■ Sunderland v Manchester United, Sunday, 4.30pm (UAE), BeIN Sports
LONDON // Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is giving “200 per cent” for the club and is being let down by his underperforming players, according to top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
United are unbeaten in 20 Premier League matches, but lay seven points off the Uefa Champions League places – albeit with two games in hand – in sixth place ahead of Sunday’s trip to Sunderland.
“I think the coach is doing the absolute maximum with the team he has, 200 per cent,” said Ibrahimovic, as quoted by several British newspapers on Sunday.
“If we were good enough to be No 1, we would be No 1 in the table.”
__________________________________
Read more
■ Greg Lea: Manchester United should keep Zlatan Ibrahimovic
__________________________________
Ibrahimovic, 35, won the Serie A title under Mourinho at Inter Milan in 2009 and says the Portuguese has lost none of his intensity.
“He still has the same winning mentality, because that you don’t lose,” said the Swede, who has scored 27 goals since joining United from Paris Saint-Germain last year.
“When you have it, you have it. It is nothing you learn or can try to be. Either you are or you are not.
“I know him very well. He is direct in his work. I prefer that.
“He sends you the message he is thinking and he is the boss. He decides and controls the situation. It is the way it works and I am from the old generation, which I think was more like that.
“At half time against Everton, he told us we were not good enough. We should hear it, because we were not,” Ibrahimovic said in reference to last Tuesday’s 1-1 draw.
* Agence France-Presse
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
