[NoPace]

Nice to see a sensible poster among us, totally agree we must keep him here next season. Top quality goal scorers are hard to come by and some of our fans can't seem to fathom that.

I could see us still scoring the same (not very impressive) number of goals without him we've scored this year, if we pressed a bit higher and played one of Martial or Rashford to give us more pace and I expect Mkhitaryan to improve, but I do think we'd be even more susceptible to 0-0 and 1-1 draws at home that just kill us in the title and maybe even the top 4 race.

The goal Zlatan scored today for instance, is just a sniper's goal of the kind Cristiano or Van Persie used to score here.

I think we're best off begging Zlatan to stay for one more year, if only because it will give Rashford and Martial another year to get closer to their prime and another year for us to determine if our Zlatan replacement can be promoted from in-house or needs to be bought elsewhere and if so, can we safely buy an older 9 knowing that Martial or Rashford will be likely ready in 1-2 more years, or if investing in a very pricey long-term 9 like Lukaku or Belotti makes more sense.

 

[Yagami]

He's frustrating at times but you just can't criticise him as he is carrying our attack.

Awesome goal, nice assist and also played a delicious scooped ball which I'd love to see more of from our attack as a whole.

 

[Mockney]

Even his assist for Rashford was lucky as he gave the defender a good chance to win it and overlooked Martial completely free on the other side.

They were in pretty much near identical positions, with Rashford being the closer to goal if anything, and the one on his stronger foot..

Why you'd think the better pass would be to the player further out, coming in from his weaker side, with a defender clearly obstructing the ideal pass into the space, meaning Zlatan would've had to either lift it over him, or pass it into feet, is anyone's guess.

Though tbh all of this is generously ignoring the fact that WHAT THE feck ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU MENTALIST, WE SCORED FROM IT!!?

 

[Raoul]

He has a combined 37 goals and assists in 43 appearances but some think he's the problem.

Mind boggling. If the rest of our attack had performed anywhere near his level we'd be higher up the table.

That's incredible. Sadly, he hasn't had a good enough supporting cast in the final third to contribute a few more goals and lessen the burden on him (which also makes us a bit predictable in the final third imo).

 

[MadMike]

They were in pretty much near identical positions, with Rashford being the closer if anything, and the one on his stronger foot..



Why you'd think the better pass would be to the player further out, coming in from his weaker side, with a defender clearly obstructing the ideal pass into the space, meaning Zlatan would've had to either lift it over him, or pass it into feet, is anyone's guess.

Though tbh all of this is generously ignoring the fact that WHAT THE feck ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU MENTALIST, WE SCORED FROM IT!!?

I really don't understand how people think Ibra made a wrong choice there

 

[11101]

He has a combined 37 goals and assists in 43 appearances but some think he's the problem.

Mind boggling. If the rest of our attack had performed anywhere near his level we'd be higher up the table.

He's carrying us and doing his job but you have to admit his lack of pace is frustrating. He could have scored 3 or 4 yesterday if he wasn't so slow.

 

[K2K]

Raahford and Martial arent ready to lead our attack.

Play them.there over a season and the Caf would be be carrying pitchforks demanding for someone for experienced to lead the line.

 

[K2K]

He's carrying us and doing his job but you have to admit his lack of pace is frustrating. He could have scored 3 or 4 yesterday if he wasn't so slow.

This is just stupid.

How many players score 3 or 4 regularly?

Zlatan misses chances, like any other striker.

We've seen with Rashford that you need to be more just being a pace merchant to do well in attack. What Zlatan lacks in pace, he makes up for it in other areas where a pay attacker might struggle.

Pace is truly overrated. Yes, it's great on FIFA though.

 

[11101]

This is just stupid.

How many players score 3 or 4 regularly?

Zlatan misses chances, like any other striker.

We've seen with Rashford that you need to be more just being a pace merchant to do well in attack. What Zlatan lacks in pace, he makes up for it in other areas where a pay attacker might struggle.

Pace is truly overrated. Yes, it's great on FIFA though.

Strikers like Ibrahimovic often score multiple goals against the likes of Sunderland.

There were two clear one on ones if he'd had the pace to get to them.

 

[Akshay]

Strikers like Ibrahimovic often score multiple goals against the likes of Sunderland.

Harry Kane has 1 goal in 2 games v Sunderland. Aguero has 2 in 2 like Ibra but one was a penalty. Who are these strikers who score multiple goals per game v Sunderland? 28 goals in a season that's not even over and people are complaining.

 

[11101]

Harry Kane has 1 goal in 2 games v Sunderland. Aguero has 2 in 2 like Ibra but one was a penalty. Who are these strikers who score multiple goals per game v Sunderland? 28 goals in a season that's not even over and people are complaining.

I'm not complaining about him. He's performing. But, the fact is if he was quicker he could have gotten on the end of at least two great chances yesterday. That's all.

