Surprisingly, he's missing some real bloopers at the moment. He needs to start putting these chances away.
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 28
- Assists
- 9
- Yellow cards
- 8
- Status
Well you can apply that to the whole forward line. Rashford is very hit and miss in a winger role. Pogba isn't adding enough, did Young even get a cross in? Martial has been poor so far this and Rooney started average and went down hill since then. There is some other guy too but he seems to have disappeared. Lingard, well he is OK I guess but we need more than his top level IMO.
His mobility isn't a real issue either. Well, it shouldn't be. But it requires surrounding him with support and some real pace. In theory, the likes of Rashford, Lingard and Martial are therefore great, but they need to be playing a lot closer to him than they were tonight.
This thread is going to be brutal, and quite rightly. For a striker playing on the counter, he struggled in 3 major areas:
1) Penetration: He simply doesn't have the pace to run in behind so whenever our midfield won the ball, the ball into the channel was never an option.
2) Hold-up Play: When you can't run in behind, your hold up play has to be inmaculate to bring the pacy wingers into play. He really struggled to do that today.
3) Finishing: This has been my most major disappointment with him. For someone so experienced, he fecks up a lot chances. Not even getting that header on target today was criminal. Jose called him out on this during the post-match interview.
1) Penetration: He simply doesn't have the pace to run in behind so whenever our midfield won the ball, the ball into the channel was never an option.
2) Hold-up Play: When you can't run in behind, your hold up play has to be inmaculate to bring the pacy wingers into play. He really struggled to do that today.
3) Finishing: This has been my most major disappointment with him. For someone so experienced, he fecks up a lot chances. Not even getting that header on target today was criminal. Jose called him out on this during the post-match interview.
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Seem to be repeating myself every match.
Missing chances that are killing us.
Absolute sitters by his standards.
Missing chances that are killing us.
Absolute sitters by his standards.
Totally agreed. he was wnak and came across as entitled today.
Did not contribute to our guild up play, was bullied by Liverpools defenders and missed a shockingly straight forward chance that could have won us the game.
If it wasn't clear enough, I was talking about them in a wider context. Mkhitaryan, too. Our quick players need to be in support of Ibrahimovic if this is going to work.
I think Martial and Mikhi have massive potential. Let's bed them in soon and fly up the league!
@Zlaatan
Your buddy ain't looking so good at the moment. I do expect a bit more from "one of the best strikers in the world"..
Your buddy ain't looking so good at the moment. I do expect a bit more from "one of the best strikers in the world"..
Needs to do a lot more. His hold up play and link up play, which is what he's meant to be known for, is lacking big time.
His hold up play was the most frustrating thing today (well not hitting the target with the header obviously).
He also gave away some silly fouls when it wasnt necessary and just eased pressure off Liverpool. Im also wondering with regards to his finishes if he thinks hes gonna score so doesnt concentrate, or what? Its not like hes had difficult chances either the last few games.
He also gave away some silly fouls when it wasnt necessary and just eased pressure off Liverpool. Im also wondering with regards to his finishes if he thinks hes gonna score so doesnt concentrate, or what? Its not like hes had difficult chances either the last few games.
Don't get me wrong, I think I'm very happy with his performance so far this season work hard, his fitness is amazing and he knows how to create chance as well. However as a no9 I expect him to finish his chances. Few times this season imo his poor finishing cost us 1 or 3 points like today's header, the city one at the end of first half when there was no keeper in goalie, the missed against Stoke. van nisterooy would have finished those chances. Never mind van nisterooy, I think the current Diego Costa will finish those chances if he gets ones.
Disappointing today. What really worries me is that at times he is our only attacking outlet, and if he's having a stinker like today it is really hard to see us score.
He still has to bring the ball down and hold up the ball then pass it to the channels good enough to work. If he can't do it often enough, you can have bale, ronaldo and they won't see the ball much.
What's the point all the pacy forwards running around him with full speed when he can't or won't do any of it?
Agreed, he was pretty shit the few times he got involved. I also expect more from "one of the best strikers in the world"...
Though I expected more from our entire offensive lineup today. Rashford had a stinker and Young.. I don't know, was he even on the field?
I said in the match thread that our attack could have been summed up with the word offside because that's pretty much all we accomplished. Except Zlatan's header which he should have scored, or at least gotten on target.
For those of you who say that other strikers wouldn't have missed the chances that Zlatan missed, do you also believe that they would have scored the scissor kick against Galatasaray and the headers against Leicester and Southampton?
If you're going to use an argument like that you have to look at it both ways.
His posture of 'Im Mr Big Man' is not looking so clever right now.
The header miss was quite disastrous, the equivalent of an air kick, and made him look abit stooopid.
The header miss was quite disastrous, the equivalent of an air kick, and made him look abit stooopid.
Probably his worst game in a United uniform and probably the worst player on the pitch for us tonight.
It was a miss, or at least he could've at least got it on target, but he has delivered on other headers that no other players would've scored, so i'm willing to give him a pass for tonight.
Honestly, i don't think there is a striker in the world that could have caused Liverpool problems yesterday with the way we were set up.
This may sound rawkish, but the ref was biased as feck yesterday. No big calls, but gave them every 50/50 and especially Zlatan got fecked over. At least four times he got fouled and got nothing, while every little nudge from him got penalized
I agree he has been slightly disappointing, but yesterday we were toothless for a number of reasons. Still he does have 6 in 12, so his goal return is pretty good.
