United's
decision to re-sign Ibrahimovic until the end of the current campaign
has bolstered an already enviable attack which has walloped West Ham and
Swansea 4-0 this month, while £75million signing Lukaku has hit four goals in three games.
The prolific Lukaku has started with Marcus Rashford, Henrikh Mkhitaryan
and Juan Mata in attack but Anthony Martial has struck twice as a
substitute and Paul Pogba already has more goals than he had in
mid-October last year.
Mourinho rarely plays two up front and
Ibrahimovic's return could provide him with a dilemma as to whether the
35-year-old, who has made just six substitute appearances in league and
Champions League matches throughout his career, plays second fiddle to
Lukaku.
"I see Zlatan as important for the team," Mourinho said. " I just say
that my squad is better for sure, he is one more option, he is one more
striker, he is one more experienced player, he is one more player that
can play nine or 10, that can play double strikers or no, there are lots
of matches to play.
"If we progress in the Champions League and if we progress in one of
the cups, I don’t even say both, if we do that we are going to be in the
position where we couldn’t do it only with Lukaku and Rashford,
especially if I play both together, because if I play one and the other
one is on the bench, okay, but I am playing with both?
"So if I
play with both, I need a striker, so probably in January I would be
knocking on Ed Woodward’s door asking for a striker for the second part
of the season and I don’t need to. I have one of the best in the world."
"Zlatan
knows me," Mourinho stressed. "And he knows that I play the players
that I think are the best for the team. I always did it. I always did
that in my life so if he comes here and he proves that he is the best,
he plays. If the other ones don’t give him a chance to prove that,
that’s life.
"But I try always to be honest with my players and with my team. I
try. Maybe sometimes I do not the correct things. But I always try to
do.
"When [Didier] Drogba came back to Chelsea for the second
time, he was not the first-choice for the majority of the matches, but I
would say that he was as important as the first choice [Diego Costa]
for the title."
Mourinho is unconvinced by suggestions
Ibrahimovic's presence could compromise United's fluid attack and
insists he needed another striker to back up Lukaku and Marcus Rashford.
"Zlatan
is going to arrive into a made team," Mourinho continued. "Zlatan is
going to arrive to a team that I don’t say is the end product because in
football there are no end products and we are just at the start of the
second season.
"He is going to arrive mid-season with the team
playing in a certain way and with players having what I call the
functional links in the dynamic of the team, so nobody should be worried
with Zlatan and I think for you it’s just a funny exercise of football
brain to try to anticipate what we are going to be when he comes back.
"But we are going to be a better squad. We are going to be a better
squad and I give you just one example – if we play Stoke on the weekend
and two days later we play against Burton and I want to give a rest to
my two strikers, who do I play against Burton? I have to play Rashford
or Lukaku. I don’t have another one to play.
"So I cannot give
rest to my players, I cannot do rotation with them like I am going to do
with the midfield players or the central defenders or with the wingers,
so we need a striker and we have one striker just around the corner
that belongs to our family, that likes to be with us and plays for us.
"We know well and he is one of the best strikers in the world so the
only consequence of it is we are going to have a much better squad?"
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