Mourinho: Zlatan could replace Lukaku
United manager says no guarantees for £75m star Swede not expected to feature until January
Jose Mourinho will have no qualms about picking Zlatan Ibrahimovic ahead of Romelu Lukaku if he proves he is the better player when he returns to action in the new year.
The Manchester United manager gave a detailed explanation as to why the club had re-signed Ibrahimovic this week, including stating they had a duty to do so because the striker received his serious knee injury while playing for them, and said he has given no guarantees to anyone.
“Zlatan knows me,” Mourinho said. “And he knows I play the players I think are the best for the team. I always did it. I always did that in my life so if he comes here and he proves he is the best, he plays.
“If the other ones don’t give him a chance to prove that, that’s life.”
Ibrahimovic tore his anterior cruciate ligament during United’s Europa League tie against Anderlecht last spring – on their way to winning that competition – which ended his season.
The 35-year-old was not retained by United after the completion of his initial 12-month deal but has been doing his rehab work at the club with the expectation that he would sign another contract. That has now happened.
Since his injury, of course, United have paid £75million plus Wayne Rooney to Everton to bring in Lukaku while Marcus Rashford has also impressed in a new-look forward line.
That attack has also included Henrikh Mkhitaryan and, with some vital substitute appearances, Anthony Martial. Ahead of the Premier League home fixture against Leicester City today, Mourinho said the pair are now more in tune with his demands.
“It’s better,” Mourinho said of Martial’s form. “I think when you have talent, you cannot waste it. If you’re blessed, then you have to fulfil and explore that talent. You cannot be happy with glimpses. I’m not going to change, I want more and more from him. He understands me better and the personal relationship is good.”
Mourinho said Mkhitaryan, also, “understands me” but there was an acknowledgement that he too has learnt to get the best out of the Armenian who struggled last season.
“And, to be honest, I understand him,” Mourinho said. “At the beginning of the [last] season if he understood me better he would’ve started better. But at the same time if I’d have understood him better he would’ve started faster than he did. We’re learning. He knows me well.”
As does Ibrahimovic. “I see Zlatan as important for the team,” Mourinho said. “I don’t know. I cannot say. I just say that my squad is better for sure, he is one more option, he is one more striker, he is one more experienced player, one more player that can play nine or 10, that can play double strikers or not. There are lots of matches.
“If we progress in the Champions League and if we progress in one of the two cups – I don’t even say both – we are going to be in the position where we couldn’t do it only with Lukaku and Rashford, especially if I play both together because if I play one, the other one is on the bench. If I play with both, I need a striker.
“So probably in January I would be knocking on [executive vicechairman] Ed Woodward’s door asking for a striker for the second part of the season and I don’t need to. I have one of the best in the world.”
Ibrahimovic is not expected to play until January, although Mourinho said he would probably name him in his Champions League squad.
The signing, he added, also took the pressure off bringing in another forward player before the transfer window closes next week. “Everyone knows I would like a fourth [forward] player and I can’t hide that because I had it in my mind,” Mourinho said.
“But I am happy if I am not going to have [a fourth player] – and I don’t think I am going to have. I was the first to tell my board not to feel any kind of pressure from me in that respect, but probably next summer I have to try to get a player for a position that I think can make us stronger.”
On United’s duty to re-sign Ibrahimovic, he explained: “It shows us the dimension of the player and the dimension of the club. It would be very easy for him to say, ‘goodbye, that’s enough’.
“[He] won the cup, big injury, goodbye. But he doesn’t want to do that, he wants to follow his other dreams and play at the highest level.
“A club like United, in my opinion, has to show how big it is in the details. This is a big detail. A player who gets injured in a United shirt, fighting for United, the club has to be there for him.”