He was ok, too stagnant at times but has more incisive quality in the final 3rd than the rest combined, cool head on the penalty as well and denied another goal by more shitty refereeing.
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 28
- Assists
- 9
- Yellow cards
- 8
- Status
Doesn't trust the others perhaps?
The problem is without him we struggle in front of goal. We basically have to rely on him scoring (especially with Mata now injured). The rest really need to step up.
It does seem he plays better with Pogba on the pitch cos he knows hes going to get it early and almost always accurately.
It does seem he plays better with Pogba on the pitch cos he knows hes going to get it early and almost always accurately.
He was terribly average. I refuse to let the penalty at the end mask that fact
Really? You thought he looked like threatning to score? He looked toothless to me.
Problem is that so few of our teammates play to his strengths. Watching him is fascinating. He calls for early balls so often and they aren't often forthcoming. He does well in remaining professional and not venting his frustration more. Zlatan at his best requires direct balls and runners off him. I love Fellaini, but a slow tempo with Fellaini closest to him does him no favours.
People see things only in black and white. He's either shit or great.
It's obvious that an open game does not really suit him due to his lack of pace. He didn't have a good first half but he grew in the 2nd and finished strongly. His hold up play in the second half was great. Unlucky to not get the early equaliser too.
Pleased with him today.
It's obvious that an open game does not really suit him due to his lack of pace. He didn't have a good first half but he grew in the 2nd and finished strongly. His hold up play in the second half was great. Unlucky to not get the early equaliser too.
Pleased with him today.
He had an onside goal ruled out and would you have backed anyone else to score that pen or to score in general?
He's our only goalscorer. I am not saying he was exceptional. He was pretty subdued/poor for the most of the game with some good moments towards the end.
27 goals and 8 assists according to BBC's website. For a 36 year old that's unbelievable. I was sure he'd get 20 maximum in all competitions.
He was quiet other than the disallowed goal and penalty tonight, the only real time I remember him getting heavily involved was the last five minutes.
Having said that he should have two goals to his name tonight.
Having said that he should have two goals to his name tonight.
Regarding that disallowed goal. From the angle that it was shown on my stream it looked like a good call.
When ref's making an offside call any part of the body which is allowed to score and have contact with the ball is considered to be in an offside position and Zlatan's head and upper shoulder were the closest to Everton GK.
When ref's making an offside call any part of the body which is allowed to score and have contact with the ball is considered to be in an offside position and Zlatan's head and upper shoulder were the closest to Everton GK.
27+9 and some people can't wait to see the back of him 
Good luck to us finding the replacement goals, plus what everyone else haven't been contributing with this season.
Good luck to us finding the replacement goals, plus what everyone else haven't been contributing with this season.
I don't know what everyone is going on about. He was offside. It was the correct call. Whether or not the linesman guessed is another question but he was definitely offside.
I agree he is our best (and probably only) hope for goals at the moment but that's not what I was questioning.
I thought that in this specific game (and probably every game since the EFL Final) he looked toothless and I never thought he troubled the Everton keeper at any stage in the game.
What part of him was offside?
+Verratti and Thiago Motta as CM's...
Agreed, if Ibra's called invisible in this game then everyone's favourite for replacing him in the summer, Lukaku, was even more invisible than him.
his movement is just bad, I like him and his goalscoring form for us is nice but for me a striker should do more, I think he's far from ideal striker for Mo, but It's hard to turn him down, hopefully we will find someone who can lead the line in the future
Was this his second wrongfully disallowed goal? The other one against Middlesbrough.
Didn't he have a quick pass to Rashford, who then missed?
Do you really think so? I think he moves really good. For instance, he's always showing that he wants the ball between the defenders, but the ball never comes unless Pogba has the ball. Is he supposed run like a defensive forward, like Cavani, to be appreciated? He's simply not thhat kind of player. If Ibra's style isn't liked, I'm wondering why anyone woulld want Lukaku - a less technical version of him.
Firstly the keeper saved that. And secondly that was offside.
Ah, ok, wasn't sure. That's why I was asking. Still think Ibra had on ok game. He's usually pretty "bad" the first game after some rest. He should be better next game, that is if he isn't starting to decline due to age which would be normal.
He was much improved in the second half, his hold up play is very good. He's comfortably the best of our attackers, even with his speed limitations.
He's extremely wasteful and doesn't ever seem to be making runs on the back or near post for balls played across the 6 yard box or from the byline.
