Ibrahimovic’s Winning Mentality Could Be Key, but Rooney Partnership Needs Work

We know it was the 31st trophy of his career because he told us it was. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s late goal to secure Manchester United a 2-1 victory over Leicester City in Sunday’s Community Shield informed us about him as player, but more can be gleaned from his words in the immediate aftermath, however sparse, about him as a man.

It was a surprise to see him sweat at full-time. One would have suspected Ibrahimovic makes the sun perspire rather than the other way around. Sure enough, though, after a sapping shift on a sultry afternoon in the capital, he looked sweaty and knackered.

Yet still, when posed with a fairly anodyne question from BT Sport’s pitch-side reporter on what it was like to score a winning goal at Wembley, he was able to summon key numbers with the ease of a parent asked a child’s date of birth.

“First official game, we play for the trophy and we win. That’s what it’s all about, winning trophies,” he told BT Sport (h/t BBC Sport).

“This is my 31st trophy, collective trophy, and I’m super happy. This is why I came.” 

It’s usually the other way around. An interviewer will throw an arbitrary statistic at a player to be greeted with a vacant look. Ibrahimovic is different. These numbers are as much a part of him as his ponytail or tattoos, and that’s no bad thing. 

As a trophy specialist, he’s been brought into a club that has got out of the habit of picking up silverware as routine. Sunday is a start.

The pause, then correction, from “my” to “collective,” was almost sweet, uncharacteristically bashful certainly. Clever, too, as failure to demonstrate a sense of community on Sunday, when competing for its shield no less, would only have fuelled those who have quibbled there may be no “I” in team, but there are three in Ibrahimovic.

In possession of a striking physical presence, when coupled with an unapologetic showmanship mixed with devilment, Ibrahimovic—a fighter and bicycle thief in his youth—could be a character stepping on to the field straight off the pages of an Ernest Hemingway novel.

The 34-year-old has the strength of a bull and the technique of a matador. He employed the former to brush off Wes Morgan in the penalty area, and then the latter to cushion a header beyond Kasper Schmeichel for an 83rd-minute winner.

It’s that man Zlatan. ? #ZlatanTime #CommunityShield https://t.co/TrzBvAr26B

— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) August 7, 2016

Rory Smith’s forensically detailed account of the subtle changes Jose Mourinho has indoctrinated in the early weeks of his Old Trafford tenure, published in Saturday’s edition of the Times, claims United’s players have been surprised to find the Portuguese in a “light-hearted, approachable mood,” as he attempts to, “inculcate a family atmosphere” at the club. Juan Mata and Bastian Schweinsteiger were unavailable for comment.

In contrast, Ibrahimovic is a self-confessed fanboy of his manager. He claimed in his memoir I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic that he “would kill for Mourinho”, which if nothing else should give Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola a few sleepless nights.

He’s probably joking. In the same way Joe Pesci’s character Tommy in Goodfellas is only fooling around when he asks the kid Spider to dance. And then shoots him in the foot.

Ibrahimovic may be polite for now, but it won’t be long before he reveals what he’s really after. Marco Materazzi, no shrinking violet himself, said of his former Inter Milan team-mate, per the Guardian: “He wants to win all the time and simply doesn’t let others make mistakes. He insults his team-mates a lot.”

On a one-year deal at United, and turning 35 in October, Ibrahimovic wants a 14th league title in 16 seasons (although the two he won for Juventus in 2005 and 2006 were subsequently scrubbed from the records due to the Calciopoli scandal). He wants to prove the 50 goals he scored for Paris Saint-Germain (he scored 156 in 180 games in total) last season were not the haul of a flat-track bully. He wants to emulate what he did the last time he worked with Mourinho, when he scored 29 in all competitions as Inter Milan won a 17th Scudetto. He wants to score in the Manchester derby and flick the bird at Guardiola. He wants his swansong to be a fitting sign-off to the most decorated of careers. He wants the moon on a stick, and he might just get it.

United may have got him for nothing, but there’s a reason Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan and PSG have spent nigh on £150 million in acquiring his services over the years.

In truth, for much of Sunday’s game Ibrahimovic was an island. Isolated. A backheel with his first touch in the opening minute was a flirty look across a crowded room, but thereafter it was fairly soporific stuff from the Premier League’s newest star. One part avant-garde, two parts alpha male, he looked a yard off his sharpest.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic at #MUFC ?1 competitive game ?1 goal ⚽️1 win ?1 trophy ? pic.twitter.com/S9FM8ntv6L

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) August 7, 2016

For all Mourinho’s warnings over the summer about Wayne …

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