On the contrary, when our attackers click and start passing fast into Zlatan and looking for combinations, he speeds it up like no other striker we have in the squad.
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 28
- Assists
- 9
- Yellow cards
- 8
- Status
On the contrary, when our attackers click and start passing fast into Zlatan and looking for combinations, he speeds it up like no other striker we have in the squad.
On the contrary, he slows down our play. It's been slow all season and Ibrahimovic is the only constant in that, given how often the wingers change around. Just watch him play and congest the final third. When he plays against two centrebacks, it always leaves one spare because Zlatan isn't quick enough to consistently make runs between them.
71% passing accuracy today, and a lot of those misplaced passes were easy balls.
False on Teddy Sherigan and Cantona being traditional #10. They're second forward aka Griezmann role nowadays. Agree Zlatan role now is different, but Zlatan is capable to play as second forward too. In his early years, he playing second fiddle to Trezeguet at Juventus and was great assisster while being a lesser goal scorer.
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You're wasting your time..... there's 3 or 4 on this thread who will NEVER be happy with Zlatan.
When he went through half a dozen games and the goals weren't there, they were all over it like a rash .... "he's no good", "he's too old", "he's stopping Rashford from playing", blah blah blah.
Now he's scoring, a balanced poster would give fair praise (especially a United fan who you'd like to think would be fecking happy he's scoring?!). Nope, they ignore the goals and move on to "he's slowing down the team", "his pass completion % is low", "he isn't occupying both centre halves to create space", "he takes too many chances to score".
He'll score a hat trick one match (maybe with a last minute winner) and take the match ball home and they'll say "wow, apparently it's HIS ball? Not a team player".
Has our attacking play really been slow this season? My main issue with the attacking play is how its not been clinical enough.
We rarely get in behind defences. Granted, we take a lot of shots. But the approach play is laboured and that makes it easy for defenders/goalies to position themselves for blocks/saves. It's no coincidence that ordinary 'keepers seem to put in world class performances against us. We literally play into their hands.
Quicker approach play from everybody will open up spaces and drag defenders away from where they ought to be. If you're going to play with a target man and a couple of unnatural wide-forwards, the onus for good movement and sharp passing is going to chiefly be on the centre-forward. If we had Walcott or Pedro playing on the wings, that would be different. But we don't.
Agreed, some people just have an agenda here for whatever reason. Best not to waste time replying to those posters.
He's on 13 goals, weird to think that he's 4 less than our top scorer from last season Martial - 17.
He scores despite being poor to average in general play...I guess that's a good thing. He is a little frustrating though, slows us down a lot.
Zlatan has missed more than expected but there is a tendancy to obsess about every single missed chances here as if top strikers are supposed to finish off every single one. RVN missed good chances. RVP missed good chances. Heck, Messi and Ronaldo missed a nice chance each in the latest classico. So Ibra missing some chances is normal. It's just that he's missed a bit more than expected. And the fact that we've not had goals in the team as a whole.This is getting rediculous, we're up to 10-15 missed sitters now?
Problem with Zlatan, is that he can't pass for shit. He loses the ball to often when he drops deep.
For someone who should be one of the best at holding the ball and bringing others into play, he's pretty shit at it.
However, he is scoring goals...
For someone who should be one of the best at holding the ball and bringing others into play, he's pretty shit at it.
However, he is scoring goals...
That really isn't true at all. His link up play has been brilliant at times.
This is the problem, he's not consistent at all.
The thing that infuriates me is that he loses the ball in crucial areas when opposition teams can counter attack.
Lose the ball in the oppositions penalty box, that's fine, but not in midfield when we have already committed players forward which results in us being vulnerable for counter attacks.
I like Zlatan, I feel he is the right striker for us this season, but he needs to get his head out his arse and realize that he is the liability when he loses the ball in midfield.
You're exaggerating. He really doesn't do it that often and it'll become rarer as he builds connections with his team mates.
We'd be a lot worse off without him, I'm sure of that. His presence just gives me confidence, and I'm sure he gives his team mates confidence too. That he has scored 13 goals and people are still not happy just shows what a difficult crowd football fans are.
Maybe you right, it's something that has been bugging me for a while, I'm probably looking for it while watching the games.
Still infuriates me whenever I see it.
I'd love to see him in our 2010 side. Imagine the ammunition Valencia and Nani would've given him at their peak. Playing alongside a peak Rooney with Scholes behind them...
Anyway, top player. Can't believe we've got him, and on a free as well.
Anyway, top player. Can't believe we've got him, and on a free as well.
I've praised Zlatan....plenty.Admitted his performances were better than I expected. No subtlety needed.
All I said was a lethal striker will score 30+. Don't think that's too controversial.
Some perspective?
Aguero: 16
3 of those from CL qualifiers, plays for City who is a better team than the current United.. proven PL player
Ibrahimovic: 13
35 year old fart, is completely new to the premier league.. cost 0£, playing in a team that hasnt "found its feet yet"..
Sanchez: 13
Proven PL player playing for a better team than the current United
Costa: 11
Proven PL player playing for a better team than the current United.
Aguero: 16
3 of those from CL qualifiers, plays for City who is a better team than the current United.. proven PL player
Ibrahimovic: 13
35 year old fart, is completely new to the premier league.. cost 0£, playing in a team that hasnt "found its feet yet"..
