Zlatan Ibrahimovic says Manchester United are just starting to “put the puzzle together” despite easily winning their second straight game to open the Premier League season.
Ibrahimovic stole the spotlight from debutant Paul Pogba with two goals — bringing his tally to three this week following his strike against Bournemouth on Sunday.
Jose Mourinho’s side already looks to be in midseason form, but Ibrahimovic says the best is still to come.
“We are happy for the three points, and it was the first game of Paul, also, he settled in and the rest will come by itself,” Ibrahimovic told Sky Sports.
“I’m new in the team. I’m only here not even a month. Paul is back at his home, but still not with this team [before].
“He needs to get to know the players, I need to get to know everybody, the way we play, the simple things outside the pitch, inside the pitch.
“Eric Bailly is also new, [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, so we’ll get to know the philosophy of the coaches, which I’m used to from before, but everything is new — it is like a big puzzle, and we need to put the puzzle together and we’ll work through everything.”
The Swedish striker scored from a Wayne Rooney cross and a penalty draw by Luke Shaw, and Ibrahimovic credited his teammates for putting him in good position to score.
“If the team does good, the individual does good, always,” Ibrahimovic said. “I try to do what I’m best at, create chances, help my teammates and then scoring goals — so far three goals in total.
“I am happy for the team. Two games, two wins. We are becoming better and better. First game home, we win, so It’s a good start. We need to get used to winning because the mental part is also important, not only the physical part.”
Ibrahimovic also said he already knows that the Premier League is a bigger challenge than what he experienced in Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain.
“Here the game is tougher [than France] and you need to work through the game. When the possibility comes you need to be focused. It doesn’t matter who scored.”
Meanwhile, Pogba went the full 90 minutes despite not featuring at all in preseason during his protracted transfer saga, and the midfielder said he was pleased to be “home.”
“It was great,” he said. “It was my first debut and we won so I’m very happy for that, very happy the team. I came back home and I’m just happy for the win. I hope to keep carry on like this, getting better and better and just keep winning. That’s all we can do.
“The first 20 minutes we started very slowly. After we started playing with the ball and our quality showed, we scored a goal and then it came easily. That is what we can do.”
Leave a Reply