 

[Akshay]

I'm not complaining about him. He's performing. But, the fact is if he was quicker he could have gotten on the end of at least two great chances yesterday. That's all.

Yeah, fair enough, but he also scored out of nothing. Ideally we have other players with pace make the runs in behind.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

That strike was an absolute laser. Pure belter. There were a couple of saves, similar to that strike and it had to be Zlatan to boll that kind of unsavable flat curler into the far corner.

Thought on the whole that he was very frustrating again, he just doesn't seem to acknowledge that he can barely run and there is zero dynamism to his movement at all. But as long as he keeps trolleying the ball into the back of the net and tee'ing up our young guys then keep on truckin' big feller. Couldn't be happier for him.

A friend of mine I watched the game with made an interesting comment at the end of the game "What is Zlatan's go-to move to score? What is his bread and butter? If you had 45 minutes to get him to score to save your life, how would you set the attack up for him to score". After some stunned silence and a "hmmm" I guess all you could really say is "create something out of nothing? Smash it into him for a contested header?" I think that underlines a massive point in our attack to be honest.

 

[el3mel]

I really don't understand how people think Ibra made a wrong choice there

Since he didn't pass to Martial it will be a wrong choice no matter what

 

[sashiko]

situation with Zlatan is an artificial circle. It was obvious he is behind his best years to everyone before his signature. So normally he should have been used as a support to the young and hopefully perspective forwarders. Yet he is made a chief guy and instead of acting as a support and play from time to time being a substitution man, the whole team plays at him and the only strategy I see from Mou for the time being is "fecking shoot at Zlatan".

This strategy brings some 20 goals out of 400 moments he gets, complete mess when he is not there, 5-7 place in the league and suppression of some players - not only Martial and Rashford but also Mikhi and Mata.

Another thing is he would probably not agree to the role due to his ambitions and Mou knew that. Everyone resolves his problem. Mou apparently wanted to show quick result in his 1st season and in his understanding without Zlatan Man Unated would have been 8-10. Don't know if that is true

 

[Chaky_Best]

He needs to be better surrounded.

If Pogba, Marial, Rashford and Mkhitaryan have scored more goals we could have been to four.

He plays his part alone in attack but deserve more support from the other attacking player.

I don't want us to be reliant on him as he's beginning to speak a bit too much in the media now he's scored 20+ goals.

 

[montpelier]

His link up play is frequently poor, I dunno what some of you are watching.

Excellent goal & excellent assist yesterday though <--- as illustrated by Rashford being able to score with a first time shot.

I remain opposed to re-signing him for next season but would confess that this is probably 50% ''agenda'' & 50% wishful thinking about Rashers, Martial & A N Other (hopefully Griezmann) - and it all comes right all of a sudden.

If we want another year of 5th or 6th, we should go with Zlatan again.

 

[2 man midfield]

Really hope he's here next season. He's going to hit 30 goals this season, even if he is 35 there's no reason for him to leave the top level. He's got one more season in him at least.

 

[addo]

No professional footballplayer in England has scored more goals than Zlatan.. He is no 1, plus he has 10 assists.. IN his first year in this league, plus he plays in a team that has not found its feet yet.

He is a monster carrying United on his shoulders atm..

 

[K2K]

Strikers like Ibrahimovic often score multiple goals against the likes of Sunderland.

There were two clear one on ones if he'd had the pace to get to them.

That's ridiculous.

Look at the number of goals our strikers have had over the last 30 years, Zlatan is having a good season as any.

It's ridiculous that people question his goal scoring .

Set for 30 plus goals this season. No one since RVP has gotten there for United in 4 years.

Do people expect to him to score with every chance?

 

[K2K]

His link up play is frequently poor, I dunno what some of you are watching.

Excellent goal & excellent assist yesterday though <--- as illustrated by Rashford being able to score with a first time shot.

I remain opposed to re-signing him for next season but would confess that this is probably 50% ''agenda'' & 50% wishful thinking about Rashers, Martial & A N Other (hopefully Griezmann) - and it all comes right all of a sudden.

If we want another year of 5th or 6th, we should go with Zlatan again.

At least you are honest.

 

[togg]

No professional footballplayer in England has scored more goals than Zlatan.. He is no 1, plus he has 10 assists.. IN his first year in this league, plus he plays in a team that has not found its feet yet.

He is a monster carrying United on his shoulders atm..

Yeah....I always felt the same with RVN who I thought was arguably one of our most lethal strikers ever. However, he was part of a team in transition and therefore never reached the trophy success with United his contribution deserved.

 

[RedPnutz]

They were in pretty much near identical positions, with Rashford being the closer to goal if anything, and the one on his stronger foot..



