Zlatan Ibrahimovic insists he will only get better for Manchester United this season after scoring the victor in Sunday’s Community Shield.
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First official game, we play for the trophy and we win.
The truth is no player likes being substituted but if you listened to the BBC pundit Danny Murphy you would believe it was the end for Mata at Manchester United.
But Mourinho played down reports of a further rift with Mata, who reportedly fell out with him at Chelsea, and says the decision was made to combat Leicester’s aerial threat.
“I would not be ambitious if I said we had a fantastic performance, because it was not a fantastic performance”, he declared. “This is why I came and hopefully I can win many more here”. “The rules allowed six changes, and I wanted to stop the game, to kill time”.
“It’s an important victory but we have lots of work to do”.
Mourinho denied that he was unhappy with Mata’s display, saying: “He played very well”. He gave me exactly what I needed.
“For our fans, when they watch the players fight until the end, they are happy”.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Manchester United lifts the Community Shield trophy. That’s what it is all about – it is the 31st trophy I’ve won.
The opportunity to secure their 21st Community Shield was handed to the side by van Gaal, having won the FA Cup last season, and after the game Mourinho dedicated the win to the Dutch coach.
“They brought an intensity to the game which was hard for us to cope with”, he added. Our team has something big going on, it’s a good start. “I have to make choices and sometimes they are choices which hurt me to look behind me and see players like (Memphis) Depay, (Phil) Jones, (Ashley) Young there”.
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Ibrahimovic’s trophy-laden career began with a Dutch league and cup double with Ajax in 2000-01, following his move from Malmo in Sweden.
