Zlatan Ibrahimovic

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It had little effect on Milan in 07/08, Roma had improved on last season (as shown by their showing against us) and their competition isn't really relevant to how key he was to that Inter team. They weren't a very good side and were in need of improvement elsewhere, even Interista said the same at the time and said it was Maicon and Ibrahimovic + 9 others a lot of the time. He carried them and that was made particularly clear in their last game of the season.
 
adexkola said:
In a weakened league where Milan and Juventus were recently punished for Calciopoli?
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Inter Milan had not won a title since 1989 then Ibrahimovic inspired them to win it.

AC Milan had not won a title since 2004 then Ibrahimovic inspired them to win it last season.

Serie A is not what it once was like in the late 80s or 90s but it's still a top league. He did well at Barcelona too, scored important goals and broke a record.

I guess unless he played in England some people will never see what's great about him. It's a shame that some people can't appreciate a great player.
 
FranklyVulgar said:
Inter Milan had not won a title since 1989 then Ibrahimovic inspired them to win it.

AC Milan had not won a title since 2004 then Ibrahimovic inspired them to win it last season.

Serie A is not what it once was like in the late 80s or 90s but it's still a top league. He did well at Barcelona too, scored important goals and broke a record.

I guess unless he played in England some people will never see what's great about him. It's a shame that some people can't appreciate a great player.
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He's a great player, and I give him credit for his flamboyant style of play and consistency in the league, I recall him rescuing his team countless amount of times. I spent hours trying to emulate his ball skill videos when I was young, he's one of my favorites.

His less than impressive record in Europe will always be brought up when he's discussed in England though. I mean, look at Berbatov
 
adexkola said:
He's a great player, and I give him credit for his flamboyant style of play and consistency in the league, I recall him rescuing his team countless amount of times. I spent hours trying to emulate his ball skill videos when I was young, he's one of my favorites.

His less than impressive record in Europe will always be brought up when he's discussed in England though. I mean, look at Berbatov
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Difference being he's consistently done it for top level sides. Berbatov is a wonderful tallent but in my opinion he's not Ibrahimovic. United are his first Major club and he's done ok. Zlatan was key to Juve, Inter and AC and whilst his time in Spain ended badly he was actually good, it was his falling out with Guardiola that ruined it.

I'm just reading about it, seems really odd! It's a fun read so far though.
 
I'll get torn apart for this but his at times audacious style reminds me of Cantona. He doesn't have the same attitude or class but the style is similar. He's an insirationap player to me. Not direct.
 
mungy said:
feck me...have an opinion and your lacking in logic.


Dig a hole dickhead.
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Maybe I understood it wrongly but it seems like you were saying that just because you don't want Ibrahimovic playing for United it means in some way he's not a good player.If that's what you meant, then yes your logic (or opinion if you want) is stupid.If you meant something else then my bad
 
davisjw said:
I'll get torn apart for this but his at times audacious style reminds me of Cantona. He doesn't have the same attitude or class but the style is similar. He's an insirationap player to me. Not direct.
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I don't think the Cantona comparisons are far off at all, I think Ibra is the player Cantona might have been had he gone to Milan to partner Van Basten. As you suggest, Cantona was much more of a team player for us, more dynamic, but I agree that Ibra does similar things on the ball albeit affecting the game consistently higher up the pitch. The comparison of the European records is a good one too and I think Red Indian Chief nailed it in an earlier post stating that Ibra simply hasn't performed in Europe, but he's produced many times in big games for both club and country outside of that competition.

He's a phenom, from his amazing skill-set relative to his huge frame, consistent goalscoring and more importantly his incredible ability to affect the fortunes of the attack of whichever club he's at. He doesn't need teams to be built around him but his ability usually results in it happening. Milan have no right to be where they currently are without having had Cassano or Pato present for most of the season. Ibra has carried that team while bringing out great performances from Robinho and El Shaarrawy.
 
Kinell! Hattrick within 35 minutes. Last goal seemed too easy.
 