Sanchez: 13
Proven PL player playing for a better team than the current United
Costa: 11
Proven PL player playing for a better team than the current United.
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A lot worse off? We are 6th in the league and closer to the relgation zone than to the top points wise. Since August United have won less points than Boro and only 2 points more than Sunderland. How much worse than that would we have been without Zlatan? Zlatan has scored as many league goals as Defoe while playing with much better players.
This is a silly comparison. All of these strikers are doing much better than Zlatan. For now.
High quality post!
I really don't get this, there's no problem with our approach play whatsoever, compare it to the last 3 years and there's a SIGNIFICANT improvement in what we are seeing. The problems we are seeing come from not taking our chances, not that we aren't creating them.
Don't you see the contradiction when we hear Zlatan is missing countless sitters yet criticise him for preventing us from getting into goal scoring opportunities?
He's integral to our play, we need someone who can act as a target man up top, at the same time he'll also drop deep or play on the last defender like we saw for his goal yesterday. With him in the side teams aren't quite so happy to let us create space out wide, when we had Martial or Rashford up top we aren't a threat from wide positions, teams were content to play compact and defend on the edge of the box. How can they do that when you have a monster in the box who'll man handle any centreback in the league?
Zlatan's goal last night and his recent goals in the league versus Everton and West Ham were exactly that.
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This
RvP usually had a slightly higher pass completion rate than Zlatan I think, but then people were whining he kept on the ball too long. I guess you just can't win.
Hope he keeps it up, doing well lately but shouldn't ignore the fact he's a had a inconsistent start to his career here. If he put away all those sitters he would be pushing 20 goals right now and we would be in a much better position in the league.
They are also playing for much better teams. Although Zlatan has been quite unimpressive in many aspects, one should not underestimate the team effect. Both Sanchez and Costa have shown this to have a huge impact.
Rader pointless to argue anything regarding Zlatan's performances with you.
71% pass accuracy. That's crap.
Wish we were back in the LVG days of passing back and sideways so that even our lone striker can have 95% pass accuracy.
Wish we were back in the LVG days of passing back and sideways so that even our lone striker can have 95% pass accuracy.
Dude stop, just stop.
I get that people in this place love overrating and looking at non united players with glowing eyes but this need drawing a line.
What exactly are you trying to say by naming those players? Are you trying to convince people they are some sort of world class players better than those in our squad.
Just randomly naming players doesn't make them great. Listing a bunch of okeish players certainly doesn't make any point.
Not even a single World class player in that list for you to fanfare about.
Haha, so true. I guess you can't win in here, play it safe like LVG and it's tumescent crap, take loads of risks (like Zlatan and Pogba last night) and they don't like that either?
These stats are completely useless then. Costa's been much better than Zlatan. Obviously.
Stats are always useless when they contradict you, right? Useful when they support your argument, of course.
Evaluations based on stats have significant limitations, right? In this case, they are pretty obvious. Costa's contributed about twice as many goals as Zlatan and his hold up play is superior, he works harder, etc. The way this site (mis) uses stats must be hilariously bad.
I was just taking a look at his career stats to see how he has actually been doing comparatively:
Malmo 18 in 47 - 1 every 2.6 games
Ajax 48 in 110 - 1 every 2.3 games
Juventus 26 in 92 - 1 every 3.5 games
Inter 66 in 117 - 1 every 1.8 games
Barcelona 22 in 46 - 1 every 2 games
AC Milan 56 in 85 - 1 every 1.5 games
PSG 156 in 180 - 1 every 1.2 games
United 13 in 22 - 1 every 1.7 games
He's doing well, just needs to score in a few big games and he would be loved by everyone it seems.
Malmo 18 in 47 - 1 every 2.6 games
Ajax 48 in 110 - 1 every 2.3 games
Juventus 26 in 92 - 1 every 3.5 games
Inter 66 in 117 - 1 every 1.8 games
Barcelona 22 in 46 - 1 every 2 games
AC Milan 56 in 85 - 1 every 1.5 games
PSG 156 in 180 - 1 every 1.2 games
United 13 in 22 - 1 every 1.7 games
He's doing well, just needs to score in a few big games and he would be loved by everyone it seems.
Chill dude ....
No one was over rating non United player's
No one was fanfaring players
No one was saying they were world class
No one was naming random players
... unless you can show me where I said that?
Someone said Zlatan scored 50 last year and trying to use that as some sort of stick to belittle this season's performance - I was just making the point that he had a good bunch of players around him (which would have helped?)
Personally, I think Cavani IS class and the others are decent players who would have helped Zlatan score/score more (my point to the original poster).
It's an opinion.... ok dude?
Better to do gpm otherwise it ends up skewed.
Zlatan has started 19 games, came on around the 30 minute mark in one game I think (Pogba injury?) and the other 2 were late(ish) subs.
Seems to be just about right. Maybe you could hope that he will reach the levels of AC Milan productivity. He was never going to score as many goals as he did for PSG. Not in our team, not in this league.
Oooh, be careful with that type of balanced opinion
...as per my post above, pointing out perfectly obvious logic on why Zlatan is actually doing quite well (not brilliant but not rubbish either) doesn't go down well with some posters.
- Status