Juan Mata has
revealed the Manchester United players are working hard to utilise Zlatan
Ibrahimovic's strengths, after the Swede hit his sixth goal of the season on
Thursday night.
The Swedish
striker notched the only goal in the Europa League win over Zorya Luhansk at
Old Trafford, latching onto Wayne Rooney’s mishit shot to calmly head past the
goalkeeper at the back post.
Ibrahimovic,
who turns 35 on Monday, is proving himself to be a highly effective target man
for the Reds based on his first 10 appearances with the club. However, Mata
still feels the players can make more of his talents, particularly when the
towering number nine drops into a deeper position.
“We know that
when Zlatan is playing up front, he comes to create great assists and great
passes,” the Spaniard told MUTV on Wednesday night. “We have to run behind him
because we need depth in the game. We tried to do that in the first and second
half. He gives a lot as a striker and he gives a lot when he comes to play as a
midfielder as well. We have to take advantage of that.”
Jose Mourinho
made four changes for the match against Zorya but interestingly stuck with the
same front four – Lingard, Mata, Rashford, Ibrahimovic – that started against
Leicester City on Saturday.
That group of
players are able to interchange positions quite freely and Mata is embracing
the fluidity. “Yeah, I felt good, I enjoyed being on the pitch tonight,” Juan
told us. “It is good to play with players like them, and with Paul [Pogba]
coming forward as well with quick football. We tried to do that because that is
the way we can play with this team and we can succeed with this.”
Thursday’s win
over Zorya was particularly important following the 1-0 defeat at Feyenoord in
Group A earlier in September and Mata is now looking forward to Sunday’s
Premier League return against Stoke City, the third match in a row at Old
Trafford. “This was a key win,” he explained after the final whistle.
“After losing
in Holland, we needed to win tonight and now we can look forward to Sunday’s
match against Stoke. After the bad week, we knew that we had three games at Old
Trafford. We have won two of them and now we are really focused on winning the
last one before the international break.”
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