Why you'd think the better pass would be to the player further out, coming in from his weaker side, with a defender clearly obstructing the ideal pass into the space, meaning Zlatan would've had to either lift it over him, or pass it into feet, is anyone's guess.

Though tbh all of this is generously ignoring the fact that WHAT THE feck ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU MENTALIST, WE SCORED FROM IT!!?

So much this.... I don't understand some the the posters here at all. Seems more important to stick to some personal agenda or bias.

Forum reeks of cognitive dissonance.

 

[RedPnutz]

Since he didn't pass to Martial it will be a wrong choice no matter what

Actually, because it was Zlatan making the pass it was a wrong choice no matter what.

 

[Beachryan]

For me Zlatan is a contradiction: his numbers are incredible, but watching him for full 90s since the turn off the year, his performances have been maybe 7/10 at best.

I think we have 2 issues: first our entire attack is built around him, and second our other strikers haven't been at a 'united' level.

So when he's rubbish he brings our attacking fluency to a halt, but we have no one better. Then he scores a goal like yesterday, which was utterly world class.

 

[tomaldinho1]

For me Zlatan is a contradiction: his numbers are incredible, but watching him for full 90s since the turn off the year, his performances have been maybe 7/10 at best.

I think we have 2 issues: first our entire attack is built around him, and second our other strikers haven't been at a 'united' level.

So when he's rubbish he brings our attacking fluency to a halt, but we have no one better. Then he scores a goal like yesterday, which was utterly world class.

Judging from your post I'm assuming you aren't impressed by a consistently 7/10 player? In which case you have begun your point with, ironically, a contradiction.

 

[Raoul]

For me Zlatan is a contradiction: his numbers are incredible, but watching him for full 90s since the turn off the year, his performances have been maybe 7/10 at best.

I think we have 2 issues: first our entire attack is built around him, and second our other strikers haven't been at a 'united' level.

So when he's rubbish he brings our attacking fluency to a halt, but we have no one better. Then he scores a goal like yesterday, which was utterly world class.

I see this as more problematic in terms of a lack of quality in his supporting case. There isn't much more we can possibly ask of a 35 year old than to knock in 30 plus goals.

 

[RedMaestro]

That strike was an absolute laser. Pure belter. There were a couple of saves, similar to that strike and it had to be Zlatan to boll that kind of unsavable flat curler into the far corner.

Thought on the whole that he was very frustrating again, he just doesn't seem to acknowledge that he can barely run and there is zero dynamism to his movement at all. But as long as he keeps trolleying the ball into the back of the net and tee'ing up our young guys then keep on truckin' big feller. Couldn't be happier for him.

A friend of mine I watched the game with made an interesting comment at the end of the game "What is Zlatan's go-to move to score? What is his bread and butter? If you had 45 minutes to get him to score to save your life, how would you set the attack up for him to score". After some stunned silence and a "hmmm" I guess all you could really say is "create something out of nothing? Smash it into him for a contested header?" I think that underlines a massive point in our attack to be honest.

I'm not sure if I understand the question correctly but if I do then I'd say that it's a bit hard to pick something specific when we're talking about Ibrahimovic but if I had to pick something then it could be these two, which in my opinion are the type of goals he 'likes' to score and could describe him:

He always looks for this space and is often waiting for someone to make this kind of pass to him so he can either score with his feet or head in this case.

This goal that was disallowed against Middlesbrough is also the type of goal that he likes to score. Since martial arts is a part of him, he likes to use his feet in an unorthodox way as a footballer. He's scored a lot of goals like this, a couple of them have been 'scorpion kicks' as well. But you get the idea.

 

[sunama]

Well done, big man!

28 goals and 9 assists is a fabulous return this season (hope he ends up with 35+ goals). Really hope he's here next season.

According to some on here, this isn't good enough. He should've scored at least another 15 goals. They demand that he break the all time goal scoring record and if he doesn't - he is holding us back.
The fact that Ibra has scored more league goals than Martial, Miki, Rashford - all put together, is embarrassing, for our other attackers. How can people have the nerve to berate Ibra, when our other attackers are utterly useless?
I don't like to have a go at Rashford due to his age, but Miki and Martial have been dreadful. So bad, that if they get transfer listed in the Summer, they cannot complain.
Scoring 3-4 league goals in a season for a MUFC attacker is grounds to be sold. In fact, attackers who have scored many more goals than this were sold by Fergie.

I'm not sure what Jose can do, to get our other attackers to start scoring goals. I guess he could just bring in 2 new attackers and bench Miki and Martial and phase them out during next season, if they continue to play badly. Whatever happens, I would definitely not trust those 2 to score goals, just as LVG should not have trusted Rooney to score goals last season.

 

[manutddjw]

Agree with Sunama above. In the "who's to blame" thread last week, I put the blame on Rashford, Martial and Mkhitaryan. We needed them to contribute and none of them have. Martial in particular has been a disappointment because the fact is he played on the left most of last season and did very well, yet he's suddenly incapable of playing there and will only perform well in the middle.