He had a very scrutinized and ultimately unsatisfactory stint at Barça (Despite 21 goals and a 12 assists) but I left very impressed with his skill set...I've been watching some variation of skilled and highly technical players at the club for more than 13 years now...I hadn't seen a big man with skills like Ibra's ever really

He dumped on Pep on the way out but I still really like the player...And is there a player who can strike the ball with more force than him atm?...It's like a missile being launched from his boots

Plus, he is the best interview in football, easily edging out Balotelli or Arshavin
 
Hasn't he won the title like seven or eight seasons in a row? Won it with Juventus twice in a row even though they were strapped those titles, won with Ajax before that, won with Inter, won in his only season with Barcelona and won with Milan. It's like he always wins. What's even more impressivr is the fact that I think only Barcelona won the league the season before his arrival.
 
Excellent video.

He still frustrates me though, it seems like when hes good hes spectacular, but when hes off form hes as good as being a man down.

Incredibly technical ability for such a big player it has to be said.
 
Hopefully he'll be up for it against Barca and knocks them out.. Would be healthy for some United fans to see that.

And yes, he IS that good..
 
Not gonna happen. Zlatan is brilliant but his team are miles behind Barcelona, they'll dominate and his team mates will struggle to get him the ball.
 
Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber said:
I fully expect their games to be as close as their last encounter at the San Siro was.
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To be fair, in that game they were missing Iniesta and Alves, two players who totally transform their team, and were also missing Pique and Puyol in the middle, playing with with two midfielders as their CB's instead, while Milan had pretty much their starting XI.

Zlatan had a decent game in that match though. It will be a different ball game this time around and it will be interesting to see how he fares. I am not sure it'll be a cakewalk but I reckon it will be relatively comfortable for Barca.​
 
To be honest i see Barcelona has having one of those seasons, they are struggling at times but when it comes to the big games they will probably put on a performance. I still think they will retain the CL for the first time this season, no league to worry about as Madrid have won it already so they can actually afford to rest players for it.. what a luxury with a squad like barcelonas.

No doubt this is the tie of the round but Zlatan knows more than any the difficulty they face. It'll take magic from him and he says himself that the more you want it and try for it the harder it comes and we all know how bad he'll want this...
 
Brute-forced that second goal. Beast.

Three goals away from his 25 goal record in Serie A. Played 33 games and scored 29 all in all this season.
 
The rivalry between AC Milan and Barcelona in Europe this season is set to resume, and so will the confrontation between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Pep Guardiola.

Ever since his departure from Camp Nou in the summer of 2010, the Rossoneri striker has fired numerous verbal attacks at his former Barca boss. The tension has since cooled off following the two teams' duels in the group stages, with Guardiola praising Ibra's "extraordinary" talents while the Sweden captain revealed that he voted for the Barca trainer as the 2011 Fifa Coach of the Year, and even went as far as to hint that he may work with his "enemy" again in future, but will need answers first.

Below, Goal.com charts the war of words between Ibrahimovic's camp and Barcelona's circle.

"Jose Mourinho is a big star ... he's cool. Mourinho is Guardiola's opposite. If Mourinho brightens up the room, Guardiola pulls down the curtains and I guessed that Guardiola now tried to measure himself with Mourinho."

– Ibrahimovic takes a jab at Pep by praising his closest rival and suggesting that the Barca coach was a 'Special One' wanna-be.

"It was a childhood dream [to join Barcelona] and I was walking on air. It started well but then Messi started to talk. He wanted to play in the middle, not on the wing, so the system changed from 4-3-3 to 4-5-1. I was sacrificed and no longer had the freedom on the pitch I need to succeed."

– The big Swede recounts how it all went pear shaped for him at Camp Nou.

“Lionel Messi is awesome. He’s unbelievable, but I don’t really know him. We are totally different. He came to Barça as a 13-year old. He’s raised in that culture and has no problems with that ‘school’ sh*t. In the team, the play is all around him, pretty naturally actually. He’s brilliant, but now I had arrived [at Barca] and scored more goals than him.”

- Ibra hails Leo, but spills the beans on how the Argentine had to be the team's main goalscorer.

"I told him [Guardiola] what a friend had said to me - 'you bought a Ferrari but drive it like a Fiat'. The chat seemed to go well but then Guardiola started to freeze me out."