Not seeing that I thought he was excellent last night showed real leadership and showed great quality holding the ball up. Had little service but battled well against their defenders. Rashford was our worst player then Blind. What a difference having a guy like this on our team makes. Although his chance was golden.
Can someone explain to me what it is he actually does well?
It's not his build up or link up, or hold up play, because all of that has been absolutely terrible so far. He gives the ball away more than any player I've known to play up front for us. You'd think maybe it's because he tries to create a chance every time, but he VERY rarely actually creates one. Maybe once every two games, so nowhere near good enough to justify being useless at keeping the ball.
I thought for the first few games it was scoring goals from nothing or finishing, but the goals have stopped and literally every game we've not won this season has involved him missing one or more easy chances. Again it's a theme. Last night he had the best chance of the game...against Stoke he should have scored after 1 minute. against Watford he managed to not score when presented with an open goal literally 6 yards out. Against City he scored, but then wasted what was literally an open goal from inside the box.
It's just nowhere near good enough at the moment. He hampers the entire team because we can't build attacks, and he doesn't get the goals to compensate for that.
It's not his build up or link up, or hold up play, because all of that has been absolutely terrible so far. He gives the ball away more than any player I've known to play up front for us. You'd think maybe it's because he tries to create a chance every time, but he VERY rarely actually creates one. Maybe once every two games, so nowhere near good enough to justify being useless at keeping the ball.
I thought for the first few games it was scoring goals from nothing or finishing, but the goals have stopped and literally every game we've not won this season has involved him missing one or more easy chances. Again it's a theme. Last night he had the best chance of the game...against Stoke he should have scored after 1 minute. against Watford he managed to not score when presented with an open goal literally 6 yards out. Against City he scored, but then wasted what was literally an open goal from inside the box.
It's just nowhere near good enough at the moment. He hampers the entire team because we can't build attacks, and he doesn't get the goals to compensate for that.
Don't think he should play in Europa League or EFL games and just stick to the PL ones.
Is it time for us to just bite the bullet and buy an "in his prime" world class striker?
The last time we had one was 2012/13 (Van Persie's first season with us) - coincidentally (not) also the last time we won the title
The last time we had one was 2012/13 (Van Persie's first season with us) - coincidentally (not) also the last time we won the title
Far and away the worst player on the pitch for us last night. Just abysmal.
Gave feck all in terms of showing for the ball - particularly when Pogba had it.
His miss on Pogba's cross yesterday and against Stoke has directly cost us from getting 6 points. That's not acceptable.
Gave feck all in terms of showing for the ball - particularly when Pogba had it.
His miss on Pogba's cross yesterday and against Stoke has directly cost us from getting 6 points. That's not acceptable.
He to slow to be upfront on his own. I want to see him play in a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 with someone with pace, Rashford or Martial...
Who though? Auba isn't going anywhere, and if he is going it is to Real Madrid. Really no one else knocking about.
he also shouldn't be undroppable, give a run upfront to Rashford/Martial when fit, play Zlatan in an easy game to help him to gain some confidence and see how he steps up..
Would like to see him tried as a #10 behind Rashford or even Martial. His limitations are similar to Mata's, but he does give us height to play direct as well.
Rashford
Martial - Ibrahimovic - Mkhitaryan
Martial - Ibrahimovic - Mkhitaryan
Couple of poor games and everyone is over reacting...
He doesn't need an easy game to gain confidence. The goals will come at which point all the Zlatan analysts will disappear back into their holes.
I agree, he's surely still a good player but not a prime time world class forward who can take the team on his own like van Persie and Rooney could for example. Main problem is, there arent much available at the moment, and even the young potential ones, there are very few knocking at the door. Kane, Lacazette, Paco Alcacer, Correa, Morata, Lukaku etc, they're still a decent bit away from the Lewa's, Aubameyang, Aguero, Suarez, Costa etc,we just have to hope Martial and Rashford develop into reliable strikers quickly.
You're second for posts in this thread. Surely you qualify as a Zlatan analyst.
Are you still not bothered about him doing the business against the big teams?
Not at all. Player form is never consistent. Sometimes its great, sometimes its good, sometimes its poor. What is important is we are finally getting a bit of balance in the overall squad and Zlatan's contribution will continue.
You're almost zen like when it comes to dropping points. I don't think the missed chances against Stoke bothered you either if I remember correctly.
I'm not sure that's how you win a title but it probably makes watching the game a much calmer experience.
I don't mind dropping points from time to time if the squad play as a team. Going to Anfield against this LFC team and coming away with a point is pretty fair imo.
Repeatedly missing sitters should be enough of a reason for dropping him.
If you play like we did yesterday and he can't hold the ball up, then we were never going to do anything positive.
If you play like we did yesterday and he can't hold the ball up, then we were never going to do anything positive.
If you think his general contribution in the Leicester and Stoke games were absolutely terrible, I fear you will remain unhappy no matter who we play.
He's been ineffective, not world class I agree. But much better than absolutely terrible
My two biggest issues are his lack of mobility and willingness to close a man down and the fact he demands the ball dropping deep and then gives it away with a useless pass.
Needs to hugely improve if we're going to be successful this season.
Needs to hugely improve if we're going to be successful this season.
I think its his finishing and hold up play that he does brilliantly.
As for link up play and bringin in other teammates im not sure.
I kind of think of him as a suped up Balotelli. Dont know if thats right or not.
As for link up play and bringin in other teammates im not sure.
I kind of think of him as a suped up Balotelli. Dont know if thats right or not.
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