How anyone can blame the 1 attacker who has actually did what he's supposed to this season is beyond me.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

I'm not sure if I understand the question correctly but if I do then I'd say that it's a bit hard to pick something specific when we're talking about Ibrahimovic but if I had to pick something then it could be these two, which in my opinion are the type of goals he 'likes' to score and could describe him:

As in, if somebody held a gun to your head and said set your team up for Zlatan to score and if he doesn't in 45 minutes or I shoot you dead. What would be your repetitive move to go-to to buy a goal to save your life?

The first one is a really low percentage play. An insanely deep poachers ball over the top and a goal in behind, probably a rarity for Zlatan in the league due to most defenders having him on toast for standing sprint. (Collins, lawl) The second was a nice deep-line narrow winger roll off for him to poach on the penalty spot. A move we really haven't gone to enough for it to pay off regularly this season. Which, to be honest is quite bizarre because it should be such a bread and butter move for Martial on the left to find a striker with Zlatan's gravity. That is probably just as frustrating in truth when broken down like that.

I still can't really work out why our wingers struggle to get really good penetrative narrow ball on the edge of the area in nice overload situations where they can penetrate the backline and square the ball. It really only seems to be a lot of heavily marked crosses on the switch-back or Valencia rainbowing the ball in from 25 yards out on the touch line when everyone is marked up heavily.

 

[RedMaestro]

As in, if somebody held a gun to your head and said set your team up for Zlatan to score and if he doesn't in 45 minutes or I shoot you dead. What would be your repetitive move to go-to to buy a goal to save your life?

The first one is a really low percentage play. An insanely deep poachers ball over the top and a goal in behind, probably a rarity for Zlatan in the league due to most defenders having him on toast for standing sprint. (Collins, lawl) The second was a nice deep-line narrow winger roll off for him to poach on the penalty spot. A move we really haven't gone to enough for it to pay off regularly this season. Which, to be honest is quite bizarre because it should be such a bread and butter move for Martial on the left to find a striker with Zlatan's gravity. That is probably just as frustrating in truth when broken down like that.

I still can't really work out why our wingers struggle to get really good penetrative narrow ball on the edge of the area in nice overload situations where they can penetrate the backline and square the ball. It really only seems to be a lot of heavily marked crosses on the switch-back or Valencia rainbowing the ball in from 25 yards out on the touch line when everyone is marked up heavily.

Well not exactly in my opinion. From what I've seen this season, he seems to be timing the runs really well (sometimes been offside of course) and is usually not standing still. He's actually on movement so he can keep up with the opponents. But the ball usually doesn't come. I've seen him wait for these balls to come at least 1 or 2 times per game until he eventually gives up. At least that's what I remember, don't have video proof.

I agree about the Martial thing. Can't really understand why he doesn't do it more often. What's really starting to frustrate me about his dribbling is that he does if for too long. Instead of passing the ball after one or two dribbling movements, he continues to do it more until he runs into the opponent in which he loses the ball. If he'd just take the easier way more often I'm sure he'd be more successful and hopefully more goals would be scored.

About Ibrahimovic's goal type I would say that his latest goal against Sunderland is a typical Ibra goal too. When he realises that it's up to him to score, he usually takes the shot from those spaces. I'd say that he sees it's difficult to score from inside the box with all the opponents being inside, he takes the shots from distance. Maybe like this one:

 

[PedroMendez]

Our best player this season by a mile. Great signing. We’d be fecked without him.

 

[R.N7]

The least likely way Zlatan scores goals is through penalty area scrambles and panicky crosses, unfortunately that's mostly the kind of service he's been getting this season. Surround him with better footballers and he'll do even better, as one can see it's only really Pogba who's been on the same wavelength as him and that's why they've produced so many goals together. It doesn't matter how quick the defender is when two world class players combine.

 

[arthurka]

He is very frustrating at times but he still is one of the best out there..
We are lucky to have him.

 

[Z_Wolf]

He is in the PFA Player of the year shortlist. Happy for him. We'll deserved.

 

[TwoSheds]

He is in the PFA Player of the year shortlist. Happy for him. We'll deserved.

Good stuff. What's the top scorer league table looking like at the moment? I imagine he's up there?

 

[el3mel]

He got nominated in the PFA player of the year shortlist but people here will still complain he's holding us back and slowing the team down .

 

[Ashley R1+O]

Well deserved. If he can somehow score at least 8 in his last 8 in the league it will really set us up for a top4 shot and cement him as a true contender for the actual award.
Amazing season statistically for him.

 

[DWelbz19]

Good stuff. What's the top scorer league table looking like at the moment? I imagine he's up there?

Lukaku - 23
Kane - 19
Alexis - 18
Zibra/Costa - 17