Ibrahimovic: I am Zlatan the Conqueror

Summer signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic feels he has already conquered English football with Manchester United - and it only took him "three months".

The Swedish marksman missed the EFL Cup win over Hull City due to illness after sitting on the bench throughout the FA Cup triumph against Reading. But Jose Mourinho expects to have him back leading the line for Sunday's mouthwatering showdown with rivals Liverpool.

Ibrahimovic, United's top scorer this season, is only one behind Chelsea's Diego Costa in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot but insists it is not in his thinking as he is pursuing team glory. That said, he believes he has achieved his individual targets already by proving his class in the Premier League. 

"No, I’m not chasing anybody," he said, when asked by ManUtd.com about the prospect of chasing down Costa. "I’m chasing the head trophy – the Premier League. That is my aim. The individual things come as part of the main objective because that is like a bonus for every individual player. 

"If the collective does well, then the individuals will do well. I try to help the team and try to do what I’m best at – scoring goals, playing good and creating chances for my team-mates. As long as I can do that, I know I will help my team. The same thing with them, they help me the way they can for the team. I have no individual targets because that I did already, after three months in England. After I conquered England – it took three months."

The striker feels United cannot be discounted from the title race as the crunch encounter with the Merseysiders approaches. Victory would leave the Reds only two points behind Jurgen Klopp's side and the Swede has been consistent in his view that things would click eventually into gear.

"We had our dips, our ups and downs when we were winning, losing, winning and losing," he explained. "Lately, we have been winning, where we have been more stabilised as a team. The coach has found his base, which is not easy when you’re a new coach coming to a new team and want to put in your philosophy, your game and the way you want it to be. 

"I said from the beginning – slowly, slowly, we will get better and everything was about the click. We needed to click as a team. Now you the see the identity of the team. We are finding each other but I think we can do much more and be much better. And we will do it – we are working hard for it. 

"The last one and a half months have shown the right way, the gap [at the top] has been bigger but now it’s better. So we are closer to that now. We wait for the other teams to have their dips, to make their mistakes, and we will be there. We will give them hard work until then because I think the second half of the season is the decisive one and that will decide. Whatever you want, wherever you will come, let’s see what we want. I know what we want. We want to show it."

Jose Mourinho expects more goals from Wayne Rooney

Jose Mourinho has challenged Wayne Rooney to score more goals for Manchester United after saying only Zlatan Ibrahimovic is living up to expectations with his strike-rate this season.

United face Tottenham on Sunday having scored just 19 goals in the Premier League this term, with Rooney failing get on the scoresheet in the league since the opening weekend victory against Bournemouth.

The United captain, who is now just one goal short of equalling Sir Bobby Charlton's all-time record of 249 for the club, has scored just three in all competitions this season and Mourinho wants the 31-year-old to rediscover his form to help alleviate the burden on Ibrahimovic.

"As an attacking player, normally he [Rooney] scores more goals," Mourinho said after United's 2-0 Europa League victory against Zorya Luhansk in Odessa. "He scored a couple, I think, at Fenerbahce and one in the Premier League.

"We expect more goals from him, yes, but we expect more goals from everyone in the team.

"Maybe Zlatan is the one, but as the main striker it is normal that he has more goals scored. But all the other attacking players, we expect more goals from them."

Rooney's goal drought has coincided with uncertainty over his best position, with England managers Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and Gareth Southgate all using the player in a deeper role this year.

The England captain has even been used as a deep-lying midfielder on the international stage, but Mourinho said: "With me, he is an attacking player.

"In the national team, they can do with him what they want to do. In the national team he is their player, he is not my player, and they can do what they want.

"If they want to play him right-back, they can play him right-back. It's not my problem, but in my team, he is an attacking player -- he will play as a nine or a 10, or eventually coming from one of the sides."

Having secured a place in the last 32 of the Europa League with the victory against Zorya, United remain alive in four competitions this season.

Mourinho said progress is being made by his team, but admits the lack of goals is the key issue to rectify.

"I think the team is playing very well," he said. "I think the team is playing very well and probably the Ukrainians fan did not see the best Manchester United of the season.

