As for his first impression of Premier League football, the Swedish forward added: “It’s not easy”.
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Ibrahimovic’s 25-yard drive helped seal a 3-1 victory for United at the Vitality Stadium and means the striker has now scored on debut in the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Champions League.
The result extended Mourinho’s impressive run of opening-day results in England’s top flight, with the former Chelsea boss having won seven and drawn one of his eight such encounters in his career. “For somebody to have that feeling is normal”.
“So I understood – never change”.
“I don’t think they need a statement”. Everybody knows we’re going to fight for the title. “In the first half we weren’t 100 percent but we had more space in the second half and could play our game”, Ibrahimovic said.
No, Vidic is more Bailly’s style, a fact confirmed by one or two timely hoofs upfield when the visitors were trying to quell Bournemouth’s fightback.
The Dutchman endured a hard debut season with the Red Devils since joining the club for £25m from PSV Eindhoven last summer. “We want to continue like that”. “We weren’t surprised and then we started playing”. With Porto, it was the same. But the reality is that winning the Community Shield has brought some happiness, then we’ve had a win away from home.
Mourinho hailed Ibrahimovic’s impact on both the Premier League and the young players at Manchester United, as well as hinting that politics was behind him continually missing out on the Ballon d’Or to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ibrahimovic, who also scored United’s victor in the Community Shield against Leicester, did not always look comfortable against the Cherries but the 34-year-old former Sweden striker is renowned for producing individual moments of magic and he delivered again.
“When you buy somebody like him you have always the question mark which is how the personality adapts to a complete different situation from before”, said Mourinho of Bailly.
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Handed the No. 9 shirt worn last season by Anthony Martial, Ibrahimovic has displaced Rashford from the starting lineup and given United a different kind of presence up front to the pacey England global.
