Posts Tagged ‘Zlatan Ibrahimovic’

Forget Manchester United Versus Manchester City, It’s Zlatan Ibrahimović Versus Sergio AgĂĽero For The Title Of Top Dog In Manchester

Posted: August 22, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(Stats that prove the English Premier League is at least twice as hard as the French Ligue 1)

Who will score the most goals? Zlatan appears to be the less selfish of the two and has already said that it doesn’t matter who scores as long as United win. I am sure AgĂĽero shares this sentiment although he is unlikely to voice it and, in fairness, can appear to be quite greedy when anywhere close to the eighteen yard area.

To date Manchester City have scored six goals in the Premier League and five in the Champion’s League. Of these eleven goals AgĂĽero has been responsible for six of them and has even found time to miss two penalties in a game where he went on to score a hat-trick! So he has scored 55% of all his team’s goals so far. (more…)

Jose Mourinho Has Quickly Turned A Negative Into A Positive At Manchester United, (With A Little Help From Pogba, Bailly, Mhkitaryan And Ibrahimović)

Posted: August 21, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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When David Moyes was appointed Manchester United manager to follow in the footsteps of the great Sir Alex Ferguson, everybody at Old Trafford, including the most important people, the fans, were prepared to give him a chance.

He was christened “The Chosen One” because, in a deed which seemed very unlikely, it was said that Fergie had chosen him as his successor. The reason it was unlikely is that a club like Manchester United does not allow one man to make decisions which affect the whole future of the club and it’s employees. (more…)

Jose Mourinho Has Strengthened Manchester United In All The Key Positions

Posted: August 19, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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In contrast Louis van Gaal strengthened the midfield by finalising the purchase of Ander Herrera and buying Daley Blind, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Memphis Depay and Morgan Schneiderlin. These players were to add to Michael Carrick, Jesse Lingard, Adnan Januzaj, Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata and anybody else I may have missed.

He also bought a full back, Matteo Darmian who, at the time, seemed a good acquisition as he was the Italian national team’s full back, a teenager called Anthony Martial who will probably turn out to be the best buy of the van Gaal era, Marcos Rojo and he rubber stamped the purchase of Luke Shaw although it is likely that any incoming manager would have done the same. (more…)

Who Is Zlatan Ibrahimović And Why Did Jose Mourinho Bring Him To Manchester United?

Posted: August 16, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Despite his name Zlatan Ibrahimović is Swedish. His father was from Bijeljina in Bosnia and his mother from Prkos in Croatia. They met, however, in Sweden after both emigrating there a few years earlier.

When Zlatan was six they gave him a pair of football boots and, apart from a short time when he was fifteen, he has never looked back!

Fast forward to 1996 when he joined Malmo and stayed with them until 2001, experiencing relegation, promotion and little else, although it was during his time there that Arsene Wenger tried, unsuccessfully, to sign him for Arsenal. (more…)

Who Is Eric Bailly And Was Jose Mourinho Right To Sign Him For Manchester United?

Posted: August 15, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Before joining Manchester United few people in England had heard of Eric Bailly. A 22 year old defender from the Ivory Coast, he was bought from Villarreal for a bargain €30 million. This bargain was not as impressive as the one Villarreal received when they bought him from his first club, Espanyol. They paid a mere €5.7 million and so made a profit of €24.3 million, not too shabby a deal for them!

He made his debut for the Ivory Coast national team in 2015, in a friendly against Nigeria. He then went on to represent his country at the Africa Cup of Nations where he played in all six games, culminating in winning the trophy. (more…)

Jose Mourinho And Pep Guardiola Both Register A Win As Manchester United And City Collect The Points

Posted: August 14, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Despite a long injury list and a manager who has only been with the club for three weeks, Sunderland were rather unfortunate not to take a point from the Etihad. It isn’t that they really deserved anything from the game, it’s just that City hardly ran away with it.

Whilst it is true that City were also without players as new signings Leroy SanĂ© and Ilkay Gundogan were both injured, it is also true to say that City have never missed these two players before, so shouldn’t do so now. They were bought to add something to the team not take something away when they don’t play! They were also without Vincent Kompany, as usual, and Nicolas Otamendi, so John Stones made his debut alongside new centre back Aleksander Kolarov. (more…)

Either Manchester United Or Manchester City Will Win The Title, But Which One? Jose Mourinho Or Pep Guardiola?

Posted: August 12, 2016 in Football, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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The squad strengths are similar. The fame and reputations of the two managers are similar. In fact, there are so many similarities between the two teams this season that it is very difficult to say that one is better than the other and even more difficult to say which one that is.

Manchester City have a world class goalkeeper prone to the occasional mistake. United also have a world class goalkeeper who makes less mistakes so United have the edge here. (more…)

Why Would Jose Mourinho Sell Juan Mata Yet Keep Wayne Rooney at Manchester United?

Posted: August 11, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(Mata keeps his distance while Rooney, as usual, creeps up to the boss)

This is a perfectly reasonable question and yet the answer, for some unknown reason, appears to be quite complicated.

Certainly, over the last couple of years Juan Mata has contributed much, much more to the team than has Rooney. He is not a volatile character and represents the club in a much more positive and favourable way than Rooney.

Last season, for example, Mata made 49 appearances and scored 10 goals whereas Rooney made 38 appearances and scored 15 goals. Mata was also responsible for assisting many more goals than Rooney. (more…)

After Some Good Signings Jose Mourinho Now Needs To Clear Some Of The Dead Wood From Manchester United

Posted: August 10, 2016 in European Football, Football, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Even if Jose Mourinho does not make another signing for Manchester United this transfer window, there should be no complaints about the business that has been concluded.

The arrivals of Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Paul Pogba have completely renewed the fan’s faith in the ability of the team to go on and win something this time out.

Ed Woodward has not been vilified and so he should also see this transfer window as a success, having managed to secure the services of each of the Mourinho requirements. It may have cost a king’s ransom but what good is the money if it just sits in a bank? Ed certainly likes spending it as much as he likes making it! (more…)

Wayne Rooney Is The Weakest Link YET AGAIN For Manchester United

Posted: August 7, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion
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(Wayne Rooney finds lots of space as the opposition players know that he will give them the ball back very soon)

How much longer can this be tolerated? At present Rooney seems to be selected because he was, a few years ago, a half decent player. Nothing special, he would come up with the occasional spectacular goal and contribute a little to the team but, as I said, never anything special. He never lived up to the publicity he was given when he joined United as an eighteen-year-old.

He was made captain by Louis van Gaal who was another one who failed to cover himself in glory whilst at United. Van Gaal, apparently, wanted a leader and obviously couldn’t find one otherwise he wouldn’t have selected Rooney.

Fortunately, none of the other players follow Rooney’s example on the pitch as, if they did, they would give the ball away frequently either by poor control or mis-directed passing. (more…)

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