Great player with a fantastic mentality, his PSG stint and lack of European success has held his legacy back and won’t be rated amongst the very best because of it.
How good was Zlatan?
- Thread starter Edgar Allan Pillow
- Start date
Had a feeling you were gonna mention Ronaldo. Ronaldo's career didn't have Zlatan's longevity though due to his injuries.
I just think Zlatan should have won at least 1 CL. And it's not like he dragged teams to finals but lost. He never really shone in the CL, can't even remember 1 truely big game performance by him in the KO stages.
A huge display of ego and bias, but fun.
Spent too much of his career pissing about in weaker leagues. And yes, I include Serie A in that. Similar to how Neymar is pissing about at PSG or how Verratti will never be rated how he might be somewhere else. Nobody gives a feck what you do in PSG, and unfortunately for him, he only really peaked in terms of his consistency when he left Barca and went to Milan and started killing it regularly and then to PSG. He showed how good he was at United at 34/35.. but he was 34/35. At Barca he had some terrific moments but he really didn't suit being in that team with Peps style and with Messi there, no matter how good he is himself. So while he was brilliant before going to Barca, he lacked consistency at the very top when it mattered because the Serie A was just easy for him, and then went to a team that didn't suit him at all, then went back to Serie A and then to Ligue 1.
As a player, the actual level he played at, he could've done a lot more IMO, and he was definitely among the very best strikers of his generation at his peak, a player that very few could rival. He just did it all in leagues where he didn't have to break much of a sweat to do those things, instead of possibly even reaching another level if he went to the premier league earlier (which is the league he was born for IMO).
As a player, the actual level he played at, he could've done a lot more IMO, and he was definitely among the very best strikers of his generation at his peak, a player that very few could rival. He just did it all in leagues where he didn't have to break much of a sweat to do those things, instead of possibly even reaching another level if he went to the premier league earlier (which is the league he was born for IMO).
Is that so? I think he helped PSG become the unkillable Ligue 1 monster they are now. Ibrahimovic was truly the 1st superstar of the Qatari PSG. He delivered. Like he did with AC Milan in 2010-11.
It's his PL stint that certified his "has been" status.
Btw, RVN and Ibra are a valid comparison.
Deadly CFs, exquisite technique...awful character and UCL underachievers...
Deadly CFs, exquisite technique...awful character and UCL underachievers...
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PSG would have built themselves up with or without him. He pummelled a weak league year on year that doesn't help his legacy at all.
And let's not forget he also failed with Sweden. A talent of his caliber should have led Sweden to another mini-golden age, like the early '90s.
113 goals in 122 appearances.
One of the best strikers of his generation. Absolutely phenomenal and very unique player. I miss watching him playing in Europe honestly.
"Arsène Wenger asked me to have a trial with Arsenal when I was 17. I turned it down. Zlatan doesn't do auditions."
Except for that certain someone who was willing to pay additional £59 mil to swap them, I guess.
Yes, just supports the point I made.
And my point is that very few CFs have pummeled Ligue 1 like Ibra did.
Neymar and Mbappe are scoring at a similar rate and they aren't even pure strikers.
Cavani also has a very good strike rate. An injured and past it Falcao has also been scoring at a good rate.
In my opinion, the PSG stint was iconic in Ibra's career.
If he’d have been quicker he’d have been the best striker since Brazilian Ronaldo
Yh I agree with this - he's had a stellar career but I think it could have been so much more. The PSG stint is probably his most iconic but for the wrong reasons - he was a truly top level striker and the one time he decided to commit to a club for a decent amount of time, it was clearly a money move for a Ligue 1 team instead of one of the major competitions.
The fact he was still a very good player when he came to United at the age he did was great but also it made me realise how underrated he is (bearing in mind he's known as a great striker) because of the route his career has taken. I don't think he could have been in the argument for the GOAT but I think he should be closer than he is now.
In terms of technique he's up there with Bergkamp.
You have Cristiano and Messi on a tier all by themselves. Zlatan is the tier just below. Amazing player, his play at Inter was truly remarkable and often gets overlooked.
Miguel Delaney on Twitter was arguing a couple of weeks ago that he wasn't even as great as Villa...Villa was a great player in his own right no doubt about it, but surely Zlatan will be remembered as the superior player?
Miguel Delaney on Twitter was arguing a couple of weeks ago that he wasn't even as great as Villa...Villa was a great player in his own right no doubt about it, but surely Zlatan will be remembered as the superior player?
Agree. Eto'o was comfortably better IMO. I'd take him over lewandowski though. Zlatan is much more well rounder than the Polish striker who I find overrated. Zlatan was brilliant I would the likes of Henry,
Who turned out to be terribly wrong of course.
Pretty much this. I feel Zlatan is the most overrated player of this generation and I watched him since 2002. He is never a player you can rely on when the going gets tough. He has a few acrobatic goals in him though.
Juventus 2005 draw vs Liverpool in the second round when a 1-0 win would have been enough turned me off him and nothing he did ever convinced me he is top class, For a long while he never scored in the CL knockouts or in crucial CL games.
