McClaren: Mitrovic isn’t aggressive, he’s enthusiastic

The Serbian was also booked seconds into his debut against Southampton.

STEVE McCLAREN claims it was an “easy decision” to pick Gabriel Obertan for the opening game of the season – and has pledged to continue selecting the Newcastle winger if he maintains the standards he set against Southampton.

“I met the owner last week”, said McClaren.

McClaren said: ‘The nature of the game is changing. I think, like everything, we have to learn emotional control. We all have to do that.

“I don’t think you can judge us today – we didn’t learn anything at all about the team”. “I couldn’t tell you yes or no. Just at the present moment, we will go on with what we have got”. “To curb it you take 50 per cent of their game away”. Mitrovic is a young man but he needs to control that and be smart with referees and opponents. But they are being professional and carrying on with their jobs.

He insists he would have had no problem had McClaren looked elsewhere, but is delighted that he did not.

“He’s a physical player and we can’t take that away from him”.

Last weekend, Jack Colback was the only English player in the Magpies’ starting line-up – no Premier League team had fewer domestic starters – and while the midfielder was a boyhood Newcastle fan, his early days were spent in Sunderland’s Academy of Light rather than at his current club’s training ground.

Cisse was largely anonymous though, with the Number 9 feeding off scraps before being replaced after just 54 minutes at the Liberty Stadium, Rolando Aarons on to replace him with Newcastle 2-0 down.

Newcastle make the trip to Wales to face Swansea City on Saturday.

This time it took 91 seconds for him to get his yellow card, with the substitute guilty of fouling Neil Taylor before launching into an animated protest.

He felt his side had begun to grow into the game before Janmaat’s red.