Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic has defended teammate Paul Pogba, saying his envious critics will be proved wrong.
Advertisement
Pogba was signed from Juventus for a world-record fee of £89.3 million but Ibrahimovic has stressed that there is room for improvement from the France worldwide, who is still only 23 and wants to develop.
Pogba started in midfield alongside Marouane Fellaini for Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester City at Old Trafford on Saturday.
“In further derby fallout, the former Barca and Bayern Munich boss brushed off criticism of goalkeeper Claudio Bravo-whose mistake led to United’s goal-and refused to comment on Mourinho’s post-match assertion that the Chilean should have been sent off, per the Times’ Paul Hirst: “[My goalkeepers] will make mistakes, and the opponents will score goals; I am pretty sure of that. “I had many [conversations] on the phone, lots of SMS”.
“I think maybe for some guys it’s a new beginning”. “I trust him completely and I know his future will be absolutely brilliant”.
That is what I tried to say after the game. “So yes, I am very positive”.
We have no time.
And the contest saw the Blues, particularly in the first half, once again produce the sort of slick, passing football with which their new manager has for so always been associated.
Right now, I’m not sure what Mourinho is trying to do but he is relying heavily on Ibrahimovic to score individual opportunistic goals, rather than quality build-up play creating chances for the Swedish worldwide. He said: “Until now, in the Premier League it has been okay – but to compete against the best clubs in Europe, in this moment with the way we are playing, we are not able to”.
“I think the way we try to play now is very enjoyable, especially for the attacking players, because we try to play nice football, the way we want to play”, he said.
The England forward endured a hard first campaign at Manchester City after his acrimonious move from Liverpool and also fell short of expectations at Euro 2016.
Advertisement
Handing Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan their first starts of the season, England U21 hat-trick hero Marcus Rashford had to settle for a place on the bench, a fact many fans were not impressed with.
