Jose Mourinho taunts Zlatan Ibrahimovic saying: Are you as good as me?
The Manchester United manager lured his new star signing to England by challenging him to match his achievments
JOSE MOURINHO has revealed how he challenged Zlatan Ibrahimovic to match HIS achievements in order to get him to Old Trafford.
The Swedish striker has won titles in Holland, Italy, Spain and France but not in England.
And it was some teasing from new Manchester United boss that finally encouraged to take the next big step in his amazing career and join the Premier League.
He added: “Sometimes people say the team has no leaders, it’s this, it’s that, but what we need is everybody with the same kind of mentality.
“I like communication and push them to communicate. I give a lot of instruction in training.
That will be music to the ears of Red Devils fans after the two turgid years under Louis van Gaal.
“I think we have lots of quality in attack to produce good football and score goals.”
It will take time to unpick the work done by LVG who famously claimed to have trained the players in the brain.
Unfortunately it appeared to be to pass the ball sideways and backwards too often and keep possession without ever having a shot.
Mourinho is changing all that, he wants to get United back to being the team admired worldwide for exciting football. He said: “The appetite is very good, they want to work, they want to improve.
“They need to work because the most difficult thing in football is when I go to a new club I need to change the dynamic, the way of thinking.
“Maybe some managers who go after me at clubs find the same thing if they’re not happy with the dynamic of the team.
“This is quite hard for the players because they become quite automatic in their way of thinking so to change some dynamics is not easy. They must be very focused but the players are giving all of this.”
After a 2-0 win at Wigan in his first game in charge, Mourinho now faces Borussia Dortmund at 1pm in a pre-season friendly in Shanghai.
Ibrahimovic’s first game will be against Galatasaray in Gothenburg on July 30.