Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived at Manchester United for free during the summer of 2016 and eyebrows were raised. The player’s decision was such. At such a ripe age, footballers usually move to USA or China, but instead, the giant Swede opted to play in England, potentially the most difficult league to play in.
Critics were vocal in predicting how Zlatan’s season would turn out and he was termed ‘too old’ to play in England. Fast forward 7 months and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has 26 goals in all competitions this season and has already won a trophy with Manchester United. Talk about proving haters wrong – Zlatan just did that!
Ibra has been the most influential player for Mourinho’s Manchester United and the stats prove the fact. He has played 38 games for United this season and has been on the pitch for 3210 minutes – which is the highest by a United player this season. These are astonishing numbers for a 35-year old!
He has scored 26 goals and has provided 6 assists for Manchester United this season, and is their highest goal scorer and their highest assist maker this season so far.
This is the 14th year consecutive that he has hit double figures for the number of goals scored; the last time he scored less than 30 goals in a campaign dates back to 2011; he has scored 46 goals in 2016 alone.
However, stats are just numbers. It is a reflection of a player’s performance only up to a certain measure. A striker may very well be judged by the stats, but not completely. Ibrahimovic is something more than just goals. He is a character that every dressing room needs. Paul Pogba struggled to find his footing again in English football initially but is now slowly gaining confidence and beginning to look like his self. The fact that all of Pogba’s assists this season has come for the Swede shows how important Zlatan Ibrahimovic is.
He revealed that he converses with young players like Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, and his relationship with Paul Pogba is pretty much visible to the outside world. This is precisely why Mourinho would have wanted Zlatan at Man Utd.
Louis Van Gaal left a bunch of extremely talented youngsters at Manchester United’s disposal and a group of youngsters certainly need someone in the squad to who they can look up to. Wayne Rooney was already there and Juan Mata as well. There were also Michael Carrick and Schweinsteiger. Although they are all big players in the dressing room, they aren’t Zlatan Ibrahimovic because the Swede stands apart from everyone in the world due to his attitude and mentality. For sure, these youngsters will have learned so much from Zlatan about how a champion player must live.
A look at his numbers from this season demonstrates once and for all that the striker has been not just been Jose Mourinho’s most influential summer signing, but indeed the most important presence in the current Man United squad over the past few months.
If he decides to stay at Old Trafford for one more season, then success is a given statement next year too.