A lot was expected of Manchester United this season. Having spent nearly 150 million pounds in the summer transfer window, one can understand why there are so many expectations on Manchester United. Jose Mourinho was brought in to steady the ship at Old Trafford, but the ship has become anything but steady so far as The Red Devils find themselves in 8th place. They are 8 points off the top of the table. Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were the players Mourinho brought into Old Trafford to bring about a change of fortunes.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who captioned himself as “The New King Of Manchester”, was certainly a huge signing as The Swede has amassed so many accomplishments to his name in a glitzy career that has seen him win league titles in 5 different countries. His career with Manchester United got off to a bright start as he scored the winning goal in the Community Shield game against Leicester. Further goals against Bournemouth, Southampton and Manchester City followed as Zlatan looked to be acclimatizing well to the rigors of the Premier League. But all that has gone downhill ever since, as Zlatan has been goalless for 6 games now. This is his longest run without a goal since his Inter Milan days, which stretches back to 2009.
Mourinho for one must have thought that bringing in Zlatan would fix Manchester United’s striker conundrum once and for all, but that definitely hasn’t been the case. The Swede has gone missing on several occasions and has failed to even put in a decent shift in some of the games off late. Having Zlatan in the dressing room will be huge for some of the growing players at Manchester United, but seeing him perform like this will make them wonder if he is getting into the team only because of his name and past achievements. This shouldn’t be the case, but it is definitely looking like that from Mourinho’s side of things.
One thing is for sure, other senior Manchester United players will be watching on. Club captain Wayne Rooney, in particular, will keep a watchful eye on proceedings. No player should be given preferential treatment and it is certainly looking like it is a case of it as Mourinho has not even substituted Ibrahimovic, even if The Swede looked average during a game. Manchester United are without a goal for 3 league games running now and this will definitely irk all the fans. They are used to seeing their side play attacking football. Something they have been deprived of since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Something at Manchester United has never quite been the same since Sir Alex hung up his managerial coat.
In the recent 0-0 draw with Burnley, Manchester United had 37 shots on goal. Zlatan too had many attempts and even hit the crossbar with a looping header. He had several other chances to get his name on the scoresheet, including a glaring miss in the ending stages of the game after being set up by Pogba. Having had so many shots and not having even one goal to show for it means that United are failing as an attacking unit and Zlatan can be held culpable for this as he is simply not producing the goods that are expected of him. Even in midweek, Ibrahimovic missed many opportunities against Manchester City in the League Cup as United won 1-0 thanks to a Mata goal.
It has become clear that things aren’t going to plan at Manchester United and Jose Mourinho was even sent to the stands in the draw against Burnley. Things are beginning to go pear-shaped and Zlatan must deliver again. If he fails to convince in the coming games, it remains to be seen if Mourinho retains his faith in Ibrahimovic.