- Zlatan must have realised then that Pep was neither a Ferrari nor a Fiat fan.

"Barca players were banned from driving their sports cars to training. I thought this was ridiculous - it was no one's business what car I drive - so in April, before a match with Almeria, I drove my Ferrari Enzo to work. It caused a scene."

– Ibra admitting that he was the bad boy in the classroom.

"I felt like crap when I was sitting in the locker room with Guardiola staring at me like I was an annoying distraction, an outsider. It was nuts. He was a wall, a stone wall. I didn’t get any sign of life from him and I was wishing myself away every moment with the team. Then Guardiola started his *********** thing. I was barely listening. Why would I? It was advanced bullsh*t about blood, sweat and tears, that kind of stuff."

- Zlatan disclosing Guardiola's training and coaching methods that have won Barcelona 13 trophies in less than three years.

"If you have a problem with me, it's up to you to solve your problem. You are the leader, you are the coach. You can't have a good dialogue with 20 people, and then with the 21st, you look away. In my book, a great coach solves his problems. A small-time coach runs from them."

– Winning an unprecedented six trophies in one season - his debut season - wasn't enough to make Pep a big-time coach in Ibra's eyes.

"People say he [Guardiola] won six trophies, they are the best team in the world. I could have coached that team. With a squad like that, you should win, no doubt about it. They can play without a coach. They can have four out injured and still win, that's how good they are."

– Zlatan has high praise for his former Barca team-mates, but still no gold stars for Guardiola.

"He reminds me a bit of Mahatma Gandhi when he is preparing his team in his talks in the locker room."

- Ibrahimovic describing Guardiola's approach to locker room team talks.

"Guardiola wants to be perfect in public. Tiger Woods wanted to be perfect too, but nobody is."

- First Pep was Gandhi, now he's Tiger Woods.

"I had done a lot to adapt - the Barca players were like schoolboys, following the coach blindly, whereas I was used to asking 'why?' I like guys who run red lights, not pedantic and strict rules. So I tried to be overly nice, didn't dare lose my temper."

- Ibra didn't do very well in the end in his attempts not to lose his temper.

"Guardiola was staring at me and I lost it. I thought ‘there is my enemy, scratching his bald head!’. I yelled to him: ‘You have no balls!’ and probably worse things than that."

– The argument that took place in the locker room between Ibra and Pep after Barcelona's Champions League semi-final clash with Inter in 2010.

"You are sh*tting yourself because of Jose Mourinho. You can go to hell!"
– Ibra continues his rant at Guardiola after claiming the Barca coach had "no balls!".

"I threw a box full of training gear across the room, it crashed to the floor and Pep said nothing, just put stuff back in the box. I'm not violent, but if I were Guardiola I would have been frightened."

– Guardiola taking the Gandhi approach to responding to verbal assaults and physical threats.

"He threatened to beat Guardiola in public. He said 'if you do not let me go I will paste him in front of the press'".

– Barcelona's corporate vice-president Carles Vilarrubi reveals just how "not violent" Ibra was.

"Ibra never really got on the same page as the rest of the team. Signing him was a mistake."

- Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta admits he made the wrong move bringing the big Swede to Camp Nou.

"Laporta said that they made a mistake when they signed me? That's not what he said before he signed me."

- Ibra takes a shot at the man who brought him to Camp Nou.

"There was only one person [at Barcelona] who wanted to get rid of me. I have never had problems with any coach before during my career. But suddenly I had a thousand problems and I had no communication with ‘the ***********’. No communication whatsoever. I don’t know what his problem was. I am 28-years-old and cannot afford to lose a year sitting on the bench and watching the weather."

- Ibra takes a shot at the man who forced him out of Camp Nou.

"The president said: 'Which club do you want to join?' I replied: 'Madrid.' Rosell replied: 'That is not possible. You can go anywhere but there.'"

- Did Ibrahimovic really think Barca would let him join Real, or was he just testing Rosell's patience?
"I want you to know that this is the worst piece of business I have conducted in my life."

