesn't warrant a call to Serbia however, so that's where it's different and why I wouldn't say it's the same thing.

For Canada, Mitrovic hypothetically takes the place of another player by merit, but for Serbia he wouldn't, since the call would be the result of Serbia's hand being forced, not his play on the pitch. Does that make sense?

I think there's a valid argument that between Millar, Corbeanu and Mitrovic, it's Stef that edges it out for the most impressive start to the season. Champions League qualifiers trump Conference League qualifiers, and Red Star has impressed domestically, whereas Basel has struggled. Corbeanu is playing in a better league, but without the European competition (FWIW). 

 

To start off, I do think he deserves a shot just to see how he compares, but to say he’s above Liam or Theo is a bit too much I think.   Liam got 10 goals in all competitions last year and started regularly for a top team in the Swiss league which is well ahead of the Serbian league.  Theo has history with the CMNT and is doing well for a Championship team. Stef just got transferred to Red Star and in the crucial CL match did nothing in his first appearance off the bench and didn’t even see the field in the 2nd.  Red Star lost to an Israeli team who is propelled by a Haitian and Surinamese.  Some of these European teams who are miles ahead of their competition in their domestic league, like Red Star, essentially get auto berths into CL play, so they get a bump in profile, when in actuality they aren’t that strong.    

[InglewoodJack]

3 hours ago, El Hombre said:

But couldn't you say the same about Canada?

I think it's in the eye of the beholder: I rate him much less than many around here so that's probably why I read it the way I do.

You can, but Serbia’s national team is largely comprised of top 5 league players. With Serbia, Mitrovic is competing mostly against guys in Italy, spain, top Portuguese and Dutch clubs. Even if Canada calls him up to cap tie him, the difference between him and the guy he’s replacing is a lot closer.

Edited September 2, 2022 by InglewoodJack

[Obinna]

2 hours ago, TOcanadafan said:

To start off, I do think he deserves a shot just to see how he compares, but to say he’s above Liam or Theo is a bit too much I think.   Liam got 10 goals in all competitions last year and started regularly for a top team in the Swiss league which is well ahead of the Serbian league.  Theo has history with the CMNT and is doing well for a Championship team. Stef just got transferred to Red Star and in the crucial CL match did nothing in his first appearance off the bench and didn’t even see the field in the 2nd.  Red Star lost to an Israeli team who is propelled by a Haitian and Surinamese.  Some of these European teams who are miles ahead of their competition in their domestic league, like Red Star, essentially get auto berths into CL play, so they get a bump in profile, when in actuality they aren’t that strong.    

I wouldn't say he's necessarily above Liam or Theo. To be honest I haven't watched him play for Red Star yet.

What I would say is that if I judge each of their 2022-23 seasons thus far, I can be convinced Mitrovic has had the most impressive start.

I don't think the Swiss League is heights above the Serbian league. They strike me as being of similar levels. Maybe there is more parity in Switzerland, but I see that Serbia is ranked 11th based on UEFA coefficient, while Switzerland is ranked 13th. Basel (to my surprise) have a ranking of 29th, better than Red Star's 36, but I don't know how much stock I put in that when Marseille is 38, Valencia is 43, Club Brugge is 44, and Lille is 56th. Is Basel really better than all those teams? Not convinced they are. 

At any rate, I won't argue much further for a player I have yet to see play this season. We seem to agree that he deserves a shot. We won't really know how he stacks up compared to Theo and Liam until he plays for Canada. Just based on what I am hearing though, I expect him to be a similar level player. Whether he is slightly better or slightly worse remains to be seen. Either way it'll be a good pick up for Canada if it happens. Fingers crossed.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Obinna

[kacbru]

You are all wasting your time here. Papa Mitrovic has a big twitter rant all set up for the big reveal that Stef was born to a Honduran mother, and because Serbia and Canada have disrespected him, that's who he will play for. 

[Stoppage Time]

The September friendlies provide a last opportunity to check out last minute adds to the roster, particularly if the roster is 27 players. Waterman, Kone, Mitrovic, Corbeanu, Koleosho, and Millar could conceivably be added to the September roster at the present expense of (a suspended?) Cavalinni, an injured Osorio, an injured Buchanan, and a non-playing Henry. Not all will impress enough, but all will have the chance to establish continuity on the team for the future.

[DeRo_Is_King]

6 hours ago, frmr said:

7 hours ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

Probably that they are humbled any senior national team is interested, but honestly, I think Stefan is playing at a decent enough level to be considering his options. He's done well. 