"Because the best Manchester United of the season was the team that played the last four, five or six matches in the Premier League, and managed one victory and four or five draws.

"We are playing very, very well, but we need more goals."

Wayne Rooney deserves more respect - Zlatan Ibrahimovic

 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic assisted Wayne Rooney's opener and Rooney set up Mata for the second. Reuters

Zlatan Ibrahimovic says Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney is "the perfect player" and deserves more respect, after the England captain broke the club's European goalscoring record in a 4-0 win over Feyenoord.

Rooney, 31, scored his 39th European goal as United won to ensure that a point in their final group game at Zorya Luhansk will take them into the last 32 of the Europa League.

It comes after Rooney, who is one goal away from matching Sir Bobby Charlton's club record of 249 goals, defended himself following criticism of his conduct while on England duty.

"He is a fantastic person," Ibrahimovic, who assisted Rooney's opener, told BBC Sport. "I am happy he broke the record. But I will help him to go one more. That I see as the real record."

Rooney apologised last week for "inappropriate" pictures of him at a wedding at the national team's hotel during the international break.

But on Saturday he said the reporting showed "a lack of respect", adding: "It feels as if the media are trying to write my obituary."

He was annoyed to be asked about it again after the Feyenoord game, saying: "All that's created by people like yourself asking questions, making a big deal out of nothing.

"I didn't set foot in the wedding and it's a shame to have to speak about it on nights like this."

Ibrahimovic said: "I think when you are famous like that, people are interested. They want to know everything.

"We should appreciate him for the player he is, what he did. I don't see many players from England who have had the same career as him. They should show more respect for him. Everybody wants to make a little thing a big thing."

Manager Jose Mourinho said: "People like him doesn't need to answer any more, just enjoy a few more years of his career and playing the best he can."

Report: Manchester United have biggest wage bill in world football

Manchester United have the highest wages in world football according to a global sports salary survey, produced annually by the Sporting Intelligence website.

United's first-team squad earn £5.77 million-a-year basic salary on average, which is £110,961-per-week. That is reportedly more than double the average basic first-team pay in England's top division, which is £2,438,275-a-year or £48,766-a-week.

The club are the fourth highest paid in world sport, behind Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA (£6.54m average), New York Yankees of the MLB (£5.81m) and LA Clippers of the NBA (£5.78m). The next highest football clubs on the list of world sports teams are fifth-placed Barcelona (£5.64m) and ninth-placed Manchester City (£5.42m).

In the Premier League, the two Manchester clubs were followed on the list of big spenders by Chelsea (£4.51m), Arsenal (£3.71m), Liverpool (£3.01m) and Tottenham Hotspur (£2.68m).

The lowest wages in the Premier League were at Burnley (£0.95m), Bournemouth (£1.1m), Hull City (£1.22m) and Middlesbrough (£1.22m). They were still higher than the average wages for Scottish champions Celtic (£0.71m).

The findings showed that United have three players in the top 10 of best-paid players in world football. Paul Pogba was fifth (£15.1m per year or £290,000 per week), Wayne Rooney was eighth (£13.5m per year or £260,000 per week) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic was 10th (£13m per year or £250,000 per week).

No other Premier League players were in the top 10 of that list, which included four from La Liga and three from China. The best-paid players were jointly Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who brought in £18.98m per year or £365,000 per week.

The Premier League, though, pays more than double the average salary of their nearest competitors La Liga (£1,239,295) and Serie A (£1,105,633).

Premier League average pay has multiplied by almost 32 times in 25 seasons, from about £77,000 in 1992-93. United's first-team salaries have risen from about £140,000 per year in the first Premier League year to more than 40 times that amount.

Man United's Zlatan Ibrahimovic has scored Premier League's 25,000th goal

Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic ended a run of 609 minutes without scoring in the Premier League when he bagged the team's second against Swansea on Sunday. 'What a way to end your goal drought! Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores the #PL's 25,000th goal,' a tweeter user reacted.

His goal gave Manchester United a 2-0 lead 21 minutes in, but the more important is that it marked the 25,000th goal scored in the Premier League since its inception in 1992.