- Barcelona president Sandro Rosell to AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani and Ibrahimovic's agent Mino Raiola upon finalising the striker's move to the Rossoneri, to which Ibra replied:
"It's the result of bad leadership."

“[I have] nothing to say. There was nothing personal. I just want to thank him for the year he gave us where we reached 99 points [in La Liga]. He played, he proved his quality and helped us reach the semi-finals of the Champions League. There is nothing more to say.”

– Guardiola deciding not to air his side of the story in the fractious relationship with Ibra, choosing instead to thank him.

"Before Ibrahimovic came here [to Barcelona] I thought he was a fantastic player. After getting to know him, I think he is even more fantastic."

- Guardiola praising his former striker despite being ripped apart in the player's book. Or is this just Pep appearing "perfect in public"?

"You have to get more out of the qualities you have. You have to be effective, especially if you come to a big club from another country. That is one of the details Ibrahimovic must learn because if you lose the ball as a forward in Italy it makes no difference. But if you lose the ball as a forward at Barcelona you're the first one to get running."

- Johan Cruyff, who first criticised Ibra as having "bad technique for a good player" when the striker was first at Ajax, maintains his stance on the Swede during his Barca stint.

“Why didn’t Cruyff tell Zlatan that he wasn’t suited to Spanish football before Barcelona signed him? I think Cruyff should be in a mental asylum with Guardiola, so they can sit there quietly and play cards together. They would be doing Barcelona a great favour.”

– Mino Raiola, Ibrahimovic's agent, hits back at Johan and throws Pep under the bus (or into the asylum) for good measure.

"If you don’t play a footballer after spending €65 million, then you should be sent to a mental hospital."

– Raiola really wants Guardiola in that asylum.

"I don't know whether I will shake Guardiola's hand. What has happened, has happened. Do Guardiola and I still have problems with each other? He has his problems and I have mine. The past is the past."

- Ahead of Wednesday night's quarter-final showdown, Ibra seems to have let bygones be bygones, but won't completely bury the hatchet.
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Ibra also said this last night at his pressy:


“We are ready. This is the game that everyone has been waiting for since the draw was made. Since then we have done very well, we fell ready and we have trained well. I don’t know what will happen but I do know that we’ll try our best. The whole team has to play a perfect game, including myself. We are playing against the best team in the world in the last five years. It won’t be the same as the group game, we know that tomorrow we cannot afford to lose.”

“If somebody knew Barcelona’s weak points then someone would have figured out how to beat them. At the end of the game we’ll see how we have done and what mistakes we made. It is a very important game for me, for the team and for the fans. Let’s hope to maintain our tradition in the Champions League.”

“We have to play our game against Barcelona. I am not a big fan of defensive football but the coach decides the tactics. We need a good result at home to give us confidence ahead of the return leg. We are the only Italian team left in the competition and hopefully we’ll still be the only team once this round is over.”

“Barcelona are a better team now than when I was there, they have new players and as time goes by they all understand each other better. I don’t think I am Milan’s only hope, I am doing well thanks to my team mates. We are a team, I am scoring lots of goals but there are times when you score a little less and it is up to others to score the goals. You win and lose as a team.”

“Messi is definitely the best player in the world and he would do well even in Italy but playing at Barcelona, with so many other world class players, helps you become that player. Messi is setting new records all the time and watching him play is fantastic. When I went to Barcelona it was a dream come true for me, like it is for every player. I am disappointed that it only lasted a season but these things happen in football. It was a huge honour for me to have played at the best team in the world and I won lots when I was there. It was my best debut season ever. I am proud of my time at Barca and I hope they win the league.”
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piqueibrahimovic.jpg
 
"Barca players were banned from driving their sports cars to training. I thought this was ridiculous - it was no one's business what car I drive - so in April, before a match with Almeria, I drove my Ferrari Enzo to work. It caused a scene."
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I feel for him, I hate it when they wont let me drive my half-a-million pound sports car into work. :mad:
 
He was given scraps and manage to produce a few good things with them.I think he did well but it's not easy when your midfield doesn't have the players to create and pass the ball to you.Technically he's something else
 
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