He seemed pretty matter-of-fact in his statement.

For sure.

[jordan]

In the end it would have been easy to commit to Serbia on Crvena Zvezda tv but he didn’t,  he did mention the other option though

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

10 hours ago, InglewoodJack said:

You can, but Serbia’s national team is largely comprised of top 5 league players. With Serbia, Mitrovic is competing mostly against guys in Italy, spain, top Portuguese and Dutch clubs. Even if Canada calls him up to cap tie him, the difference between him and the guy he’s replacing is a lot closer.

With Serbia he could easily be the next Teal Bunbury if selected. Briefly the flavour of the month in USMNT selection terms then a non-factor for the rest of his career when Canada would probably have capped him much more often

[DeRo_Is_King]

On the bench for Red Star vs Backa Topola. 

Edited September 4, 2022 by DeRo_Is_King

[Joe MacCarthy]

Just pondering about this when reading Mitrovic's quote.  I believe the Code of the Shirt implies coming to play games that you might not wanna play.  Except for one notable exception (who is no longer with the team) most of the players did fulfill that obligation.  Are Stefan and Uncle Ivan up for that?  With all the drama already, and him not even being on the team I have to wonder.

[frmr]

24 minutes ago, Joe MacCarthy said:

Just pondering about this when reading Mitrovic's quote.  I believe the Code of the Shirt implies coming to play games that you might not wanna play.  Except for one notable exception (who is no longer with the team) most of the players did fulfill that obligation.  Are Stefan and Uncle Ivan up for that?  With all the drama already, and him not even being on the team I have to wonder.

To be fair, the drama has been around fans, users on this board, and his dad, not the player himself. No reason to assume that he wouldn't be 100% committed if he were to accept the invitation to be a Canada international.

[SoCalTransport]

On 9/3/2022 at 3:32 AM, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

With Serbia he could easily be the next Teal Bunbury if selected. Briefly the flavour of the month in USMNT selection terms then a non-factor for the rest of his career when Canada would probably have capped him much more often

This is another debate, but I believe Teal would have had a similar fate to what Tesho has now with Canada. Considering the talent up front currently.

[VinceA]

9 hours ago, SoCalTransport said:

This is another debate, but I believe Teal would have had a similar fate to what Tesho has now with Canada. Considering the talent up front currently.

I mean Teal would probably have 50+ caps by the time he would have been phased out by Canada.

[Ruud]

18 hours ago, SoCalTransport said:

This is another debate, but I believe Teal would have had a similar fate to what Tesho has now with Canada. Considering the talent up front currently.

Tesho has a solid 19 caps and has shown up when asked on some big games. Shame he’s just off the radar now but let’s not disrespect a very solid player for club and country for a while. Had things gone differently he could have had a few call ups 

[Bison44]

2 hours ago, Ruud said:

Tesho has a solid 19 caps and has shown up when asked on some big games. Shame he’s just off the radar now but let’s not disrespect a very solid player for club and country for a while. Had things gone differently he could have had a few call ups 

Still could, he is only 30, he isnt that far off, he got 5 games in the last couple years, including last years GC. 

[dyslexic nam]

13 hours ago, Bison44 said:

Still could, he is only 30, he isnt that far off, he got 5 games in the last couple years, including last years GC. 

I don’t really see it happening. With all the young blood we have coming up in attacking positions, and the need to think about 2026, I think everything after the WC will focus on the next generation when it comes to any fringe spots.   I suspect we may even see a fairly immediate exit for a few vets who know they won’t be around next cycle - Hutch, Vitoria and Hoilett come to mind.  

[VinceA]

16 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I don’t really see it happening. With all the young blood we have coming up in attacking positions, and the need to think about 2026, I think everything after the WC will focus on the next generation when it comes to any fringe spots.   I suspect we may even see a fairly immediate exit for a few vets who know they won’t be around next cycle - Hutch, Vitoria and Hoilett come to mind.  

I could see one last hurrah for the Nations League and the 2023 Gold Cup as we can win that tournament. Also most of these player's club deals end in Summer 2023 so it's a fitting time frame if they're still playing regularly week in week out come Gold Cup time.

[InglewoodJack]

Hard to see older MLS guys like Tesho make the NT barring a million injuries. There will only be more and more Stefan Mitrovics to cap tie every year from now on, and I can't think of a situation in which a guy like that could make the team over a more exciting europe based or highly touted prospect.