YOU’LL SEE WHY HE’S CALLED SPECIAL
Ibrahimovic is backing ‘winner’ Jose to land title at Old Trafford
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC believes Jose Mourinho can come through his crisis at Manchester United and lead them to Premier League glory.
The Swede played under Mourinho at United and
Inter Milan and they enjoyed great success together.
Despite the Reds being seven points off the top three and out of the Carabao Cup, Ibrahimovic said: “I think he has the ability to win [the Premier League]. He is the right coach for that club, for that team.
“But a coach is only as good as his team, so it’s not like he can do miracles if the team is not good enough.
“And I feel the team is good – it’s progressing, becoming better. This is his third year, the players know more and more the way he wants to play and how he wants it, so I believe, yes.”
And the 37-year-old has no doubt Mourinho deserves his Special One status.
He told Bethard: “Why is Mourinho so special? First of all because he’s a winner, he has this winner mentality. He does everything to win. He knows the game. He reads the game well. He manipulates, not the game, but the minds of his own players.
“I remember when he came first time in Inter, he made everybody give 200 per cent – but not for the team, not for the club, for him.
“And that for me makes him very special, because when he came out on the big stage he was something different.
“He wasn’t that classical coach. I remember I had Capello. Capello was hard, was discipline, was respect. Mourinho brought that but at the same time brought something else – character. He had different character, expressing himself.”
Ibrahimovic and Mourinho have both been labelled arrogant but the LA Galaxy striker said: “He was confident, not arrogant. I have the same thing.
“People say I’m arrogant, but I don’t call it arrogant, I call it confident. Because when you’re confident, it means you’re not powerful, but you’re pretty sure for who you are.
“That is not arrogance, it is different. Ignorant call it arrogant, the intelligent call it confident.” this way of