Losing Zlatan would be ‘disaster’

JOSE Mourinho has claimed it would be a ‘‘disaster’’ if he lost Zlatan Ibrahimovic to injury this season as the Manchester United manager admitted winger Memphis Depay had asked to leave the club.

Ibrahimovic has scored 17 goals since joining on a free transfer in the summer, including 11 in his past 10 matches, and 50 in 2016 for United and Paris StGermain. Should Ibrahimovic score twice against Middlesbrough at Old Trafford, he would eclipse Barcelona’s Lionel Messi as the leading scorer across Europe for the calendar year and Mourinho made no effort to conceal the 35-year-old’s importance to United.

‘‘A disaster,’’ Mourinho said when asked how damaging it would be to lose Ibrahimovic to injury. ‘‘Obviously a disaster, but that’s football.

‘‘It’s not a surprise [how many goals he has scored]. In Spain, Messi and Cristiano [Ronaldo] have a lot of penalties to score. They are phenomenal players with lots of penalties to score goals. Here, Zlatan has 18 [league] matches and one penalty. It’s not so easy to score goals.’’

Mourinho has made Atletico Madrid and France forward Antoine Griezmann a priority target for next summer but said he had no intention of trying to sign another striker in the January transfer window.

Ibrahimovic has struck upon a keen understanding with midfielder Paul Pogba, who he is convinced is now starting to show why the club paid £89 million to sign him.

‘‘In his first period in United, let’s say the first month, I think he wanted to demonstrate too much that he was worth the transfer that happened instead of playing his game like he knows how to play,’’ Ibrahimovic told ESPN FC.

Another new signing beginning to impress is Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The midfielder’s scorpion kick in the 3-1 win over Sunderland on Boxing Day is likely to be a contender for goal of the season but Ibrahimovic joked that his team-mate was merely taking a leaf out of his own book of tricks.

‘‘You know when you have a good student, you always learn, that’s exactly what I have in Mickey," Ibrahimovic said. ‘‘He has been a good example for learning from Ibracadabra, so I’m happy for him.’’ Telegraph, London