Manchester United: Liverpool Legend Slams Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Stamford Bridge, London, October 23. Ibrahimovic has struggled for goals of late for Manchester United. Shaun Botterill/Getty

Jamie Carragher believes Zlatan Ibrahimovic suffered the worst half of football in his career during Manchester United's 1-0 win over Manchester City on Wednesday.

Carragher, who played 508 times for United rivals Liverpool, was working as a pundit for Sky Sports as he explained how the big Swedish striker deserved criticism for United's form.

Juan Mata scored the only goal of the game to help United recover from Sunday's 4-0 defeat to Chelsea, but Carragher believes Ibrahimovic has been struggling.

"I don't think Zlatan Ibrahimovic has probably had a worse 45 minutes than that in his career. He's getting wound up by them [City]," he said.

"Jose Mourinho has been getting a lot of stick in the last few weeks, the manager always does, but we're talking about a fella last season who got 50 goals."

Ibrahimovic was one of four major signings for Mourinho in the summer, along with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eric Bailly and world-record signing Paul Pogba.

Frenchman Pogba was also the subject of criticism from the former Liverpool center-back, who believes the 23-year-old should be having more of an influence on games.

"If you've cost that much money, you've got to decide big games and do things in the big games," he said.

"It's non-existent and they're not playing Man City at home, they're playing Man City reserves."

United hosts Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday.

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