Zlatan: This is the first of many
CHRIS WHEELER at Wembley
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC has promised to deliver more trophies at Manchester United after his match-winning display in the EFL Cup at Wembley.
The 35-year- old striker, who scored twice in a 3-2 win over Southampton, said: ‘It’s all about winning. This is what I came for. Now I have to keep going.’
The triumph was a first at United for manager Jose Mourinho and a recordequalling fourth in the League Cup. He said: ‘I feel happy with the victory and happy with the fact I did it four times.’
AT The full- time whistle, the men in white shirts sank to the Wembley turf as one. Southampton should take consolation from this cruel defeat, however. This was a team who went down fighting and in the environment of modern football there is something to be said for that.
This was a terrific final and a trophy hard- earned by Jose Mourinho and Manchester United on a day when their best football was beyond them. As such, it was a day to remind us just what winning a cup still means.
here we saw what winning meant to United. Wayne Rooney, a non-playing captain, celebrated wildly when Zlatan Ibrahimovic headed the winning goal.
And here we saw what losing meant to Southampton. Claude Puel and his players were devastated at having come so close and ending up with nothing.
But at least they died with their boots on. At least they tried from the start of a competition treated so casually by many managers in the Premier League. And in watching them give so much it was impossible not to wonder why others do not.
Winning sustains clubs like nothing else. From the four relatively fallow seasons since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, United have now taken two trophies. That is two more than Tottenham or Liverpool, the same as Arsenal and only one less than Manchester City.
That’s not bad for a club who have spent so much of recent years in what may generously be described as ‘transition’. But that’s what can happen when you try to win things, when you field competitive teams and tell your players it matters.
This mattered to United and Southampton in August and it mattered yesterday. That is why both winners and losers will emerge the better for it. But what about clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and City, clubs who all fell in this competition on the back of fielding understrength teams?
Perhaps it seemed like a good idea at the time but does it now? Watching on TV, surely Jurgen Klopp, Arsene Wenger, Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola will have recognised the value of winning something?
Whatever, this was an afternoon to appreciate the enduring value of english football’s second cup competition. The journey to the final of what many of us still call the League Cup can lack a little glamour at times but it usually feels worth it by the end. And so it was here, when we were helped by the wonderful ambition of Southampton’s football.
Puel’s team had lost three of their four games since beating Liverpool’s reserves in the semi- final and here we saw why. They had been saving themselves — deliberately or otherwise — for this occasion and at no stage did they look as though they believed themselves to be anything other than United’s equal.
Fortune certainly wasn’t theirs. An assistant referee denied them the lead in the first half — a wretched decision, that — while the frame of the goal denied them in the second. On other occasions, the ball did not run their way.
Southampton had players who raised their levels for the occasion. Goalscorer Manolo Gabbiadini was one, captain Steven Davis was another. United, on the other hand, ran in treacle for much of the game. Rarely has a team played so poorly to lead 2-0, as United did in the first 40 minutes.
Puel encourages his team to play with width and if the French coach had identified United’s full backs as a weakness then it almost worked as United were desperately vulnerable down either side.
Mourinho had match-winning performances of his own to reflect on at the end. Ibrahimovic, Ander herrera and David de Gea were excellent. Others, however, were not. Chris Smalling laboured, Paul Pogba was noticeable only because of his hair, and Juan Mata was taken off at half-time.
On the day, over the course of the game, United did not really deserve to win. But did they deserve to win the competition as a whole? Well, they beat City and two other Premier League teams in West ham and hull. And against Northampton in their opening game their team included Rooney, Ibrahimovic, Smalling, herrera, Michael Carrick, Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind.
So it is hard to begrudge them and it seems the message was there from Mourinho right from the get-go. This is a competition worth winning. This matters.
As Southampton’s weary players hauled themselves up the steps for their losers’ medals, it certainly looked that way.