Today, we certainly didn't look any better up top than we did against against West Brom, Boro or Chelsea.
Today, we certainly didn't look any better up top than we did against against West Brom, Boro or Chelsea.
I remember one he delayed playing so long that rashford ended up offside which keeper made a good save from
You refuse to let it eh? The melodrama round these parts...
He scored 16 in the league, pretty average for the amount of chances we create.27+9 and some people can't wait to see the back of him
Good luck to us finding the replacement goals, plus what everyone else haven't been contributing with this season.
The problem wasn't , isn't and won't be in Zlatan whatever people really tried to convince me . His teammates are the ones who need to step up and start scoring goals . No team in the world is 100% dependent on the striker scoring and if he didn't score it's the end of the world . In other top teams you see their midfield and wingers scoring , in our case you never see this , even though he fall deep th hold up the ball and allow the wingers space to move .
We played with a team full of pacey players against brom and we saw a brainless attack running aimlessly with no aim and zero productivity . Pace and movement isn't everything IMO .
I won't be mad , though , if he go in the summer and we replaced him with another top striker , but my opinion will remain : throwing the whole responsibility of our position on his missed chances is rediculous . All his teammates missed sitters and they never got hammered as him . There's no team whose only way of scoring goals is through the striker .
We saw games where Aguero , Lewa and Suarez miss chances , do their teams fall and lose or we see Sane , Sterling , Robben , Neymar and Messi scoring instead of them and leading the team to win ??
We played with a team full of pacey players against brom and we saw a brainless attack running aimlessly with no aim and zero productivity . Pace and movement isn't everything IMO .
I won't be mad , though , if he go in the summer and we replaced him with another top striker , but my opinion will remain : throwing the whole responsibility of our position on his missed chances is rediculous . All his teammates missed sitters and they never got hammered as him . There's no team whose only way of scoring goals is through the striker .
We saw games where Aguero , Lewa and Suarez miss chances , do their teams fall and lose or we see Sane , Sterling , Robben , Neymar and Messi scoring instead of them and leading the team to win ??
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Left shoulder and head
Any other day, he would have had that offside goal and Rashford would have scored from that assist.
Zlatan is not the problem. Its everyone else around him.
Zlatan is not the problem. Its everyone else around him.
There is a bit of a civil war going on in here, especially with regards to contributions and overall bigger picture schema and his goals.
But I have to honestly admit I find him incredibly difficult to watch as a footballer. He can barely run off the ball and even on the ball he's so predictable because he doesn't have that extra yard of sharpness/dynamism to get beyond his marker. This really was encapsulated in the first few minutes when he had that early chance. The one real area where he is strong is when he can use his size and strength and get on the end of a chance in the box but that is such a low percentage play for us because our delivery is always so poor. Defending crosses is probably one of this league's bigger strengths in terms of obstacles to over come as a player. Rashford found him with a great ball but unless you're doing this repetitively and in high volume he's going to get a one in six chance of heading a tough difficult ball in. These aren't easy chances on a plate for him, they still require some form of ability/effort which he can pull off every now and then.
I don't really know what to make of him to be honest, the goals are great and that is wonderful but I still think his lack of dynamism is a massive hindrance to the people around him. When people say that everyone else should step up I tend to think his presence and his lack of movement is one of the major things that keeps players heads down. If he drops deep, everyone runs away from him. If he stays up then defenders can be good enough to mark him out of the game and cause us to resort to poor and stagnant wing play on either flank and fanging the ball in relentlessly while he's marked up in the middle (or 25 yards behind play).
How do you tell a 36 year old veteran striker to stop dropping deep so everybody can push up and play in the space and he can play off the shoulder and reduce his distance to come short and show for a ball? (minimizing the effects his lack of pace can cause) If Jose can't, nobody on the field is going to force him out of his habits I don't think.
We have to take the good with the bad. Zlatan doesn't seem to get into areas that are dangerous with the excessive time and space to execute the way he wants to on a regular basis. He doesn't seem to be able to cause major problems on a repeated basis with his movement and his intelligent play, he seems to simply just exist in a state where people have to play around him the best way they can and he interacts with them. I dunno, sounds strangely scientific but it is an odd phenomenon I can't describe properly. It kinda works but kinda doesn't..?
I just find watching his game a pretty frustrating experience on the whole.
(Kudos for being billy big bombs and scoring the penalty though.)
