JOSE MOURINHO BELIEVES Zlatan Ibrahimovic has proven he is “a superman” with his superb form for Manchester United.
The 35-year-old took his tally for the season to 16 after hitting both goals in United’s 2-0 Premier League victory against West Brom at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
Ibrahimovic, who has scored 100 goals in 170 league outings since the start of 2011-12, has only missed two games for United since joining from Paris Saint-Germain and was described by Mourinho as undroppable this week.
And Mourinho admits he has been amazed by the former Barcelona and Inter star’s commitment, despite him having entered the closing stages of his career.
“I’m so pleased for him,” he told BBC Sport. ”He’s the kind of player who doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone but when he decides to come to England in the last period of his career, to the most difficult championship, I think he proved he’s a superman in his mentality.
“What he’s doing is fantastic. At the age of 35, I think it’s a dream for every striker of 25 to arrive in the Premier League and impress as he is doing.
I need to give him a rest and now we have a week, we don’t have a match after 48 hours. It’s not just him.”
United are now unbeaten in 10 matches and have moved level on points with Tottenham in fifth place after taking nine points from their last three league games.
Mourinho stressed the importance of continuing to deliver good performances given the demands of the United fans over the team’s style of play.
“I could mention everyone because they need to be really strong to play well, not get the results and cope with the frustration of negative results,” he said.
And now we have three wins in a row, we have a bit of happiness. It’s important to win matches – the top teams are not losing many points. We have to try to win as many as possible.
“At some clubs you can play bad football as long as it’s winning football. At Manchester United, it’s one of those clubs where winning matches is not enough. You have to win and play well.”