Mediocre CL knockout goals record and zero world cup goals.
Between 2005 and now, I can pick over a dozen strikers ahead of him. RvP, RvN Drogba Henry Villa Etoo Suarez Aguero Lewandoski Benzema Rooney, Tevez, Diego Costa
His reliability in key games will be on the level of Cavani, Mario Gomez and Higuain. Hit and miss only that Zlatan has a better PR machine behind him
The Ibrahimovic from Internazionale was clear cut top 2-3 in the world in those last years specially.
When he started getting less mobile he was still good but that's when he started becoming overrated.
When he started getting less mobile he was still good but that's when he started becoming overrated.
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I may be a bit biased when it comes to this guy but I think you would have a hard time finding a lot of people who would agree that he failed for Sweden. Most would probably say the exact opposite in fact. He scored 62 goals in 116 games, which comes to about the same GPG ratio as C.Ronaldo for Portugal.
It's a team sport as well so leading any team to glory by yourself just isn't done no matter who you are, especially when your best attacking partner for the better part of a decade is Seb 'how is this guy a pro' Larsson.
I'd argue that his NT career is more impressive than his club career considering the absolute dross he had to play with.
Looked genuinely shite when he was missing all the chances vs. the English teams. Always been overrated for me, I might be wrong about that to some extent, I don't watch a lot of non-English footy.
Curate's egg at Utd, some impressive stuff & a decent scoring rate. Quite a lot of trundling off to the back stick & waiting for the cross to come in, quite a lot of shoddy link play.
He's a fanboy phenomenon though, certainly.
edit - they can't all be wrong
Curate's egg at Utd, some impressive stuff & a decent scoring rate. Quite a lot of trundling off to the back stick & waiting for the cross to come in, quite a lot of shoddy link play.
He's a fanboy phenomenon though, certainly.
edit - they can't all be wrong
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Yeah, but that was not my point
His international record is good in my book. He’s the 4th highest scorer of all time in the Euros, despite playing for a fairly mediocre side. Scored some belters too. He certainly delivered the goods at tournaments more regularly than most of his peers like Aguero and Rooney.
Zlatan has longevity but I'd prefer peak David Villa all day long in an important big game.
Not as good as Van Persie or Samuel Eto'o
Very good post. He was largely underwhelming till he went to PSG and then had a highlight reel of goals scored in a league with lower standards. Pre PSG I always thought of him as a talented player but someone who never showed up on the big stage.
I think he probably matured a bit after his Barca experience but it was a little too late as he ended up going to France and he was too old by the time he joined us.
He was rarely a big game player like the ones you mentioned.
Totally disagree . Zlatan was miles better than muller he was at his best the top few strikers in the world.. I used to visit my brother in Italy alot back then and would watch more than my fair share of Italian football . Zlatan was incredible but wasn't appreciated by the British media until he destroyed England in the game in Sweden . For the hes there with the very best of the last 20 years .
He was a game winner. Could score from a nothing situation.
He didnt really fail. Many times, he was the only player in Sweden who even played in a club at high level. With a team like that, it is ready an accomplishment itself to just go to world cup. Sweden in the early 90s had more than just one good player.
I put Muller in there as they were the 3 names the thread starter used.
Take away the PSG stint, which doesn't count for much, and Zlatan only had two 20+ league goal seasons. Going off ~30 years of watching football the best I've seen were the likes of Ronaldo, Romario and Batistuta. Zlatan was a brilliant player but he was not on that level.
I'm not going to count how many trophies, Player of the Year-awards and cups he won, but looking purely at league victories:
2002 Netherlands (Ajax)
2004 Netherlands (Ajax)
2005 Italy (Juventus)
2006 Italy (Juventus)
2007 Italy (Inter)
2008 Italy (Inter)
2009 Italy (Inter)
2010 Spain (Barcelona)
2011 Italy (Milan)
2013 France (PSG)
2914 France (PSG)
2015 France (PSG)
2016 France (PSG)
Meaning he won 13 league titles in 15 seasons before coming to United. That should speak for itself. The guy's a winner.
2002 Netherlands (Ajax)
2004 Netherlands (Ajax)
2005 Italy (Juventus)
2006 Italy (Juventus)
2007 Italy (Inter)
2008 Italy (Inter)
2009 Italy (Inter)
2010 Spain (Barcelona)
2011 Italy (Milan)
2013 France (PSG)
2914 France (PSG)
2015 France (PSG)
2016 France (PSG)
Meaning he won 13 league titles in 15 seasons before coming to United. That should speak for itself. The guy's a winner.
But no one cares, because it was in the French league, just as no one cares about Neymar's numbers there.
Juve was stripped of those titles. And was benched for most of 2010 with Barça. Anyway, I agree with you: he was a league monster. But failed at cups and decisive matches.
Agreed. He always performed quite good for Sweden. It’s a shame that his 4 goals against England came in a friendly, but he has enough memorable moments. His back heel goal against Italy, for example.
He was fantastic for Inter and AC Milan.
And the titles with Inter were post Calciopoli when they were the only big team that didn't get hit with it. I think the only really impressive title he won was with Milan.