But I have to honestly admit I find him incredibly difficult to watch as a footballer. He can barely run off the ball and even on the ball he's so predictable because he doesn't have that extra yard of sharpness/dynamism to get beyond his marker. This really was encapsulated in the first few minutes when he had that early chance. The one real area where he is strong is when he can use his size and strength and get on the end of a chance in the box but that is such a low percentage play for us because our delivery is always so poor. Defending crosses is probably one of this league's bigger strengths in terms of obstacles to over come as a player. Rashford found him with a great ball but unless you're doing this repetitively and in high volume he's going to get a one in six chance of heading a tough difficult ball in. These aren't easy chances on a plate for him, they still require some form of ability/effort which he can pull off every now and then.
I don't really know what to make of him to be honest, the goals are great and that is wonderful but I still think his lack of dynamism is a massive hindrance to the people around him. When people say that everyone else should step up I tend to think his presence and his lack of movement is one of the major things that keeps players heads down. If he drops deep, everyone runs away from him. If he stays up then defenders can be good enough to mark him out of the game and cause us to resort to poor and stagnant wing play on either flank and fanging the ball in relentlessly while he's marked up in the middle (or 25 yards behind play).
How do you tell a 36 year old veteran striker to stop dropping deep so everybody can push up and play in the space and he can play off the shoulder and reduce his distance to come short and show for a ball? (minimizing the effects his lack of pace can cause) If Jose can't, nobody on the field is going to force him out of his habits I don't think.
We have to take the good with the bad. Zlatan doesn't seem to get into areas that are dangerous with the excessive time and space to execute the way he wants to on a regular basis. He doesn't seem to be able to cause major problems on a repeated basis with his movement and his intelligent play, he seems to simply just exist in a state where people have to play around him the best way they can and he interacts with them. I dunno, sounds strangely scientific but it is an odd phenomenon I can't describe properly. It kinda works but kinda doesn't..?
I just find watching his game a pretty frustrating experience on the whole.
(Kudos for being billy big bombs and scoring the penalty though.)
Great player, great character and it's difficult to aim any sort of criticism after the goals he's scored this season but I'm becoming more and more frustrated with him and I'm not too comfortable with players commenting on the clubs ambitions like they're the only ones contributing because if I reckon if he'd buried half the chances he's missed the league table would look very different in my opinion.
His performance in the Premier League hasn't been good enough. He is the 5th top scorer with by far the most 'big chance' misses in the league.
https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/big_chance_missed
Now he is saying that we have to match his level if he will stay, well in the league Zlatan - we are. Stop bottling twice as many clear cut chances as the other top strikers in the league and we will be competing for the title.
Hope this guy leaves soon.
https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/big_chance_missed
Now he is saying that we have to match his level if he will stay, well in the league Zlatan - we are. Stop bottling twice as many clear cut chances as the other top strikers in the league and we will be competing for the title.
Hope this guy leaves soon.
That is true, but then he is also our only top level striker. Who knows how high Rashford's ceiling is (I'm not sure it's as high as the early hype) but he certainly isn't yet good enough to be a main goalscorer for a side that wants to challenge for the top 4 or the title
In other words its hard to judge how good Ibrahimovic has been for us, because there isn't any competition in the squad. The number of big changes he has missed is painfully high, despite his excellent goal return.
Any other day?
We've drawn what, 9 games at Old Trafford this season? Chances are, any other day we would still have drawn
His goal return has been fantastic but agree with the sentiment that his misses have cost us quite a bit.
But then, i also think about his team mates who don't contribute at all to goals apart for Mata. If we had players that could contribute to the goals around him we would be in much better shape and peoples opinion of Ibra would be a lot different.
But then, i also think about his team mates who don't contribute at all to goals apart for Mata. If we had players that could contribute to the goals around him we would be in much better shape and peoples opinion of Ibra would be a lot different.
Whithout him we are a mid-table team, with him we can win games and trophy. Simple as that.
He's such a class player. Being able to still influence things, including possibly winning us the game if that goal stood, is quite amazing considering how shite we are right now. He's really really doesn't deserve a season of mediocrity like this.
This is nonsense. We are around the level in the league that we have been since Fergie left. If we didn't have Zlatan we would have bought someone else or the team would find another way to be effective and finish 4th - 7th.
I doubt he'd want to stay in this team for another season to be honest..
Rashford leading the line next season... wow..
Rashford leading the line next season... wow..
- Status